Coasterphreak posted:

Sauerkraut is pickled cabbage in salt and brine, and was a traditional way of keeping food shelf-stable over long periods of time for thousands of years in Europe. The pickling solution kills the bacteria, the refrigeration is probably just to preserve flavor and texture.

Platystemon posted:

Yeah but do you really trust a company that built, shared, and defended that “refrigerator” not to gently caress up the canning process in some way?

Coasterphreak posted:

To be fair, they didn’t share the refrigerator, it was posted by a professional HVAC/R tech that took the pictures. If they are selling their product retail in a commercial storefront, they are presumably subject to health code compliance. Canning for retail sale requires a shitton of HAACP and usually involves a written variance from the local health department since it’s low-oxygen packaging, so yeah, their operation is probably okay if they’ve been in business any length of time.

Crotch Fruit posted:

It's an ugly lovely refrigerator, but at the same time I find it difficult to see a really lovely low cost solution. I mean, it's obvious after hearing what an HVAC pro has to say about it, but as a DIYer, I might do something that stupid. . . I mean, at one point, I wanted to build a "mini fridge" that would hold just one or two beer cans using some foam insulation boards and a couple peltier coolers, I wanted something small enough to sit on top of my desk. In the end and the fact my wife got me a mini fridge for my birthday prevented me from ever doing it. And once I researched and got to the planning stage I probably would have realized it was going to be a stupid idea, but it never had a chance to get that far. My own ambitions of a lovely beverage cooler for my own private use are a whole different level than trying to DIY a commercial fridge, but the owner did claim that their size and budget wasn't enough to justify the cost of a real commercial HVAC install. I'm willing to guess the guy probably spent a thousand on that ghetto fridge, and a pro install would probably have been several thousand dollars. . . But I do think that the "insulated door" is well below even amateur DIY standards, he should have used either a solid door or a hollow door filled with expanding foam (yes I know this might explode).

MarxCarl posted:

So searching for the CoolBot thing they used, leads to Amazon. It’s great for mortuaries apparently

Coasterphreak posted:

Sauerkraut is pickled cabbage in salt and brine, and was a traditional way of keeping food shelf-stable over long periods of time for thousands of years in Europe. The pickling solution kills the bacteria, the refrigeration is probably just to preserve flavor and texture.

His Divine Shadow posted:

Salt and brine are sorta the same thing though, did you mean vinegar and salt?

ExplodingSims posted:

So a "small business owner" went and built himself a custom walk-in fridge for his stuff.







And then an actual HVAC/R contractor comes into explain what's wrong with, well, everything here.

His rebuttal:



In case anyone is wondering what exactly is wrong here:
For one, it's not really anywhere close to being sealed properly. A proper walk-in actually had cam-locks inside the panels, and when you assemble them, they pull into each other. There is a rubber lip, and you also run a bead of butyl to seal it 100%. The doors have gaskets and are supposed to close by themselves to seal properly. He has none of this.

The bigger problem is that the window unit is completely insufficient for this task. It's undersized and not designed to cycle like a walk-in does. While he does have a different controller, which, to my understanding, refortifies some of this, its still running too low for it's design and will end up overtaxing and prematurely burning out the compressor. Of course, while it may be able to maintain the temperature, the it's almost certainly going to struggle actually pull the product temp down to safe temps.

To say nothing of the mold growth potential in all the cracks, crevices and gaps in there.

ExplodingSims posted:

There's a big difference between product temp and space temp.

Even though he may be able to keep the space in the safe zone, between 35-40*, that little window shaker isn't really up to the task of pulling the heat out of the product in a sufficient time to keep it out of the danger zone.

If you look at walk in evaps, that generally why they've got big fans with long throw, to be able to cycle as much air as possible across the space.

Liquid Communism posted:

Basic health standards are as thus: Food must cool from 135f to 75f within two hours, and to below 41f within 4 more, and must be maintained at an internal temp below 41f. An air temp in the 30's without circulation isn't going to do that for the stuff in the middle of that big pile of boxes.

kid sinister posted:

kid sinister posted:

kid sinister posted:

Rev. Bleech_ posted:

"OK Google; what would it look like if grover had a lot more money to deal with"

Metal Geir Skogul posted:

Aww, I really like that old style of house. The controlled rust (?) roof, the church windows, etc.

Liquid Communism posted:

Are we sure that -isn't- a church? That entryway screams 'small town Methodist Church' to me. Maybe they had someone who runs a contracting company donate extra McMansion materials for an addition.

Baronjutter posted:

Yeah the main thing was that he hosed up his electrical and a bunch of other very serious safety issues and an inspector came and said it was poo poo and bad. So he did some dubiously legal maneuver to become a registered inspector and inspected him self and gave him self a pass.