Peter, I don’t know if you can buy a stock refrigerator like that, but I think you can replace a refrigerator’s standard thermostat, which keeps the temps in the low 40s, with one that cycles in the 50-55 range. I don’t think this is either difficult or expensive to do. If you have a homebrew store near you they’d probably be able to give you all the information you’d need.
I bought a Wine Stat that I had planned to hook up to an old chest freezer in the basement.
But then the ex-wife took the chest freezer, still don’t understand why, but whatever.
Anyway, PM me if you’re interested in the Wine-Stat - it is new i nbox, never used.
Can we get a pic of this experiment?
Quick Update. Additional costs - $19 for a fan, $28 for an EverDry and Hygrometer, $25 for rubber floor and $26 for plastic sides. Also need to add $10 for a power bar.
Overall I have worked on two elements mentioned by ths community - humidity and cold walls. The rubber floor and plastic sides make it such that nothing touches the sides or floor. The power bar is now in place and is hooked up to the power control. This way, a computer type fan comes on at the same time the freezer kicks on to lower the temperature. No reason to do this other than it seems energy efficient.
The thing holding me back from loading it up, is that the rubber floor stinks. It is basically recycled tires re-purposed to make anti-fatigue flooring. Like you would see in a bar. I have the pieces outside getting some sun and rain hoping they will weather a bit and stop stinking. Worried it will affect the wine…not that A little burnt rubber is not alright from time to time.
Pictures to come when I learn how to upload on his board.
KF
Hoping Kent is still around lurking or someone else has tried this. Had the same thought today when I looked at an unused chest freezer in basement with an external temperature controller since it used to hold beer - can’t think of why it wouldn’t work. Assuming we are talking wine that won’t be ready for a while, can just stack in Weinboxes inside.
Also had the idea of a basically build your own cabinet. Frame out 8x4 panels - 2 to 4 inches of polyiso foam board on inside and plywood on outside. Looking at my unfortunately full Le Cache, that’s all it really is if you don’t need it to be furniture grade.
Unfortunately not ready to finish basement, which would include a cellar, since who knows how long we will be in the house.
What 300 bottle wine fridge did you see for $1300?
I build a “keezer” (chest freezer for storing kegs) that I also use to store some bottled beers. Its been working great for several years now. As pointed out you need to keep on top of the moisture build up- I use desiccant and swap it out about once a quarter when its spent.
Just in case others view this thread in the future. I have three relatively new Frigidaire chest freezers(3 & 4 yrs) outfitted with Johnson Controls A19AAT-2C controllers. Inside I have analog and digital thermometers to make sure where to set the JC controller. My use is more for temporary wine storage, white & rosé fermentation, and cold stabilization in ss kegs. Fermentations I hold at 55-59F without any problems. Opening the chest freezer does little to change the temperature as I’m in and out in a short time. You will find condensation happens every time you open up the freezer. Sometimes it freezes to the walls for a short time but it ultimately makes it to the bottom floor as liquid. Mine has a drain plug at the bottom. I could imagine setting up an insulated tube and valve from the drain on the outside and leave the inside plug open to periodically drain the unit. Thus any wine laid down on the floor will get wet. You probably need to elevate the wine 1 inch off the bottom to keep the wines dry between draining cycles. My freezers are on Harbor Freight 1000lb polypropylene dollies with one at each end. Besides elevation off the floor it allows me to move them around if needed. I have not tried but I could imagine using those plastic wine bins from Amazon for easy wine storage inside the converted chest freezer which would allow for better inventory tracking and wine removal.
Thanks for the input Gary. Resurrected this old thread since I have the same exact setup already (slightly different JC controller) but had never thought about using it to store wine until yesterday. Maybe I’ll take the lead and throw some BDX daily drinkers that need some years in the Weinboxes on Amazon.
I know a guy that uses a chest freezer modified for keggerator. There were some tricks to keep it from cycling on/off too often which I will have to re ask about, but it has worked for several years now. Of course he doesnt have the same stacking and finding issue.
For those who are running this kind of setup with Weinboxes - are you able to get 400 btls in there?
Seems pretty nice.
I’m trying to figure out how to get more of my cellar back to my house, although space is really our issue.
The two most common objections I’ve heard in regard to converting a refrigerator are humidity and vibration. I see the approaches to humidity, above. Is vibration less of a concern with a chest freezer (for some reason that isn’t immediately apparent)?
Collin, in my opinion vibration is non-issue, at least as far as a bottle of wine is concerned. Modern refrigerator compressors are mounted on rubber pads to dampen vibration; has anyone ever seen their bottle of orange juice shaking during a compressor cycle?
Years ago, I answered the vibration question for myself by balancing a nickel on edge in top of a jar of mayonaise in my fridge; I carefully closed the door and went off to work. When I got home that evening, I carefully opened the refrigerator door, and the nickel was still on edge, having survived countless on-off cycles without falling over. (If I was still worried, I’d just put something soft, like sheets of foam, on the shelves under the bottles.)