Cigar Weekly

John Shaft · 07-31-2003, 07:25 AM

8/12/03 Update: here's the link for pics
http://groups.msn.com/CigarsandBeer/...ridgeador.msnw

A little over 6 months ago I moved into a new house, one that has a combo garage/basement underneath it. For most of the Spring and early summer, the humidity was perfect (since part of it was underground) at around 70%, as was the temperature. however, I live in NC, so I knew that wasn't going to last very long. Being that there is no other suitable place in the house to keep my current 120 qt coolerdor and two desktops I decided to start looking into buying a used fridge and setting it up.
Luckily, I coworker was in the process of redoing her house, and had a 25 y/o 14.5 cubic foot (that's about 500 qts) upright Freezer (Sears Coldspot) that had never given her any problems. Given that she was also going to have it delivered to my house for free, I certainly couldn't say no. I told her not to worry about cleaning it out, but to just defrost it, and I would take care of the rest. What is great about an upright freezer (or a fridge with no freezer) is that all of the space is usable.

CLEANING: When I first got it, I tried to assess where everything was. I unscrewed the false back on the inside of the freezer to expose the coils, fan,and evaporator. I then used tilex on the door seal to get rid of any mildew, and used Fantastik on the rest of the inside and outside of the freezer (along with a 3M scouring pad for some of the tough spots). I took off the bottom cover to expose the drain pain, and soaked up the water that had accumulated during the defrosting, as well as the rust and grime from 25 years of use (not a pretty sight).
Once the inside was cleaned, I closed it up and put a bowl of water and an open box of baking soda in it for about a week (to take out any lingering odors). In addition, I took a vacuum and brush attachment to the outside coils on the back of the freezer(just to clean them up and make sure everything was free of debris)

REFURB: The freezer came with 3 metal/wire shelves and a metal "basket" for the bottom. These were not in horrible shape, but the chrome-like appearance was certainly gone, and much of it was beginning to rust and corrode. So I bought one can of Rustoleum white primer spray, and one can of flat white Rustoleum. During the week of "smell decontamination" I put on a coat of primer and 2-3 coats of the paint (it's going to be a humid environment, so I wanted to be safe and make it last).In addition, I also primed and painted the drain pan cover at the bottom to make everything look uniform.

CONVERSION: Two of the main things I needed to do to make this into a freezerdor was to control the temperature (so my cigars don't turn into Eskimos) and control the humidity (it's Frost Free, thus whenever the condenser turns on, the humidity is sucked out. I bought a two-stage external temperature controller from an online brewer's supply store for $130
http://www.morebeer.com/index.html?p...php3&pid=FE608
They come cheaper, but I liked the two stage because since this freezer is in the garage (and it does get into the 20s and 30s during the winter), I wanted to also be able to plug in a small mat-heater (I'll cover this later) to keep the temp up in the winter. You can set each stage to a certain temp (for me 65deg), as well as a +/- range for when the freezer should turn on. So I have mine at 65 deg, +/- 5 deg, so when the internal temp gets to 70 deg, it turns on the freezer, and when it gets to 60 deg, it turns the freezer off. On to the frost free issue.
With a little help from my friends (1 Leg Lance and cf2112 especially), and the local library DIY refrigeration How-To book, I began to look at taking out the heater element from the freezer. Basically, this is what makes the freezer frost free. In my unit, it sits below the coils and turns on every 6-8 hours. The heat rises, melts the coils and the liquid falls to the bottom and drains into the drain pan underneath. I checked the humidity with a bowl of water in there for a few days and it would sink down to 30% RH, and sometimes I'd get an Error sign! Though I thought it would the hardest part, it was actually the easiest.
The heater is actually a 1/2 inch diameter black iron bar that runs the width of the coils, with wires coming out on each side. These wires (about 8 inches long) then run up each side of the coils and into a hole on each side. All I did was: 1)unplug the freezer, 2)cut off each side of wire, leaving about 2 inches coming out of the hole 3)stripped the wire insulation and capped both 4)pushed both wires back into the hole so that there was no excess sticking out.
Once this was done, the humidity shot up. I'm now using some silica and Climmax to get the humidity going right.

CURRENTLY: I've taken some naked spanish cedar boxes and drilled 1/4 inch holes in them, one box per shelf, and put the silica/climmax in there (got that idea from 1 leg lance). Haven't gotten any spanish cedar in there yet, but will be doing that hopefully this weekend. I'll be putting in 1/4 inch on the sides, back and floor, and 3/8 inch on the shelves (I'll just be laying it down on the existing shelving, since it already has slots for air flow).

FUTURE: Investing in a Cigar Oasis 2, which is built for small walk-ins, and has a built-in fan, as well as second external fan to help with circulation on the upper levels. Before winter hits, I'll also be getting an adhesive space heater pad:
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/AB160...D=518&CATID=12
In my garage it never got below 35 degrees (Even though it was around 15 at times), so I'm thinking that the 20-25deg increase that this pad will provide should keep me in the good range. The only thing I really need to worry about with the lower temps is the humidity anyway, and the Oasis 2 will take care of that. During the fall/spring, I'll have both the heater and freezer plugged into the temp controller, and it will turn on and off as the temp fluxuates (75-80 deg during the day, 40-45 at night type of day) to keep it in the 60-70 deg range.

Whew, I think that's it. LMK if there is anything I missed. I'll post pics soon.

John Shaft

07-31-2003, 07:25 AM	#1
John Shaft Starting Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Winston-Salem, North Carolina Posts: 63	As Requested:How I made my Freezerdor UPDATE: Pics added! 8/12/03 Update: here's the link for pics http://groups.msn.com/CigarsandBeer/...ridgeador.msnw A little over 6 months ago I moved into a new house, one that has a combo garage/basement underneath it. For most of the Spring and early summer, the humidity was perfect (since part of it was underground) at around 70%, as was the temperature. however, I live in NC, so I knew that wasn't going to last very long. Being that there is no other suitable place in the house to keep my current 120 qt coolerdor and two desktops I decided to start looking into buying a used fridge and setting it up. Luckily, I coworker was in the process of redoing her house, and had a 25 y/o 14.5 cubic foot (that's about 500 qts) upright Freezer (Sears Coldspot) that had never given her any problems. Given that she was also going to have it delivered to my house for free, I certainly couldn't say no. I told her not to worry about cleaning it out, but to just defrost it, and I would take care of the rest. What is great about an upright freezer (or a fridge with no freezer) is that all of the space is usable. CLEANING: When I first got it, I tried to assess where everything was. I unscrewed the false back on the inside of the freezer to expose the coils, fan,and evaporator. I then used tilex on the door seal to get rid of any mildew, and used Fantastik on the rest of the inside and outside of the freezer (along with a 3M scouring pad for some of the tough spots). I took off the bottom cover to expose the drain pain, and soaked up the water that had accumulated during the defrosting, as well as the rust and grime from 25 years of use (not a pretty sight). Once the inside was cleaned, I closed it up and put a bowl of water and an open box of baking soda in it for about a week (to take out any lingering odors). In addition, I took a vacuum and brush attachment to the outside coils on the back of the freezer(just to clean them up and make sure everything was free of debris) REFURB: The freezer came with 3 metal/wire shelves and a metal "basket" for the bottom. These were not in horrible shape, but the chrome-like appearance was certainly gone, and much of it was beginning to rust and corrode. So I bought one can of Rustoleum white primer spray, and one can of flat white Rustoleum. During the week of "smell decontamination" I put on a coat of primer and 2-3 coats of the paint (it's going to be a humid environment, so I wanted to be safe and make it last).In addition, I also primed and painted the drain pan cover at the bottom to make everything look uniform. CONVERSION: Two of the main things I needed to do to make this into a freezerdor was to control the temperature (so my cigars don't turn into Eskimos) and control the humidity (it's Frost Free, thus whenever the condenser turns on, the humidity is sucked out. I bought a two-stage external temperature controller from an online brewer's supply store for $130 http://www.morebeer.com/index.html?p...php3&pid=FE608 They come cheaper, but I liked the two stage because since this freezer is in the garage (and it does get into the 20s and 30s during the winter), I wanted to also be able to plug in a small mat-heater (I'll cover this later) to keep the temp up in the winter. You can set each stage to a certain temp (for me 65deg), as well as a +/- range for when the freezer should turn on. So I have mine at 65 deg, +/- 5 deg, so when the internal temp gets to 70 deg, it turns on the freezer, and when it gets to 60 deg, it turns the freezer off. On to the frost free issue. With a little help from my friends (1 Leg Lance and cf2112 especially), and the local library DIY refrigeration How-To book, I began to look at taking out the heater element from the freezer. Basically, this is what makes the freezer frost free. In my unit, it sits below the coils and turns on every 6-8 hours. The heat rises, melts the coils and the liquid falls to the bottom and drains into the drain pan underneath. I checked the humidity with a bowl of water in there for a few days and it would sink down to 30% RH, and sometimes I'd get an Error sign! Though I thought it would the hardest part, it was actually the easiest. The heater is actually a 1/2 inch diameter black iron bar that runs the width of the coils, with wires coming out on each side. These wires (about 8 inches long) then run up each side of the coils and into a hole on each side. All I did was: 1)unplug the freezer, 2)cut off each side of wire, leaving about 2 inches coming out of the hole 3)stripped the wire insulation and capped both 4)pushed both wires back into the hole so that there was no excess sticking out. Once this was done, the humidity shot up. I'm now using some silica and Climmax to get the humidity going right. CURRENTLY: I've taken some naked spanish cedar boxes and drilled 1/4 inch holes in them, one box per shelf, and put the silica/climmax in there (got that idea from 1 leg lance). Haven't gotten any spanish cedar in there yet, but will be doing that hopefully this weekend. I'll be putting in 1/4 inch on the sides, back and floor, and 3/8 inch on the shelves (I'll just be laying it down on the existing shelving, since it already has slots for air flow). FUTURE: Investing in a Cigar Oasis 2, which is built for small walk-ins, and has a built-in fan, as well as second external fan to help with circulation on the upper levels. Before winter hits, I'll also be getting an adhesive space heater pad: http://www.williamsbrewing.com/AB160...D=518&CATID=12 In my garage it never got below 35 degrees (Even though it was around 15 at times), so I'm thinking that the 20-25deg increase that this pad will provide should keep me in the good range. The only thing I really need to worry about with the lower temps is the humidity anyway, and the Oasis 2 will take care of that. During the fall/spring, I'll have both the heater and freezer plugged into the temp controller, and it will turn on and off as the temp fluxuates (75-80 deg during the day, 40-45 at night type of day) to keep it in the 60-70 deg range. Whew, I think that's it. LMK if there is anything I missed. I'll post pics soon. John Shaft __________________ "We've got, you know, armadillos in our trousers. I mean, it's really quite frightening."