[HoosierBrew]

I owned this brewing refrigerator for 15 years before I mustered the courage to take a drill to it. 

I like the bulkhead conversion - looks nice.  I remember running a CO2 line through the side of an old reconditioned fridge, using a cheap rubber grommet on the outside wall of the fridge that fit the gas line tightly. Worked great.

[morticaixavier]

Awesome idea.  How did you work out how to find a spot to drill a hole that doesn't cut through the cooling elements in the wall of the refrigerator? I want to do this with my freezer but I'm pretty sure the walls are full of cooling pipes and stuff.

you can drill a small pilot hole and feel around inside with a wire cloths hanger or similar to find a clear path through.

[S. cerevisiae]

Awesome idea.  How did you work out how to find a spot to drill a hole that doesn't cut through the cooling elements in the wall of the refrigerator? I want to do this with my freezer but I'm pretty sure the walls are full of cooling pipes and stuff.

Most refrigerators do not have coolant lines that run through their sides.  I would not attempt it with a freezer. This particular refrigerator has a non-frost-free freezer compartment (it's a member of the Sanyo SR95XX family).  I can see where the freezer compartment lines enter and exit the refrigerator.

[S. cerevisiae]

I remember running a CO2 line through the side of an old reconditioned fridge, using a cheap rubber grommet on the outside wall of the fridge that fit the gas line tightly. Worked great.

The reason why I went this route is because I do not have to get down on my knees on concrete in a tight space to remove a more permanent connection.  I just simply have to bend over and pop the gas line disconnect off of the plug.  I am also one of these engineering types that believes that form needs to be an integral component of function. 

[HoosierBrew]

I remember running a CO2 line through the side of an old reconditioned fridge, using a cheap rubber grommet on the outside wall of the fridge that fit the gas line tightly. Worked great.

The reason why I went this route is because I do not have to get down on my knees on concrete in a tight space to remove a more permanent connection.  I just simply have to bend over and pop the gas line disconnect off of the plug.  I am also one of these engineering types that believes that form needs to be an integral component of function. 

I think it looks great.  I used the grommet back in the day because I happened to see one in the hardware store (fridge long since burned out). If I were to do it again, I'd go the bulkhead route.

[S. cerevisiae]

I think it looks great.  I used the grommet back in the day because I happened to see one in the hardware store (fridge long since burned out). If I were to do it again, I'd go the bulkhead route.

I do not know how long the MFL bulkheads have been available, but I do not recall seeing them during my first pass through the hobby.  I simply removed all of the shelves and placed the gas bottle on the hump. 

I switched to using 20mm x 125mm culture tubes for this pass through hobby.  They take up significantly more space than the 100mm x 16mm culture tubes that I used to use for slants.  By using 3-gallon kegs and placing the CO2 bottle outside of the refrigerator, I was able to install the top two shelves, which I use to store slanted cultures, blank slants, and sterile liquid media.  I am having to rethink this strategy now that I am brewing the occasional 5-gallon batch because I have to remove one of the shelves in order to store a 5-gallon keg in the refrigerator.   I am thinking about moving to a 14 or 16 cu. ft. energy star refrigerator and turning this refrigerator into a fermentation chamber.  I used to own two Sanyo 95XXs, so I know that the model serves well in that capacity.