We’re thinking of getting a mini fridge digital thermostat for our solder paste – before we drop $99 on this one – which one do you use? Is there something better? Post up in the comments!
Related:
PID Controlled Solder Paste Fridge
$20 solder paste fridge!
We use a digital-temp wine chiller, it’s plenty big and the tubes kester ships paste-jars in fit perfectly in the rungs.
We have this one http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=206724816&listingid=16235110 but we only paid $65 for it from the Rona.
Comment by Spiffed — February 2, 2010 @ 10:40 am
free mini fridge from craigslist.org + Arduino from adafruit.com = win
Comment by Jim — February 2, 2010 @ 11:10 am
Whaaaaat? You seriously consider paying 99 bucks for one of those? Their energy efficiency is one of the worst of all cooling devices.
Please please, use the green engineering approach we love about you and go with Jims comment. Better use a freezer (most energy efficient!) and rewire with the arduino to achieve the desired temperature. Paint it green or something. Take off the frontplate and laser-engrave it…
Comment by Martin — February 2, 2010 @ 2:13 pm
These fridges are awful. They are inefficient, the fans are often noisy, generally the peltier is badly constructed, the power supplies are of dubious quality. Twice I’ve been evacuated from a building as a result of these shorting somewhere and producing a lot of smoke.
Comment by Cybergibbons — February 2, 2010 @ 3:09 pm
I agree. I gave the fridge away after I got it and saw how poorly it performed. I bet any of your standard micro refrigerators would work better. Google European Appliances. They cater to a smaller form factor and are quite good.
Comment by Zak — February 2, 2010 @ 10:14 pm
Are peltier based refrigerators universally bad? Are phase change coolers fundamentally more efficient?
If a person were so inclined and used high quality parts were used could a person build a peltier based cooler?
Comment by Adam — February 3, 2010 @ 12:10 am
peltier devices are a poor method to cool a space like this. they’re best as small contact coolers. however, i’d be surprised if these were both peltier coolers since peltiers are expensive. (there isnt any info on the product page on how these are made….)
Comment by ladyada — February 3, 2010 @ 11:03 am
I have to say these seem to me like a Peltier device for these reasons!
1) “You can optionally warm that bottle of bawls to 140 degrees”
The ability to Cool down and Warm up stuff! (inverting the polarity of the peltier changes the warm/cool sides)
2) “Whisper quiet operation” Compressors are mecanical devices that no matter what will create noise when compressing r404a/r134a or what ever refrigerant that they use!
To me this seems like a peltier system with probably one of the cheapest insulation jobs and probably no real control on the peltier, I’d bet no Pulse Width Modulation or Switching to control power (probably a linear power supply since it’s cheaper to build) etc etc
I would go with a small freezer with a temperature controller!
for 1 the compressor wouldn’t have to start/stop alot if you are not using it to freeze anything!
Those are my 2 cents =)
Comment by Pixelized — February 3, 2010 @ 5:18 pm
I know some of you are going to have a cow when I say this, but I actually use my FOOD refrigerator to hold solder paste.
Let me say one thing in my defense. Solder paste comes in a container. Containers fit in bags. Bags can be sealed. As long as I’m not spreading solder paste on a cold chicken wing at 3am, there should be no reason to freak out. That refrigerator does a fine job keeping things cold – it’s the reason I spent $$$ on it!
Sometimes, I think the world is full of pedantic, freak-out prone people that have nothing better to do than go crazy trying to separate food items from everything else. If you have two functioning neurons in your brain, you should know enough not to eat crap that is properly labeled and sealed separately from the rest of your food items (even more than that, DON’T EAT SOMETHING IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT IT IS).
Comment by signal7 — February 10, 2010 @ 6:12 pm