zerowaste

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What to do with a hotwired fridge (no thermostat) -- make it a wine cooler, beer fridge, or what? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 month ago by diyrebel@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/zerowaste@slrpnk.net

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/53334380

My fridge (Zanussi Z19/4D) quit working. The compressor and relay are both fine. I hotwired the relay and bypassed the thermostat. So I can force the fridge to run on demand using a switch.

Either the thermostat is broken, or some mystery component attached to the thermostat is broken. These parts are no longer sold for my model. Amazon sells “universal” thermostats cheaply, but I boycott Amazon. In fact, I try to boycott banks too so I don’t shop online generally. In the off chance that a 230v universal thermostat were sold locally, I still don’t know if it solves my problem.

So what can I do with this fridge? I could put a timer on it and set it to run 1 hr/day, or something. Is it worth it? I suppose a timer would not be accurate enough to use for food. Temps would probably be unstable. But I wonder if it’d be good for keeping wine or beer slightly chilled. Someone persnickety enough to want a wine cooler might not like the temp fluctuations a timer would bring.

Might it make sense to pull it out for parties and have it continuously run to keep drinks cold? Or would they freeze?

These use-cases don’t really interest me directly. I prefer beer nearly room temp anyway. But I’m just looking for ideas maybe to pawn the thing off onto someone else to prevent waste.

Should I trash it? I would likely harvest the working compressor in that case, but then do what with that? I could look for a trashed fridge that just needs a compressor, but I have never plumbed a compressor and messed with coolant. Can a novice handle that?

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[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I put a timer power switch on my old mini beer fridge that had its thermostat break, and just adjusted the time until the internal temp was what i wanted without freezing my beers.

[–] Chef_Boyargee@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I used a temperature controller to regulate temps for a freezer I turned into a kegerator. It was a Johnson Controls model, iirc. Not sure what similar options would be outside the US though, if that’s a thing for you.

Maybe check out a local home brewing shop? Looks like on average, prices range anywhere from $50-$500US depending on how fancy you want to get.

[–] thegreenman@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

You could even use the 'smart' temp sensor and plug to power it on when the temp rises above the desired value, but probably won't be buyable in your local hardware store... Also, R-134a and other refridgerants are vety potent greenhuse gases, so maybe don't release that...

[–] colournoun@beehaw.org 4 points 1 month ago

You should be able to find a universal thermostat at a local hardware store. You might even salvage a working thermostat from a fridge with a broken compressor. That would be drastically easier than moving the compressor and messing with the coolant lines. A timer would work, but if it gets too cold you will have problems with icing on the evaporator.