I swear that every year I say I'm going to build a heater for my
garage refrigerator. Well this year I'm *seriously* saying that I'm
going to think about maybe building a heater for my garage
refrigerator (GR).
Up here in Central New York the temp has been about 15 below at night,
warming up to close to Zero during the day. As such, the beer
collection in my GR is at risk of freezing and <GASP!> exploding out
of the bottles. Well I simply can't have this, hence this post.
What I'm thinking of doing is trying to rig a type of heating unit to
a cheap thermostat that'll kick power on when it gets down to below
say 35 degrees or so. Maybe one of those old metal coffee heater
coils that you used to stick in a Cup-O-Soup or a mug of joe would do
the trick. As for the thermostat, I'm sort of open to suggestions.
I've googled, but haven't had any luck with a store bought product
(although they do make fridges with this feature already
incorporated). Anyone ever hear of one of these? What about a cheap
thermostat? I'm open to suggestions.
Thank you.
JP
***************************************
"The Beer Saver" - Don't let Jack Frost steal the beer in your garage
refrigerator!!!! by Ronco......
ok, go to the borg and get a "thermo cube" plugs into a regular outlet
and switches on at about 35 degrees. they are used in crawl spaces for
freeze proofing water pipes. I have on with a short cord to a 60W bulb
to prevent the on bronze fitting on my expansion tank from freezing.
BRuce
Jay Pique wrote:
> I swear that every year I say I'm going to build a heater for my
> garage refrigerator. Well this year I'm *seriously* saying that I'm
> going to think about maybe building a heater for my garage
> refrigerator (GR).
>
> Up here in Central New York the temp has been about 15 below at night,
> warming up to close to Zero during the day. As such, the beer
> collection in my GR is at risk of freezing and <GASP!> exploding out
> of the bottles. Well I simply can't have this, hence this post.
>
> What I'm thinking of doing is trying to rig a type of heating unit to
> a cheap thermostat that'll kick power on when it gets down to below
> say 35 degrees or so. Maybe one of those old metal coffee heater
> coils that you used to stick in a Cup-O-Soup or a mug of joe would do
> the trick. As for the thermostat, I'm sort of open to suggestions.
>
> I've googled, but haven't had any luck with a store bought product
> (although they do make fridges with this feature already
> incorporated). Anyone ever hear of one of these? What about a cheap
> thermostat? I'm open to suggestions.
>
> Thank you.
>
> JP
> ***************************************
> "The Beer Saver" - Don't let Jack Frost steal the beer in your garage
> refrigerator!!!! by Ronco......
--
---
BRuce
no problem. glad I could help.
BRuce
Jay Pique wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 12:12:52 -0500, BRuce <BRuce> wrote:
>
>
>>ok, go to the borg and get a "thermo cube" plugs into a regular outlet
>>and switches on at about 35 degrees. they are used in crawl spaces for
>>freeze proofing water pipes. I have on with a short cord to a 60W bulb
>>to prevent the on bronze fitting on my expansion tank from freezing.
>
>
> a-HA!!! I just *knew* that someone had to have already come up with
> something like that. Thanks much BRuce.
>
> JP
--
---
BRuce
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 12:12:52 -0500, BRuce <BRuce> wrote:
>ok, go to the borg and get a "thermo cube" plugs into a regular outlet
>and switches on at about 35 degrees. they are used in crawl spaces for
>freeze proofing water pipes. I have on with a short cord to a 60W bulb
>to prevent the on bronze fitting on my expansion tank from freezing.
a-HA!!! I just *knew* that someone had to have already come up with
something like that. Thanks much BRuce.
JP
OK, try an old-style nightlight. 15W in that space should be enough.
I've got a 40W in a 3x3x3 well hole, and it keeps that !%$*#! 3/16 pressure
line from freezing down to about -30.
"Jay Pique" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 12:40:46 -0500, Mark <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> >In article <[email protected]>,
> >[email protected] says...
> >> I swear that every year I say I'm going to build a heater for my
> >> garage refrigerator.
> >
> >A 60 or 100W light bulb (left on, of course) inside the
> >compartment (as low as possible) should do the trick. If it
> >gets Too warm, the fridge will do what it's designed to do.
>
> That's not nearly complex enough. : )
>
> (thanks)
> JP
You might try a water heater thermostat, I think the one I
removed would go down to about 35 degrees. But it might be
more prudent to just use a low wattage bulb on a timer.
Have a 25 watt bulb kick on for 5-10 minutes every 5 hours.
You would have to experiment of course, but refrigerators
are pretty well insulated so it shouldn't take much. Oh,
and buy an indoor outdoor electronic thermometer to set on
top of the refrigerator with the outdoor lead sealed by the
door gasket.
Jay Pique wrote:
>
> I swear that every year I say I'm going to build a heater for my
> garage refrigerator. Well this year I'm *seriously* saying that I'm
> going to think about maybe building a heater for my garage
> refrigerator (GR).
>
> Up here in Central New York the temp has been about 15 below at night,
> warming up to close to Zero during the day. As such, the beer
> collection in my GR is at risk of freezing and <GASP!> exploding out
> of the bottles. Well I simply can't have this, hence this post.
>
> What I'm thinking of doing is trying to rig a type of heating unit to
> a cheap thermostat that'll kick power on when it gets down to below
> say 35 degrees or so. Maybe one of those old metal coffee heater
> coils that you used to stick in a Cup-O-Soup or a mug of joe would do
> the trick. As for the thermostat, I'm sort of open to suggestions.
>
> I've googled, but haven't had any luck with a store bought product
> (although they do make fridges with this feature already
> incorporated). Anyone ever hear of one of these? What about a cheap
> thermostat? I'm open to suggestions.
>
> Thank you.
>
> JP
> ***************************************
> "The Beer Saver" - Don't let Jack Frost steal the beer in your garage
> refrigerator!!!! by Ronco......
On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 12:40:46 -0500, Mark <[email protected]>
wrote:
>In article <[email protected]>,
>[email protected] says...
>> I swear that every year I say I'm going to build a heater for my
>> garage refrigerator.
>
>A 60 or 100W light bulb (left on, of course) inside the
>compartment (as low as possible) should do the trick. If it
>gets Too warm, the fridge will do what it's designed to do.
That's not nearly complex enough. : )
(thanks)
JP
On Sat, 10 Jan 2004 19:58:52 -0700, Grandpa <jsdebooATcomcast.net>
wrote:
>,;I'm going to ask the obvious, have you turned the thermostat up a bit to
>,;compensate for the colder weather? Granted, where I live it doesn't get
>,;as cold as where you are, however my son has a 2nd refrigerator in his
>,;garage and has to turn it up some every winter to compensate. Just a
>,;thought...
Turning the thermostat up will do nothing if the outside temperature
drops too far below freezing. What your son has done is raise the
temperature of the inside high enough so that it will coast through
your "extreme cold" periods. Like maybe it gets down to plus 20
degrees where you live. If the ambient goes to minus 30 or 40 your
method will pop all of his beer bottles and that would be a tragedy.
Instead of a light bulb I would get a wire wound resistance. you can
find them at various wattages and they fit into a standard light
socket or go to your favorite electronics store and get some power
resistors and a transformer.
If you want to use a light bulb just wire around the "frig light"
switch so the light is always on. I am referring to that light that
turns on when you open the door. You know... The one that may or may
not turn off when you close the door.
>,;
>,;Jay Pique wrote:
>,;
>,;> I swear that every year I say I'm going to build a heater for my
>,;> garage refrigerator. Well this year I'm *seriously* saying that I'm
>,;> going to think about maybe building a heater for my garage
>,;> refrigerator (GR).
>,;>
>,;> Up here in Central New York the temp has been about 15 below at night,
>,;> warming up to close to Zero during the day. As such, the beer
>,;> collection in my GR is at risk of freezing and <GASP!> exploding out
>,;> of the bottles. Well I simply can't have this, hence this post.
>,;>
>,;> What I'm thinking of doing is trying to rig a type of heating unit to
>,;> a cheap thermostat that'll kick power on when it gets down to below
>,;> say 35 degrees or so. Maybe one of those old metal coffee heater
>,;> coils that you used to stick in a Cup-O-Soup or a mug of joe would do
>,;> the trick. As for the thermostat, I'm sort of open to suggestions.
>,;>
>,;> I've googled, but haven't had any luck with a store bought product
>,;> (although they do make fridges with this feature already
>,;> incorporated). Anyone ever hear of one of these? What about a cheap
>,;> thermostat? I'm open to suggestions.
>,;>
>,;> Thank you.
>,;>
>,;> JP
>,;> ***************************************
>,;> "The Beer Saver" - Don't let Jack Frost steal the beer in your garage
>,;> refrigerator!!!! by Ronco......
I'm going to ask the obvious, have you turned the thermostat up a bit to
compensate for the colder weather? Granted, where I live it doesn't get
as cold as where you are, however my son has a 2nd refrigerator in his
garage and has to turn it up some every winter to compensate. Just a
thought...
Jay Pique wrote:
> I swear that every year I say I'm going to build a heater for my
> garage refrigerator. Well this year I'm *seriously* saying that I'm
> going to think about maybe building a heater for my garage
> refrigerator (GR).
>
> Up here in Central New York the temp has been about 15 below at night,
> warming up to close to Zero during the day. As such, the beer
> collection in my GR is at risk of freezing and <GASP!> exploding out
> of the bottles. Well I simply can't have this, hence this post.
>
> What I'm thinking of doing is trying to rig a type of heating unit to
> a cheap thermostat that'll kick power on when it gets down to below
> say 35 degrees or so. Maybe one of those old metal coffee heater
> coils that you used to stick in a Cup-O-Soup or a mug of joe would do
> the trick. As for the thermostat, I'm sort of open to suggestions.
>
> I've googled, but haven't had any luck with a store bought product
> (although they do make fridges with this feature already
> incorporated). Anyone ever hear of one of these? What about a cheap
> thermostat? I'm open to suggestions.
>
> Thank you.
>
> JP
> ***************************************
> "The Beer Saver" - Don't let Jack Frost steal the beer in your garage
> refrigerator!!!! by Ronco......
In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...
> I swear that every year I say I'm going to build a heater for my
> garage refrigerator.
A 60 or 100W light bulb (left on, of course) inside the
compartment (as low as possible) should do the trick. If it
gets Too warm, the fridge will do what it's designed to do.
--
Mark
The truth as I perceive it to be.
Your perception may be different.
Triple Z is spam control.
In article <[email protected]>,
Mark <[email protected]> wrote:
>In article <[email protected]>,
>[email protected] says...
>> I swear that every year I say I'm going to build a heater for my
>> garage refrigerator.
>
>A 60 or 100W light bulb (left on, of course) inside the
>compartment (as low as possible) should do the trick. If it
>gets Too warm, the fridge will do what it's designed to do.
Given how well the refrigerator is insulated, perhaps a 15W bulb will
be enough? Afterall, it only needs to keep the temperature up to
roughly 32F.
--
--henry schaffer
hes _AT_ ncsu _DOT_ edu
I keep a small thermo cooler in my garage. It is set at 40 degrees high
and 33 degrees low. If the temperature inside the unit gets above 40
degrees, the cooler kicks in and makes it colder inside, however, if the
temperature gets below 33 degrees, the heater kicks in.
BTW There is an adapted circuit to a Radio Shack controller.
--
Woody
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