upright freezer with removable shelves?

I know a bunch of you use upright freezers for fermentation - I'm hoping to do the same thing, so I don't have to worry about hurting my back with a chest freezer.

Every model I find on craigslist has the shelves actually part of the cooling unit, so I can't remove them and fit a carboy in.

What brands are you using that don't have these in them?

Thanks.

I've seen some folks bend those shelves with the cooling lines built in but it's certainly not recommended. You're going to run into those on most older models. I'm using a 17cuft fridgidare upright that has removable shelves. (CL $200)

I use a Kenmore with removable shelves. I got it at a yard sale for $50. I had to break a few of the door shelve bars so I could get two buckets to fit inside, not to mention the deep clean i had to do on it

I don't know that a set up like this would be that much easier on your back though. I know it seams like it would be but it still gets to my back when I'm lifting 5 gallons into it.

I would post some pics but for some reason It's against the rules:

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I was looking at the uprights at Sears and they had about a dozen models on the floor and I think that two of them had removable shelves. You'll just need to keep checking craigslist and be patient unless you want to go shopping new.

go with a side by side fridge: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-side-side-refrigerator-fermentation-chamber-183647/

You're looking for a "Frost Free" upright freezer. They don't come much below 13.7 cu ft. Couple older ones you can find at 12 cu ft. They are almost all likely made by the same OEM manufacturer and a name is put on them afterwords.


BUT! I will say that after waiting for an upright on CL, I decided to go smaller chest freezer. It's awesome and I chose correctly. I put the chambers themselves on big casters. Now when I brew (15 gal) I only lift an empty clean Sanke into the chamber and roll the whole thing over to the brewhouse and fill. Never lift a full keg. Try rolling an upright freezer and I think you're looking at a 3 stooges moment.

You have to attach the collar to the lid (for lifting's sake) if you are going to do that though, which is no prob. The chest freezer basically wraps around the sanke and isn't much bigger. The R value is awesome and all my cold air doesn't fall out when I open the lid to check things (which happens a lot).

I just got a upright freezer with the cooling as part of the shelvs. It was free so what the heck. I'm still in the prosess of makeing into a fermenter but you can remove the tubeing and bend it out of the way if you are very carefull. Don't kink the line instead gently bow them out of the way. Of corse that being said if I had to pay for a freezer I'd go with a chest freezer. Hope this helps

this may be a dumb question, but can an upright freezer be laid on its back to become something of a chest-type? Would the compressor run on its side? Seems like if that is possible, you could build a door collar to give it the right depth. Just a thought...

SpaceportBP said:

can an upright freezer be laid on its back to become something of a chest-type? Would the compressor run on its side?

Click to expand...

No, the oil would drain out of the compressor and it would die shortly thereafter.

This may also be obvious to everyone outthere including the OP. If you transport an upright freezer or refrigerator on its side set it upright for 24 hours prior to plugging it in. I sold my old beer fridge 3 weeks ago and told many people that looked at it this fact and it caught many of them by suprise.

Thanks for the advice everyone. This is really bumming me out, I've been putting off brewing 3 weeks now - I want to make my oktoberfest competition brew but want the fridge/freezer first!

I cant roll the fridge (downstairs in the garage) into the brewhouse (upstairs in the kitchen). As it is, I will have to carry/dolly the carboy to the garage... not looking forward to that at all.

I dont want to buy new but i'm running out of patience. I might just give in to chest freezer and get it over with, and figure out how to make it work... if hundreds of people lift carboys out of their chest freezers, i can too, right? hmmm... maybe i could rig up a pully system

or maybe ill go fridge instead of freezer. guess i just need to make sure the produce compartment comes out... anything else i should know?

What did you end up doing? I'm on the market for a fermentation chamber. I'm running into the same problem....all the upright freezers on craigslist have the cooling units built into the shelves (not-removable).

Thanks!

go with the side by side option. see my link above. much easier in my opinion.

If you have a sears outlet by you stop on by. I got a brand new 3/4 size stainless steel fridge/freezer for under $300. They also had new/dented ones for even less. It fit three kegs and CO2 without any mods, just removing the shelves. I did cut the door shelves to get another 3 kegs in though. Homedepot and Lowes have some dented 3/4 and full size for cheap every now and then.

GoNova said:

What did you end up doing? I'm on the market for a fermentation chamber. I'm running into the same problem....all the upright freezers on craigslist have the cooling units built into the shelves (not-removable).

Thanks!

Click to expand...

In my case... just as I was about to give up and go side-by-side, one showed up on craigslist. Luckily I happened to see it close to when it was posted, the woman got many calls that day and made me promise over and over again that I would actually pick it up.

It's worked out great, but unfortunately I haven't been able to brew much since I got it, and I've never had 2 beers in there at once. The temp control has definitely improved my beers though!

However, it's also a slippery slope... now I want two, one for lagering and one for fermenting! Well actually I want three, one for ale temp fermenting, one for lager temp fermenting, and one for lagering. Well actually, I want...