Cheney's hidden secret discovered!!!!

Altron

Altron

Well-Known Member
Now that everyone has actually clicked on my thread,

I've been shopping for a mini-fridge that's under 26" high to fight in my closet below a shelf.

I've noticed a lot of 1.7 cubic foot fridges are "non-compressor" which looks like they have a TEC (Peltier) type of a cooling system. One of them said "20 to 25 degrees below average room temperature", which, considering that my room gets pretty hot, does not give me hope for cold beverages. Another that looked almost identical claimed to be able to go down to 37 degrees.

Has anyone ever used one of the TEC fridges? They're cheaper than the compressor ones, but I want a fridge that keeps things cold. I'll buy the TEC if it works as well, but since each manufacturer made a different claim about how cold it gets, while they all have almost identical fridges, that makes me question if they work as well as a normal compressor fridge.

Thoughts?
 
Professur

Professur

Well-Known Member
I've got a 6 pack sized one that is 12v, with a coleman ac/dc transformer. used to use it alot when I was on the road, y'know. Kept milk good for a week without trouble. Even before I upgraded it, the 4 protruding screwheads inside would regularly produce ice. Once a week I'd have to defrost it. Easier done than said, since all I had to do was flip a switch to turn it from a fridge to an oven. Upgrading it with a high performance fan and a tube or Arctic Silver 5 .... Well, thank Gawd that it has a thermostat to stop it exploding coke cans.

One huge advantage with a TEC is .. only one moving part: the fan. Pay attention to any noise from it. At the first hint of bearing failure ... out it comes. Other than that, i've run mine for years, used it as a private fridge under my desk, on the road, even at home. Unplugged, it's stay cold overnight, if it's full of cold soda. Empty space is it's hardest challenge.


Peltiers are rated in watts. Simple math will tell you how much heat one can pull at any given time. They can be upgraded, even ganged together. All it is is a cold plate on the inside, and a heatsink on the other. The key is the thermostat. It won't let you go lower than X. Find your X. If it's a direct AC, there's naturally a transformer inside who's rating you also have to respect (or just say fuck it and upgrade that too)

Um, long shot here ..but look around at old scrap RVs and tent trailers. I've got a nice bar fridge sized one in mine that is actually a 3-way. Runs off 12V, 110V or propane. If you find a wreck of a popup, you might be able to snag it's fridge for a song. Be careful, tho, some of those 'fridges' are actually just iceboxes.
 
Frodo

Frodo

Member
My advice would be to buy the compressor style. At 55 degrees, you won't be able to keep much in there except Samon(illa) and (toe)mein. Unless of course you want to keep your room at 55 degrees.
 
catocom

catocom

Well-Known Member
Frodo said:
My advice would be to buy the compressor style. At 55 degrees, you won't be able to keep much in there except Samon(illa) and (toe)mein. Unless of course you want to keep your room at 55 degrees.
Click to expand...

that would be a pretty good air conditioner right there, here.
 
Altron

Altron

Well-Known Member
Professur said:
I've got a 6 pack sized one that is 12v, with a coleman ac/dc transformer. used to use it alot when I was on the road, y'know. Kept milk good for a week without trouble. Even before I upgraded it, the 4 protruding screwheads inside would regularly produce ice. Once a week I'd have to defrost it. Easier done than said, since all I had to do was flip a switch to turn it from a fridge to an oven. Upgrading it with a high performance fan and a tube or Arctic Silver 5 .... Well, thank Gawd that it has a thermostat to stop it exploding coke cans.

One huge advantage with a TEC is .. only one moving part: the fan. Pay attention to any noise from it. At the first hint of bearing failure ... out it comes. Other than that, i've run mine for years, used it as a private fridge under my desk, on the road, even at home. Unplugged, it's stay cold overnight, if it's full of cold soda. Empty space is it's hardest challenge.


Peltiers are rated in watts. Simple math will tell you how much heat one can pull at any given time. They can be upgraded, even ganged together. All it is is a cold plate on the inside, and a heatsink on the other. The key is the thermostat. It won't let you go lower than X. Find your X. If it's a direct AC, there's naturally a transformer inside who's rating you also have to respect (or just say fuck it and upgrade that too)

Um, long shot here ..but look around at old scrap RVs and tent trailers. I've got a nice bar fridge sized one in mine that is actually a 3-way. Runs off 12V, 110V or propane. If you find a wreck of a popup, you might be able to snag it's fridge for a song. Be careful, tho, some of those 'fridges' are actually just iceboxes.
Click to expand...

Target has a 1.7 cubic foot TEC fridge for $59. My mom has a $5 off coupon, and it comes with a free $12 surge protector. Going to pick it up tomorrow. Hopefully it will work well. If not, I'll try to exchange it.
 
Altron

Altron

Well-Known Member
The Ford Flex markets their center console minifridge a lot. I think it's catching on with minivans as a convenience thing. Me, I just put some ice in a cooler, and put it in the back seat. Also, fumbling around with a beverage is something of an achievement when you you have a five speed and your daily commute has over 100 traffic lights in it (I'm serious)
 
Mirlyn

Mirlyn

Well-Known Member
Altron said:
The Ford Flex markets their center console minifridge a lot. I think it's catching on with minivans as a convenience thing. Me, I just put some ice in a cooler, and put it in the back seat. Also, fumbling around with a beverage is something of an achievement when you you have a five speed and your daily commute has over 100 traffic lights in it (I'm serious)
Click to expand...

The 2009 Avenger has a cooler above the glovebox. Unsure if its a TEC or not.
 
Altron

Altron

Well-Known Member
I've had it running for about 4 hours. Three cans of soda in it. It's reached a temperature of 52 degrees, with an ambient temperature of 79.
 
Altron

Altron

Well-Known Member
11 hours. 45 degrees. Soda cans feel just as cold as the normal fridge. I think my results would be more accurate with either more stuff in the fridge, or a temperature probe inside the soda can. My temperature probe is just sitting there against the bottom, which is probably one of the hotter parts, since heat coming in through the insulation would make a probe laying against the sides read a higher temperature than the air in the center or right next to the peltier. Adding more soda cans should drastically increase the specific heat of my volume, making it less suspectible to heat soak through insulation, since that is independent of what's inside. If the imperfect insulation is letting X amount of watts in, and I have a low specific heat (mostly air), the temperature will be higher than if I had a very high specific heat (mostly liquid), once the liquid has reached the equilibrium temperature. As it is now, judging by touch, my soda cans are probably closer to 40 degrees than 45.
 
Altron

Altron

Well-Known Member
I am taking Thermodynamics in the fall. It's the only class that I'm taking behind schedule. (93 out of ~120 required credits are finished after 2 years). Everyone likes to bitch and whine about how hard it is. But those same people bitch and whine about a basic optics course that I aced, so w/e. I looked at the problems and I'm like "Why is this hard?". I never really understood Gibbs Free Energy, but I've heard that Engineering thermodynamics at my school is much simpler than Chemistry thermodynamics, and my girlfriend aced Chem thermo.

Man, some people are just stupid, I guess. You'd think at a relatively prestigious (and expensive!) engineering school, people would be smart. Nope. A friend of mine failed Calculus 2. Twice. I don't even know how you fail a class once, let alone fail the same class twice.
 
randomJACKASS

randomJACKASS

Banned
Well all political debate aside, you are probably way ahead of the game, and definitely seem to be doing well. I am sure your family is proud of you and I daresay so are all of us. Keep up the good work dude!
 
Professur

Professur

Well-Known Member
Al, don't overthink it. It's a soda fridge. Leave it at that. Like I said, if you want it colder, within it's power capabilities, arctic silver, better fan and adjusted thermostat. You can get it to freezing if you need to, but why would you need to?
 
Altron

Altron

Well-Known Member
Interesting observations. It was at 45.3 degrees last night. I opened it for about 15 seconds then closed it, and it soon climbed to 45.8 degrees. Now, this morning, it is at 45.1 degrees. This seems to support my hypothesis.

Now I gotta fix this TV. 37" "Astar" brand LCD. Some guy won it in a raffle like 5 years ago. He traded it to my grandfather for some HVAC equipment in the old house that he was tearing down and rebuilding.

It works fine in the winter. In the summer, it cuts out after about 30 minutes of use. Technician says it needs a new power supply, for $400. My grandpa is like "The TV isn't even worth that much" and just bought a new one. Now I'm trying to fix the old one. The PSU gets hot, so I'm going to add a pair of 80mm fans and see if that helps any. If not, I'll take the stamped metal cover off and see if I can see what component is malfunctioning. I'm not an EE, but I did take and do well in several courses in that department.
 
Inkara1

Inkara1

Well-Known Member
I just put a thermometer in my regular fridge and it seems to be at about 35-40 degrees. 40-45 degrees should be plenty fine. It's not like you're trying to freeze burritos in there.

The Dodge Caliber also has a soda chiller compartment. I was under the impression it was chilled by the car's a/c but I'll check into that. I'd think that fridges in the center console would be TEC though because of the logistics of running an a/c duct there.
 
randomJACKASS

randomJACKASS

Banned
Professur said:
Al, don't overthink it. It's a soda fridge. Leave it at that. Like I said, if you want it colder, within it's power capabilities, arctic silver, better fan and adjusted thermostat. You can get it to freezing if you need to, but why would you need to?
Click to expand...

Man if I had a soda fridge is had better be like 33-34 degrees, I like that stuff damn near frozen. A cold drink ought to be freakin' cold! Especially when it is over 90 today....

We Northwesterners are many things, but generally used to hot weather is something we are not!
 
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