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Old 07-12-16, 11:45 AM   #1
SentinelAeon
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Default Fridge - noise & heat

Hi there,

I am living in a small apartment where i have my bed and freestanding fridge in the same room, roughly 4 meters (13 feet) apart. Fridge isn't to loud but at night when there is complete quiet it does bother me. So about 2 years ago i made a little project of turning this freestanding fridge into built-in - i covered it with wood (all around except front side) to reduce compressor noise. Since this fridge isn't made to be in open space, i had to improve cooling - i mounted 5 computer fans blowing into compressor and heatsinks. As far as compressor sound goes, you can barely hear it now.

Sadly compressor isn't the only part where noise is coming from - there seems to be noise coming from inside or better said, from front side of the fridge, so my next project will be to add wooden doors to cover the front part also. But that is not the reason i am writting about. The reason is that this days when it is hot, fridge is also working harder. The part in front between fridge and freezer is quite hot. SO i decided to do what i can to further improve cooling.

I got a few ideas, namely adding a lot of heatsinks to the back of fridge to improve cooling, but the other day i got a simple idea. My fridge is turning off and on, i am not sure how long it is on and off but i would guess it is about 1 hour on and 30 minutes off. Anyway in that 30 minutes that fridge is off, the fans completely cool the compressor and heatsinks in the back, they do it very fast and then they just keep spinning and not doing anything usefull. So i was thinking, if i were to add more material in the back, material that stores heat well, that way cooling would be better when fridge is working, and when it is off, fans will have plenty of time to cool down this mass. I was thinking about water, which can store a lot of energy. Or would it simply be better to get bigger heatsinks (like heatsink from a car) and connect it to existing heatsink ?

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Old 07-12-16, 10:48 PM   #2
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Rig up a heat pipe. These passive devices are used in all kinds of modern equipment. Most noticeably they are being employed in computer CPU coolers. Basically, they move heat quickly away from the source to a location of your choosing. Google the subject, there are more than a few DIY heat pipe projects that have done wonders for the people that build them.
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Old 07-13-16, 05:23 AM   #3
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That might sound funny but i already have about 10 laptop heatpipes mounted on fridge heatsink I repair a lot of laptops and am sometimes left with heatpipes, so i said why not. But heatpipe will simply transfer heat to another location, i will still need "mass" to dissipate it
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Old 07-13-16, 10:54 PM   #4
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OK, I am lost. Pictures may help a bit. Refrigerators come in about 10 thousand shapes, sizes, styles and configurations. What you actually have makes a big difference in how to accomplish your objectives (super quiet + efficient).

I would definitely stick with air for your cooling mass flow media. A home refrigerator typically moves 1000 watts or less of heat out of the box while it is running. It wouldn't take a whole lot of airflow to keep your rig happy. The key to your heat exchange method is to have enough surface area, combined with enough airflow across this surface area, to achieve a target efficiency...

I'm writing vaguely because I have no idea what you have and a wild imagination. Please break the suspense.
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Old 10-08-16, 02:55 PM   #5
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Have you thought about putting the refrigerator on a timer, so that it won't turn on during the night hours? Additional insulation would help to keep the heat gain low.
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Old 11-08-17, 05:34 AM   #6
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you should use timer to control the noise, you may change the location of fridge like away from sitting place

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