I have an old non-frost-free fridge, which is mostly used for storing
freshly-picked fruit. The trouble is, it's not very good at cooling when
the fridge is full. The fruit at the back is frozen solid (since the back
turns into a sheet of ice in not much time), the fruit at the bottom in the
'vegetable' well isn't cold at all and starts going mouldy (I've removed the
glass shelf above it)..

Since you can get fan ovens, I wondered about a fan fridge. I could replace
the bulb with a 240V fan, and muck about with the door switch to make some
kind of thermostat (relay/triac across the switch contacts plus some low
voltage sensor, perhaps)

Can anyone see flaws in this plan, or make any suggestions?

Cheers,
Theo

On 24 Jul 2011 22:26:57 +0100 (BST), Theo Markettos wrote:

Can anyone see flaws in this plan, or make any suggestions?

The fan will disipate most of it's energy as heat, inside the fridge
which the heat pump will have to move to the outside. As it's not
working very well at the moment...

I think you'd be better off not packing the fruit in to the extent of
stopping the air circulating via ordinary convection.

--
Cheers
Dave.

Theo Markettos wrote:
I have an old non-frost-free fridge, which is mostly used for storing
freshly-picked fruit. The trouble is, it's not very good at cooling when
the fridge is full. The fruit at the back is frozen solid (since the back
turns into a sheet of ice in not much time), the fruit at the bottom in the
'vegetable' well isn't cold at all and starts going mouldy (I've removed the
glass shelf above it)..

Since you can get fan ovens, I wondered about a fan fridge. I could replace
the bulb with a 240V fan, and muck about with the door switch to make some
kind of thermostat (relay/triac across the switch contacts plus some low
voltage sensor, perhaps)

Can anyone see flaws in this plan, or make any suggestions?

Cheers,
Theo
ever seen an iced up fan?

:-)
You will..

In message , Theo Markettos
wrote

I have an old non-frost-free fridge, which is mostly used for storing
freshly-picked fruit. The trouble is, it's not very good at cooling when
the fridge is full. The fruit at the back is frozen solid (since the back
turns into a sheet of ice in not much time), the fruit at the bottom in the
'vegetable' well isn't cold at all and starts going mouldy (I've removed the
glass shelf above it)..

Since you can get fan ovens, I wondered about a fan fridge.

My larder fridge has a fan. A larder fridge has no ice box and in my
model the fan is mounted at the top.


--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Jul 24, 10:26*pm, Theo Markettos theom
wrote:
I have an old non-frost-free fridge, which is mostly used for storing
freshly-picked fruit.

What sort of fruit?

Bolted wrote:
On Jul 24, 10:26Â*pm, Theo Markettos theom
wrote:
I have an old non-frost-free fridge, which is mostly used for storing
freshly-picked fruit.

What sort of fruit?

Cherries and plums. It's only temporary storage until I 'deal' with a dozen
or two kilos for fruit, but that takes a little while. Cherries were in
carrier bags (since they'll otherwise fall through the shelves: I might try
putting plums out directly. One source of icing is they tend to breathe
moisture, especially if any leaves came too.

On the point of fan power consumption, it's rather higher than I expected. A
12V 'high performance' fan from RS takes 3.6A. Ouch! That might be start
current, it isn't quite clear. Another random PC fan is rated at 5W, which
is rather more sensible but still a bit high. Of course it wouldn't be
running all the time and (subject to PWM) wouldn't be running at full speed
either.

Theo

On Jul 24, 11:41*pm, Theo Markettos theom
wrote:
Bolted wrote:
On Jul 24, 10:26*pm, Theo Markettos theom
wrote:
I have an old non-frost-free fridge, which is mostly used for storing
freshly-picked fruit.

What sort of fruit?

Cherries and plums. *It's only temporary storage until I 'deal' with a dozen
or two kilos for fruit, but that takes a little while. *Cherries were in
carrier bags (since they'll otherwise fall through the shelves: I might try
putting plums out directly. *One source of icing is they tend to breathe
moisture, especially if any leaves came too.

On the point of fan power consumption, it's rather higher than I expected.. A
12V 'high performance' fan from RS takes 3.6A. *Ouch! *That might be start
current, it isn't quite clear. *Another random PC fan is rated at 5W, which
is rather more sensible but still a bit high. *Of course it wouldn't be
running all the time and (subject to PWM) wouldn't be running at full speed
either.

Theo

3-4" PC fans eat 1w upward. It would certainly help. It would be
easier simply to put the fan on very thin flex, eg a pair of cores of
ribbon cable, and close the door on teh cable. Wallwart to provide the
12v or 9v etc.

Something more ventilated than teh salad crisper and teh carrier bags
would also help.


NT

On Jul 24, 10:26*pm, Theo Markettos theom
wrote:
I have an old non-frost-free fridge, which is mostly used for storing
freshly-picked fruit. *The trouble is, it's not very good at cooling when
the fridge is full. *The fruit at the back is frozen solid (since the back
turns into a sheet of ice in not much time), the fruit at the bottom in the
'vegetable' well isn't cold at all and starts going mouldy (I've removed the
glass shelf above it)..

Since you can get fan ovens, I wondered about a fan fridge. *I could replace
the bulb with a 240V fan, and muck about with the door switch to make some
kind of thermostat (relay/triac across the switch contacts plus some low
voltage sensor, perhaps)

Can anyone see flaws in this plan, or make any suggestions?

Cheers,
Theo

Ice comes from water obviously. If you have lots it indicates.
The door seal is leaking.
You are opening the fridge door a lot.
You are putting in a lot of wet produce.

The ice needs to be removed. It has an insulating effect and prevents
the fridge from working properly.

You should not over fill a fridge, air needs to circulate. A fan
won't help. (Would you fill your oven to same extent?)

Check if the compressor shuts down periodically. (After you have
removed the ice.) If not, the fridge may have lost (some of) it's gas
which would increase temperatures inside it.

On Sun, 24 Jul 2011 22:35:58 +0100 (BST), "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

On 24 Jul 2011 22:26:57 +0100 (BST), Theo Markettos wrote:

Can anyone see flaws in this plan, or make any suggestions?

The fan will disipate most of it's energy as heat, inside the fridge
which the heat pump will have to move to the outside. As it's not
working very well at the moment...

I think you'd be better off not packing the fruit in to the extent of
stopping the air circulating via ordinary convection.

+1
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Due to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.

On Jul 25, 7:32*am, harry wrote:
On Jul 24, 10:26*pm, Theo Markettos theom

Ice comes from water obviously. *If you have lots it indicates.
The door seal is leaking.
You are opening the fridge door a lot.
You are putting in a lot of wet produce.

Perhaps it's just that he's putting in the fruit without wrapping it.
Maybe the moisture comes from the fruit itself drying out.

Robert

On 2011-07-24, Dave Liquorice wrote:

On 24 Jul 2011 22:26:57 +0100 (BST), Theo Markettos wrote:

Can anyone see flaws in this plan, or make any suggestions?

The fan will disipate most of it's energy as heat, inside the fridge
which the heat pump will have to move to the outside. As it's not
working very well at the moment...

I think you'd be better off not packing the fruit in to the extent of
stopping the air circulating via ordinary convection.

The OP could mount the motor on the outside and a run a shaft through
the case to the impeller on the inside, but that's a lot of work
compared with your suggestion.

RobertL wrote:
Perhaps it's just that he's putting in the fruit without wrapping it.
Maybe the moisture comes from the fruit itself drying out.

Some does. And if there are leaves in there, they breathe quite a lot.
Particularly when picking cherries, sometimes it's easier to pick a whole
bunch plus leaves than individual fruit.

The fridge already has compressor problems (it doesn't always start if it's
been switched off for a while) and is fairly decrepit anyway, so it's just a
temporary arrangement for a few weeks while I store fruit.

Theo

"Theo Markettos" wrote in message
...
RobertL wrote:
Perhaps it's just that he's putting in the fruit without wrapping it.
Maybe the moisture comes from the fruit itself drying out.

Some does. And if there are leaves in there, they breathe quite a lot.
Particularly when picking cherries, sometimes it's easier to pick a whole
bunch plus leaves than individual fruit.

The fridge already has compressor problems (it doesn't always start if
it's
been switched off for a while) and is fairly decrepit anyway, so it's just
a
temporary arrangement for a few weeks while I store fruit.

Theo

How old?????

Mr Pounder wrote:

How old?????

1993ish.

Theo

In article , Theo Markettos
writes

I have an old non-frost-free fridge, which is mostly used for storing
freshly-picked fruit. The trouble is, it's not very good at cooling when
the fridge is full. The fruit at the back is frozen solid (since the back
turns into a sheet of ice in not much time), the fruit at the bottom in the
'vegetable' well isn't cold at all and starts going mouldy (I've removed the
glass shelf above it)..

Since you can get fan ovens, I wondered about a fan fridge. I could replace
the bulb with a 240V fan, and muck about with the door switch to make some
kind of thermostat (relay/triac across the switch contacts plus some low
voltage sensor, perhaps)

Can anyone see flaws in this plan, or make any suggestions?

Other arf has a Bosch fridge freezer with fans in both compartments and
it is bldy brilliant, known as the miracle fridge for even temp and
keeping stuff fresh way beyond theoretical limits, I'd say go for it.

Only fly in ointment is that mains fans are generally for higher power
air shifting so tend to overkill in your app. If your app was a PC I'd
be suggesting '7 Volting' a 12V fan to get just a gentle circulation of
air, might work for you and fine wires could probably bypass the seal
with little leakage and pass to an external supply.
--
fred
FIVE TV's superbright logo - not the DOG's, it's ********

In message , fred wrote

Only fly in ointment is that mains fans are generally for higher power
air shifting so tend to overkill in your app.

Thermostat controlling on/off. A computer fan on for a few minutes every
so often is not going to take much power and using it at full speed is
going to equalise the temperature quicker.
--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

In article ,
harry writes:
Ice comes from water obviously. If you have lots it indicates.
The door seal is leaking.
You are opening the fridge door a lot.
You are putting in a lot of wet produce.

.... you have filled the fridge with fruit (water).

That's a problem with storing fruit in a fridge - A fridge will
dehydrate anything which isn't close wrapped, including fruit.
A fan will help even out the temperature, but it will also
dramatically increase the drying effect, so you want it to be
as slow as you can get away with. You don't need it running at
4C either - doctoring it to run at 10-12C would probably be fine
for fruit and reduce the drying effect.

To be honest, I doubt you'll gain much (if any) extra life from
the plums by refrigerating them.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Jul 24, 10:26*pm, Theo Markettos theom
wrote:
I have an old non-frost-free fridge, which is mostly used for storing
freshly-picked fruit. *The trouble is, it's not very good at cooling when
the fridge is full. *The fruit at the back is frozen solid (since the back
turns into a sheet of ice in not much time), the fruit at the bottom in the
'vegetable' well isn't cold at all and starts going mouldy (I've removed the
glass shelf above it)..

Since you can get fan ovens, I wondered about a fan fridge. *I could replace
the bulb with a 240V fan, and muck about with the door switch to make some
kind of thermostat (relay/triac across the switch contacts plus some low
voltage sensor, perhaps)

Can anyone see flaws in this plan, or make any suggestions?

Cheers,
Theo

Does it have a "fast freeze" shelf. If so then you need to learn to
use the appliance in the way it was intended to be used.

MBQ

Man at B&Q wrote:
Does it have a "fast freeze" shelf. If so then you need to learn to
use the appliance in the way it was intended to be used.

It's a fridge, not a freezer. There's a freezer compartment but this is
part of the problem: the flap isn't sealed, so tends to ice up and
eventually stop the door from shutting. Not got that way yet, but it's
quite annoying.

Theo

"Theo Markettos" wrote in message
...
Mr Pounder wrote:

How old?????

1993ish.

Theo

The compressor is ****ed.

Mr Pounder wrote:
The compressor is ****ed.

I gathered that... which is why I only use it occasionally when I can coax
it to work The compressor is a cheap'n'nasty Italian job, so not
surprising that it's died. It'll go to the tip eventually...

Theo

"Theo Markettos" wrote in message
...
Mr Pounder wrote:
The compressor is ****ed.

I gathered that... which is why I only use it occasionally when I can coax
it to work The compressor is a cheap'n'nasty Italian job, so not
surprising that it's died. It'll go to the tip eventually...

Theo

The Italians actually made some very good compressors. Yours has lasted 18
years.
Days of future past. All compressors are now crap. If you get ten years out
of one you have done well.
I forget most of your post, but, if you want to extend the undead a little
further don't turn it off when it is not in use. Just turn the stat all the
way down. Old compressors hate starting up from cold.