Products & Devices
Fixed a fridge freezing problem by using thermal imaging to find cold-air pooling, then adding a low-voltage fan on a custom 3D-printed bracket with a thermal switch.
My Danby all-fridge was freezing food on the lower shelf while the rest of the cabinet stayed at a normal temperature. The drain was clear, and the fridge appeared to be operating normally, so the problem was not obvious from a standard check.
I used a thermal camera to look at what was actually happening inside the cabinet. The images showed cold air pooling near the lower back of the fridge. The unit relied mostly on natural convection rather than a built-in circulation fan, so the coldest air was not mixing evenly through the cabinet.
The fix was a small targeted airflow improvement rather than a major appliance modification. I added a low-voltage fan on a custom 3D-printed bracket to gently circulate air through the cabinet. I also added a small thermal switch attached to the compressor so the fan only runs when the fridge is actively cooling.
The result was a more even temperature distribution and a practical fix for a frustrating problem. It is a small project, but it shows a useful pattern: diagnose the actual system behaviour, avoid unnecessary complexity, and make a targeted physical improvement that matches the real failure mode.
And now I have no excuse not to eat my vegetables.
Related
A few related projects with the same kind of problem-solving thread.
Designed a small 3D-printed magnet holder that used an unused door-reversal feature on a fridge to pull the door closed the last little bit, letting the gasket seal take over.
Products & Devices
When my fridge door would not always pull itself fully closed, I considered more complicated fixes like tilting the fridge, adding an alarm, or designing a retracting magnet. Then I noticed an unused mounting point from the reversible-door design and 3D printed a small holder for rare earth magnets that pulls the door closed just enough for the gasket to seal.
Designed two 3D-printed espresso tools: a flexible TPU puck ejector and a parametric tamper station sized around real portafilter dimensions.
Products & Devices
Designed small 3D-printed espresso tools for a bottomless portafilter: a flexible TPU grounds ejector and a parametric OpenSCAD tamper station. The ejector seals to the basket and uses air pressure to push spent grounds into the compost. The tamper station can be adjusted around real portafilter dimensions, such as basket diameter, ears, handle angle, saddle height, and counter clearance.
Developed and tested ocean-aquaculture prototypes, including an underwater tank-wall cleaner and a lower-cost oxygen diffuser redesign.
Products & Devices
During an eight-month mechanical engineering co-op with AgriMarine, I contributed to early-stage R&D for a commercial-scale floating closed-containment aquaculture system. My work included prototype tank-cleaning equipment, oxygen diffuser redesign, testing, SolidWorks site modelling, and exposure to large-scale composite marine construction.
