Toying with the idea of a big box store Ferm chamber. The plywood box would have a circular hole for bucket to fit in. A bead of silicone would seal bucket lip to plywood. Box would be filled with spray foam around bucket and closed off.
Cooler would be filled with ice water and have hole drilled in lid for 4" rigid or flex duct. Cheap inline duct booster fan would be controlled by STC-1000 and have damper inline with opening in lid bucket.
I do small batches and am planning on converting a cheap 2 gallon glass jar into a fermentor. This will sit in the bucket and be cooled by cooler and fan setup.
Not a bad plan, but you may go through ice quickly and it would likely have condensation and mold issues.
I’ve always thought that if I ever don’t have space for to freezers, I could duct my keezer to an insulated box with some sort of baffle and fan setup like you are considering.
I would think that of everything is well insulated and the mass of ice water in the cooler is large enough that melt wouldn’t be a huge issue.
I guess condensation and mold would be dependent on the environment experienced by the outside of the system. I’m not sure that would impact the insulated, inside portions of the system though. What do you think?
I think it would cause an issue as you are blowing damp air into a warmer environment. As long as you keep it clean, you should be good. Maybe add an evadry or a canister of damprid to the warm side.
Remember, the system will have to have 2 ducts. One the supply cooled air and the other to return the warmed air. That is very similar to the system I use for my chamber excepting that I duct in and out of the freezer compartment of my brewery fridge. It works very well and I don’t have to worry about refreshing the ice.
PS: you don’t need a damper if the ducts enter and exit above the cold source. It will only thermosiphon if the ducts are under the cold source.
