Laminating or paneling a keezer

I am considering attaching wood to the outer skin of my keezer. I have heard some people suggest that the outer metal skin is used to dissipate heat and that applying a laminate or wood directly on the metal could shorten the life of the keezer.

I am having a difficult time understanding how this could be. The heat should all be in the compression coils which are not thermally connected to the skin. In fact, thermally connecting them to the skin would be counter productive as it would simply be pumping the heat back through the walls that you are tying to remove from the chest. It would seem that, if anything a laminate or wood skin on the outside would provide better insulation for the keezer.

Coolers thats use the skin to disapate heat, dont have condenser coils hanging on the back! thay are just under the skin

imho that practis is also rare and really only used on mini fridges

You could get fancy and do what Jester did - airspace between the paneling and the keezer, and a fan to move it -
see his thread here.

Both the evaporator and the condenser coils are located in the walls of most freezers. They are separated by foam insulation so as not to interfere with each other. You can easily determine if yours is built this way simply by feeling the outside of the freezer while it is running. The outside will be noticeably warm to the touch if the condenser coils are in the walls. Also, as mentioned, the absence of coils on the back of the freezer indicates they are built into the walls. I would not cover the outside of the freezer with wood if the coils are in the walls. You might be able to make it work if you used spacers to allow air flow between the outer wall and the wood covering.

I didn't realize that some freezers have the condenser coils in the walls. I'll have to go take a look at mine.

My freezer has the coils in the walls and I just covered it with stainless.
pics are here:

I checked and my freezer doesn't have coils where I thought they were so I suspect they are in the walls. I thought of the stainless route as well but worried about getting good thermal connection to the skin.

So far so good with mine, the stainless panels warm up just like the original skin did, and it cycles on and off like normal. It was running more when it got emptied but now with 3 kegs back in it it runs less.

Very nice job!

Metal would be better as mentioned. I wouldn't use wood if you can help it.

One thing not mentioned is it is possible to have the condenser coils on the bottom as well, so look there too.

Yes, it is bad to cover the outside of a chest freezer. I don't think I've ever seen one with external coils.

Why not paint it? Or, maybe some type of adhesive coating?

JKoravos said:

Why not paint it? Or, maybe some type of adhesive coating?

Click to expand...

dents and dings.

dantodd said:

dents and dings.

Click to expand...

Bondo baby!

dantodd said:

dents and dings.

Click to expand...

Touch up paint...

You could use bondo for the dents then put a bumper sticker/beer sign over it to cover the bondo up.

well, I'd like a nice surface after all is said an done. It would take more time than I want to spend and more skill than I have to use body filler to get rid of the whole "orange peel" finish and the little dents in the front. I'm not sure what I'm going to do at this point but it can wait, still in the planning stages.

You could try Cosmetic grade Diamond plate - Our most popular material
At least it's aluminum which should help dissipate the heat. They may have other finishes than diamond.

For the money you will spend upgrading this freezer, go and buy a new one. You wills ave time, energy, and money in the long run.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

For the money you will spend upgrading this freezer, go and buy a new one. You wills ave time, energy, and money in the long run.

Click to expand...

Like any of those things matter to the truly obsessed!

Bdavanza how did you get the stainless panels on? Glue? I am thinking of doing something similar with a roll of copper flashing then aging it with an ammonia/sodium chloride solution to remove the shine and add patina. My only worry was that the glue would insulate the coils to much.

Thanks

Jonathan

You could probably get away with using contact cement and door skin (which is a very thin plywood used to cover badly damaged doors). The R-value of 1/8th of an inch of wood isn't much.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

For the money you will spend upgrading this freezer, go and buy a new one. You wills ave time, energy, and money in the long run.

Click to expand...

But ,But ,But then it would be a shiny new big square white box instead of an old big white square box. I think he wants to do this so its aesthetically pleasing.



And we all love to screw up I mean tinker with stuff ...