[kramerog]

I have an opportunity to get a 5-year-old fridge for free from my neighbor.  The fan blowing cold air from the freezer into the fridge is broken.  I was thinking of getting the fridge and just drilling hole(s) through the bottom of the freezer into the fridge so I don't need to replace the fan.  I don't need the freezer. Good idea?  Any tips to make sure I don't drill through something important?  A search on the internet didn't reveal much.

[Jimmy K]

You might just make a bigger freezer, unless you're hooking it up to a temp controller.

[bboy9000]

Cool air is more dense than warm air so it sinks.  The fan may be needed if the freezer is below the fridge. The broken fan wouldn't be as big of an issue if the freezer was above the fridge.  But if you're getting it for free...

[kramerog]

You might just make a bigger freezer, unless you're hooking it up to a temp controller.

Good point.  I may not really be saving any money up front.  Plus I'm likely to interfere with the self-defrost.

[harbicide]

To answer your question about tips:  leave the door of the freezer open and see if you can detect where the coolant lines are by condensation forming.

Even if that works, for each hole you want to drill, first barely pierce the plastic liner.  Then probe about with a nail to see if a coolant line is beneath the pierced hole or is close that the drill could nick it.

[davidgzach]

Can you get a replacement fan online?  How big of a job is it to fix?

[khillje]

I did this before with a fridge that was on it's last legs.  It definitely worked.  For a while.

[weithman5]

most of the time those fans are easy to fix and replace.

[kramerog]

To answer your question about tips:  leave the door of the freezer open and see if you can detect where the coolant lines are by condensation forming.

Even if that works, for each hole you want to drill, first barely pierce the plastic liner.  Then probe about with a nail to see if a coolant line is beneath the pierced hole or is close that the drill could nick it.

Good advice.

[kramerog]

The fridge that my neighbor is giving me is working again so I don't need to fix it for now.  If the fan needs fixing, I'll just replace it because it'll be nice to have an ice maker even if it is in the basement and because of other unintended consequences.

[corkybstewart]

The coils on my old beer fridge are between the freezer and the fridge so drilling there would destroy the whole fridge.

[kramerog]

Here's what I did: Once I moved the fridge it stopped working.  Armed with the part number for the fan, I was able to find a replacement fan for $25 inc. shipping on EBay rather than $80 when I only knew the model number of the fridge.  At $25, the cost was too low to fix the fridge properly.  Besides no having the fan would have been tremendously inefficient for the fridge.  I'm going to connect the icemaker and the cold water dispenser to serve other beverages in the house.  At some point, I'll consider putting taps through the fridge but the water dispenser in the fridge door makes me think I'll have to put the taps through the side.