How do i build a myself a fridge?
Im building a bar solution, and i also need to build a fridge. The space is both wide and tall, so a normal store bought fridge is not an option.
>>884814
Nothing you can build at home will be economical. If it's for a business venture, contact a shop/bar fitter or catering company.
Theres an outside chance you could fabricate something out of an old fridge but I wouldn't bother personally.
>in b4 but muh diy
>>884819
This is just a one time build, so price isn't very critical.
I was thinking about taking the compressor pump and radiator (evaporator, condenser) from an old fridge, and run a thermostat with an arduino.
But i don't know what isolaton to use, how to manage drainage of water, where to put evaporator radiator and what compressor gas too use. And i don't know how to solder everything together with the compressor gas inside the pipes
And im not sure what the purpose of the expansion valve.
>>884827
Compressing a gas heats it up while expanding it cools it down. The gas gets compressed and heats up above the room temperature, therefore losing energy to the surroundings in the heat exchanger. It then expands over the expansian valve, cooling it down.
As the temperature of the gas is lower than something recently placed in the frigde, heat flows from the object to the gas, cooling the object down. The slightly heated gas then gets compressed, and the cycle is complete.
>>884814
for small spaces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks92g5gVd_4
for large spaces do like
>>884837
best thing to do would be to buy a working used fridge, take out the engine and coils without breaking any loops, and then build the fridge you want around that (discarding the old fridge carcass). Build the fridge door like a home, wall - insulator- wall and you should be golden (use styrofoam or polyurethane expanding foam to seal and/or fill any gaps around cables/tubes)
>>884869
I'd go a bit further and find one and just cut it down to size.
There's at least 1 tutorial of someone making a kegerator from cutting up a freezer or fridge on hackaday.
Building one yourself from scratch when you have no basic knowledge of refrigeration is retarded as fuck.
Or, buy a large mini fridge or wine cooler. I've seen them up to 4 foot tall. It'd be much cheaper and better than a scratch one.
>>884906
>Building one yourself from scratch when you have no basic knowledge of refrigeration is retarded as fuck.
Isn't this DIY?
>>884914
Of course it is
Brb, harvesting silicon to make my own computer.
>>884914
>you need to know how something works to build it
Just buy or salvage the parts and put them together.
>>884814
doing this with no knowledge of refrigeration is going to be near impossible...
so your best bet would be to work with something that you don't have to monkey with so much...
other than the evaporator and condenser on a fridge there is also a loop that goes through them around the freezer door seal (on a topmount), or between the two compartments on a side by side... the idea being the hot gas in the tubing keeps moisture from condensing on the surface... because of this pulling the system out of a fridge is going to be very impractical... or damn near impossible without taking the tubing apart... and if you don't have some refrigeration experience then your not likely to get it back together and charged in a working manner...
I'm assuming that you have some skill with electronics since your thinking of using an arduino... what I'd do if I were you would be to get a small window air conditioner... strip the controls out and wire it to an arduino... yes they normally don't get that cold... however your running a much smaller space with it so you can abuse the runtime and cool a compartment down... you'll want to figure out some kind of sensor to tell the arduino when the evaporator is frosted over... then have it leave the unit turned off till it senses that the ice has melted... off cycle defrost is incredibly common for fresh food only units....
you will need some kind of drain on the lowest point with a trap so that water can get out... but fresh air from the outside cannot get in....
the door seal will be a tricky bit... if you don't find a magnetic seal that fits then you will need a latching door so that it keeps the gasket compressed... this will work with most foam gaskets.. however make sure you put in some mechanism to allow someone to open the door from the inside so someones kid doesn't climb in, get stuck and die because no one knows they're in there... seriously don't skip this step....
>>884943
also regular foam insulation should work.. you want it as thick as possible, and remember you will need a vapor barrier to keep it from getting saturated with moisture...
also a light is handy... remember a regular light bulb will melt the foam and plastic liner if left on so plan for some insulation or led lighting......
>>884914
Yep. It's however not /designingshitthatreallyneedsanengineeerandbuildingsaidthingthatneedshighlyspecializedskillsforamoreexpensiveandshittierendresultthanjustniggerriggingexistingproductorevenbuyfaggingit/
Oh and fuck typing that shit, but add in the fact you don't know the first thing about the subject.
>>884914
Some things aren't worth re-inventing.
>>884814
Check out books on boating, OP. People build custom reefers into their old ice boxes all the time. The parts are available online.
>>884814
You can buy refrigeration kits for marine/RV applications. They often have oddball sized/shaped spaces that can be insulated, coils added and hardware installed.
>>884837
Thats a good way to return liquid refrigwrant to the compressor
>>884869
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks92g5gVd_4
I wouldn't trust this to work well. Besides the obvious, one of the related videos involved "free energy"
>>884914
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ODzO7Lz_pw
