Wine Fridge Medical Cab
- Thread starter Aerohead
- Start date
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Melkor420
Ha Ha, turned you into a minifridger!
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cork144
looks good mate, i would remove that compressor hump also, looks like it would be a pain in the arse to do then
disfunktional
Member
hell ya a stainless sump would be sweet man!! my vote is for gutting the hump. damn thing takes up too much room. pain in the ass to remove but worth the work.
I have a mini fridge I'd like to convert one day. I was thinking the hump would be a good place to store all the heat generating electrical stuff - ballasts, pumps etc. It's seperate and open at the back and well insulated from the grow area. Your hump looks half the size of mine and probably a pretty good size for that stuff.
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ShamelessJames
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ScrubNinja, LOL, I'm sure you do have a fridge to convert!! How many things are you going to grow in? you are a mad scientist for sure!!
As far as storing the bassasts and electronics in the hump, that's a great idea for stealth and it wouldn't take up too much space for a soil grow but I think I am going to need the room for the sump because I am going to let this one live in the garage and it needs to be low maintenance. I am planning 7-9 gallon sump DWC to reduce the upkeep.
No time table, this one is likely going to be a slow build but I plan to take several pics of the process.
So I got baked, stared the wine fridge down, and came up with a plan that's subject to change..lol
The fridge will be gutted to some extent, the hump is going away and so is the entire bottom of the fridge because there is an extra 4" under the plastic bottom. I really want to gain this headroom for the HID lighting so the sump will be stainless 18" X 18" X 10" and will be recessed into the bottom of the fridge. This will allow it to cool better too since it will wind up partially seperated from the inside of the cab. I am leaning towards a 150w HPS rather than the 250 because the fridge is really closer to 3 sq feet not 4, and the headroom is limited so the canopy will wind up pretty close to the light.
Hella THC
Member
Nice plans! I think going with the smaller light is going to pay off. I wouldn't want your ladies to roast in there. I mean, it's a wine chiller after all 
I'm subscribed, and I'll keep my eyes peeled for updates! Now, let's see if I can't rep you today... damn rep police.
Best,
- hella
I'm subscribed, and I'll keep my eyes peeled for updates! Now, let's see if I can't rep you today... damn rep police.Best,
- hella
Sump sounds interesting. Plan to use a stainless steel sink? Some of the laboratory stainless sinks have non-contoured edges and do not come pre-drilled with drains at the base. Might suit your plans better (or not, as the case may be).
I'd strongly consider going CMH, not HPS. I think you could manage a 250w in there. All comes down to the hood size and cooling. If you know your hood is only for a 250 CMH, you can probably shave a good 4 inches off of the hood/reflector height. You don't need a "one size fits all bulbs" air-cooled hood/reflector if you know your max bulb size ahead of time.
Something else to consider: with a little work, you could set up your light so it is fixed in an aircooled reflector, behind glass, but does not have to move at all (easier on cooling design). At the same time, since you are ripping out the entire floor of your fridge, you could add 4 vertical steel rods in the 4 corners of your new grow chamber floor. Run the rods bottom to the top.
You could then slide the new sub-floor bottom up on those rods to raise the plants and scrog screen to the appropriate light level to start, and drop the whole floor down over the course of your grow, as required. That approach is not that expensive and will allow you to make the most out of your vertical height while keeping the whole interior bright, organized and clean
The sump is going to be fabricated from scratch out of stainless, don't know if I can find a sink just the right size. I like the idea to raise and lower the sump and screen, one way or another, this will have to be part of the design. I am also going to build a custom reflector for the light and don't plan on using glass to seperate, I'll just use a vortex and move a ton of air through the cab. I do want to run the 250 especially because I have the ballast already as well as a CMH bulb, have to do some more measuring to be sure I have the headroom for a 250 which would be 83 watts per sq foot maybe a little overkill...
maybe a little overkill...
Raise the whole sump too? You could I suppose. I was thinking initially something where the plant itself and its rez get raised, leaving the weight of the sump in the base of the cabinet. Easier to make adjustment that way with yo-yos, clips on the rods, etc..
I suppose rods that are pre-drilled at precise even intervals could be adjusted easily enough with a nail or other cylinder style piece of metal used like a cotter pin. I don't know if I would trust a yo-yo on its own to suspend the weight of a rez, but using 4 metal pins in the rods? That should be more than sturdy enough if your pins are of sufficient strength.
Raising the sump at the same time also cuts down on worrying about hoses and kinks becoming an issue as you raise and lower the floor (I could easily see such a casual little error as a kink in a hose bewtween the sump and the root rez sneaking in undetected and potentially ruining your entire grow, in mid-to-late veg or early flower).
As long as whatever you do works and is reliably secured into place, and you use something clever to permit easy adjusments to the height, that should work fine, I'm sure.
I'll just use a vortex and move a ton of air through the cab. I do want to run the 250 especially because I have the ballast already as well as a CMH bulb, have to do some more measuring to be sure I have the headroom for a 250 which would be 83 watts per sq foot
Vortex will be loud, but I'm guessing you already have one and if it's in the garage, probably not such a big deal. If stealth is an issue, consider using a S&P mixed vent fan over a Vortex.
Good news on the ballast and CMH!
This should be a kick ass grow.
Be patient enough with it, and with the right genetics and a bit of luck, you might pull one-third to a half a pound out of there. Any thoughts on what type of hydro system?
Hella THC
Member
Originally planned a DWC grow, something easy with little maintenance. Now I had to go and find a perfectly good Little Giant power washer pump that was packed away, I am pondering high pressure aero.....maybe
You are the Aerohead, after all
Huggie bear
Active member
Originally planned a DWC grow, something easy with little maintenance. Now I had to go and find a perfectly good Little Giant power washer pump that was packed away, I am pondering high pressure aero.....maybe
250 watt CMH areo grow sounds like the ticket if you ask me.
heat is so not going to be an issue with ust a mini 3 inch fan sitting like a foot away blowing over my 100 watter I can sit my plants like 3 inches away with a heat of 77..
I cant wait to see what you pull out of that fridge as something like that is my end goal for a permeant grow set up.
disfunktional
Member
when you say recessed into the bottom do you mean that the bottom of the sump will be sticking out the bottom of the fridge? thats the picture that came to my mind when i read that and it popped an idea into my head. idk if it will work or not but here it is: first you will need aproximately an 8" hole in the floor of the fridge. then you fabricate an outer shell of the sump with a hole that lines up with the hole in the floor. the sump itself will have "fins" or spacers, kind of like cooling fins, that will allow air to flow along the bottom and walls of the sump. so the air will enter the 8" hole in the bottom and flow along the bottom of the sump, then up the walls, and then out into the canopy. basically it will be your intake, light trap, and sump cooler. idk if it will work or not but i figured i would post it and see what you or anyone else thinks about it.
That is a sweet idea and it's got me thinking for sure. It would have to have some sort of HEPA filtration that would be hard to move air through but it could be done... Interesting..
