upright freeze has coils in the shelves, my keezer build

so at first i was thinking well, i'll turn the freezer on its back, let it settle for 24 hours then plug it in and see if it still works. thought on that for a while, thought nah, i don't want to risk it. then i thought about maybe bending the shelves out of the way and use it like that. thought on that for a little bit. this thing has been sitting in the garage since i got the family up here. i smoke in the garage since its a no kids zone so every time i step out there i stare at this thing.
well about a half pack of smokes ago i got to thinking, what if i just carefully bend my keg tubes to pull off the side instead of pulling off the bottom and i'll just lay the kegs down on thier side. then build a keezer collar just like you would a chest freezer. instead of mounting the taps on the collar i'm going to put them in the door.
heres what this old monster looks like:



only thing i'm really worried about so far for this build is the strength of the shelves. i think i'm going to need a bit more bracing than what it has, but if i do every thing right, i should be able to make this work with about the same supplies that you would need for a chest freezer build.


here's some more pics:















as i get more into the build i will post more pics. i'm going to try and go step by step on this just incase anyone else doesn't want to bend the tubing. all the pics for this project have captions explaining every thing

any ideas are totally welcome. this should be a fun and interesting build.

I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I will say that you NEED check valves on your gas lines if you do this. Since your gas in is way more susceptable to being below the beer line, any pressure drop on the tank side will result in beer shooting toward your regulator.

and i've been thinking about that problem, thats why the keezer isn't going to be level, its going to be tilted back so that the kegs are at an angle, i'm going to mark all my kegs so that the gas line in is at the top and above the liquid. if i need to i will get some new gas dip tubes and point them up towards what will be the new top of the keg when i put the keg on its side.

good input, thanks

Replacement dip tubes are expensive. I would get a chest freezer before choosing this method.

Well, I'd build some sort of stand and turn the freezer the same way as a chest freezer. Just make sure the hot side coil (if there is one on the back side of the freezer) isn't enclosed so it can release the heat properly. You're risking far less this way (when it is a useless thing now) than exposing the gas lines to a possible beer bath.

If laying an upright freezer on it's back for transport can damage it, I really don't think that running one laying on it's back will work.

brainy77 said:

Well, I'd build some sort of stand and turn the freezer the same way as a chest freezer. Just make sure the hot side coil (if there is one on the back side of the freezer) isn't enclosed so it can release the heat properly. You're risking far less this way (when it is a useless thing now) than exposing the gas lines to a possible beer bath.

Click to expand...

Where the coolant settles in the system when the compressor is off matters. You could end up bricking the compressor.

Here is what I'm thinking. Put the gas side down and dispense from the gas side. If necessary you could put a short piece of hose on the gas tube that could then bend down to the side of the keg. That way your not making any permanent changes to the kegs.

What a small world - my brother and I just got (I think) the exact same freezer for free from a family friend. Instead of a keezer though, we're going to use ours for fermenting and aging. It took us several hours, but we carefully managed to bend all of the shelves out of the way to make a huge space to put fermentors.

Someone else reported that the shelves work as they are if you ferment in Vittles Vault fermenters.

Tilting the unit seems like a bad idea.. you'll likely ruin the compressor if it's not running upright (like what it was designed to do). Not to mention, you'll likely waste a lot of beer over time because you won't be able to get all the liquid out if they're not upright.

At this point, I think you'd be better off trying to bend the shelves back before you put in a bunch of work building a collar, stand, etc..

What about moving the compressor so its level if you lay it down?

I think I would rather trade out for a chest freezer than modify it. Just a thought.

Ok when I mean tilt, I mean a slight tilt like maybe raise the front of the freezer an inch or 2, not much. I'm using this freezer for one main reason, its free. I have the wood onhand for the collar so about the only things I'm gonna need for this is my temp controler and some sort of seal for the door. I would rather use a chest freezer believe me but right now with a temperary shortage of funds, this is what I have so this is what I'm going to use. If I bent the shelves number 1 I wouldn't be able to fit as many kegs, as it sits right now being upright and all I can fit 15 kegs. Number 2, if I bent the shelves out of the way I'd have to bend every shelf and then make a shelf to fit the kegs upright. I checked last night and the shelves are in the wrong place to bend only a few shelves and leave one for the kegs to sit on, if I do that I'd only be able to fit 4 kegs or so cause I won't be able to have 2 levels of kegs unless I build a shelf. Bending the dip tubes is right now in my mind the easiest way to make this work. With the tilt of the freezer it shouls make the head space in the keg move to just where the gas tube is. If I have to put 4.5 gallons in each keg to make this work so be it. I just need a place to make my kegs cold so I can drink homebrew. I plan on building a chest freezer as well, but until I have the funds to do that, I'm determined to make this sucker work lol

My $.02......

I work with alot of guys in the hvac field. I have one of these units.
BEST BET for you and me is to sell/trade it on craigslist. Get a keezer. Alot less worries...

Another part of this whole build, leaving the cooler the way it is, is to see if I can do it, to see if I can make it work. Gives me something to tinker with when I'm not brewing. I kinda want to do it the hard way lol I always seem to learn better if I do it the hard way first.

Sell it on CL for what you can and then take that money to buy a proper fridge or chest freezer....or use it as a freezer if it works.

I have a similar style freezer and I bought it to be used as a freezer so I could convert the chest freezer to a keezer. I false move with the one you have and it becomes a really big boat anchor. Use it as a freezer if it works and get a chest freezer or refrigerator to modify. In the long run you will be happier and more successful.

No sense bending backwards to make a wrong thing work....especially when you have choices.