Upright or Chest??? Which is More Popular?

I am in the market for newer freezer very soon to use for 2 main purposes only...1) Fermentation Chamber 2) Cold Crashing

What is the type of freezer everyone uses currently? (Upright or Chest) Why did you come to the decision to make the choice for one over the other, cost not being a factor? I am of the opinion that an upright is easier to load/unload the FV, but a chest freezer would have more room. What say the HBT brethren?

I have both - a chest as a serving keezer and an upright for fermentation. My chest freezer is small - 5.8 cuft - and holds 4 kegs for serving with a little extra room for a few six-packs or yeast starter crashing. My upright is 20 cuft. I like the upright because I can easily get my carboys in and out. I built a little shelf that will hold the weight of a couple carboys. I've had two carboys and three corny's fermenting in there at the same time, and it worked well. you're right in saying the chest freezer is work lo load and unload.

my upright (top freezer) that I use for fermentation chamber will only hold 1 bucket (7.9gal version) or my 13gal dog food container that I use for 10gal batches. I wish I could could get 2 buckets in it.
I've considered opening the top to the bottom so I could build a shelf for a second vessel, but for now I tolerate it.

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It really depends on your situation.

For my fermentation chamber I figured like prand that an upright is better, and a chest freezer for keezer.

Also for me space was an issue. I have plenty of vertical space in my garage up to the ceiling, but space on the ground is at a premium only having a 1 car garage. So having a tall and thin stand up freezer was the easy choice for fermentation.

The more difficult thing was finding a frost free upright on craigslist, i wanted a freezer not a fridge for the extra space and easy ability to cold crash and lager at low temperatures without running too hard as most fridges aren't meant to get that cold and hold it...they can but it can stress them. Most upright freezers run their chilling lines through their shelves, which makes them immovable and they are usually at horrible locations that wouldnt allow most fermenters to fit properly. Setting up a free alert on the "Upright Freezer" search on my Local CList though and within a few weeks i found the perfect freezer. Granted I may have overpaid at $100 for a 6 year old freezer, but it was literally exactly what i needed space wise and had no permanent shelves. Also at least around this part in Oregon most people way overvalue their freezers on CL so $100 was a steal...its JUST tall enough to fit two of my 30L Fermentation buckets and a blowoff container, not much else. Built a tiny shelf out of some spare wood my parents had laying around and bam, ferm chamber.

Also having the shelves in the door is nice for bottles. I don't bottle much anymore unless its to take beer somewhere and it doesn't get finished, so it creates a nice place to stash those bottles to keep at sub 70F temp for storage when there's no room in the house fridge.



tdlr; Upright all the way, if your buying used though know it may take longer to find one that doesn't run its chilling coils through the shelves.

I really like my upright freezer. Has a smaller foot print than a chest freezer and I can fit 11 corny kegs in it. Here's the thread on which I based my build.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/upright-keezer-8-taps-11-kegs-371438/

I had a chest and got rid of it for an upright. I can store 2 fermenting buckets in the bottom half and 4 cases of beer on the shelves above. I ferment and bottle condition in it, then move them to my beer fridge once they're conditioned. Also it has a smaller footprint and my garage is already tight.

This thread helped me. I was considering a chest model for fermentation, but now I'm reconsidering that.

I am definitely leaning towards an upright, and like the idea of placing 2 carboys vertically vs. side by side in a chest freezer. The access to the FV would be much easier, plus you can keep an eye on things. This being said, there are so many more chest freezers for sale on CL vs. stand up. (At least in the price range I want to remain at).

Thanks everyone for the input so far.

Be patient, I got mine for $60.00.

NTXBrauer said:

I am definitely leaning towards an upright, and like the idea of placing 2 carboys vertically vs. side by side in a chest freezer. The access to the FV would be much easier, plus you can keep an eye on things. This being said, there are so many more chest freezers for sale on CL vs. stand up. (At least in the price range I want to remain at).

Thanks everyone for the input so far.

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Use something like

http://www.list-alert.com/

Setup your search, then subscribe to it and they will email you every time someone posts something new that fits your search.

That way you are almost guaranteed to be first to email them if you keep on top of it, which means you almost always get the item.

Trying to manually search every day or so for what you want never works because someone always seems to snipe whatever i want on CL before i can message them. It may take a few weeks, but eventually it will happen where someone posts something amazing, and having this alert system setup makes sure your the one who gets it.

After spamming like 20 people from manual CL searches and getting no reply or replies it was sold i set this up, and within a week or two mine popped up and i snagged it from some old lady 40 minutes away.

I use a side by side, and basically cut a giant hole in the middle to make one giant chamber. I built a stand inside of it and can fit 3-4 6.5g carboys + 2 5g carboys. Only thing I use is a johnson controller. Works really well..

Like FuzzeWuzze says, just make sure it's a "frost free" upright freezer otherwise you won't be able to move the shelves.

I use an upright for my fermentation chamber. It's currently able to hold 2 buckets, but could be modified to hold 4 if I wanted to. With an upright you need to watch out for cooling coils integrated with the shelves. Some of them are a bit of work to modify, some are easy.

I have a chest freezer for my keezer, but if I had it to do again (or if I could've convinced SWMBO that it would've looked fine in the dining room), I definitely would have done upright for that. I have two dorm fridges in the basement for fermentation chambers, and they do well for me.

For my money, a dorm fridge and building on an insulated box is probably the best bet in terms of 1) money, 2) not having an excessively high sidewall to lift your fermentation vessel over. You can rig a fan on a thermostat so that the same refrigeration unit is chilling two zones simultaneously at different temps, so you can cold crash while you ferment, too.

Of course, if you don't want to fuss with two cool zones, you could always put fermwrap around the beer you're trying to keep warmer and let it battle with the fridge, but that approach never made sense to me.

slarkin712 said:

I really like my upright freezer. Has a smaller foot print than a chest freezer and I can fit 11 corny kegs in it. Here's the thread on which I based my build.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/upright-keezer-8-taps-11-kegs-371438/

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Very sweet set up. Nice job!

NTXBrauer said:

Very sweet set up. Nice job!

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That is a nice set up, but that's not mine. I saw that thread and basically duplicated the work.

I got lucky, and found a True GDM-12 on CL for a steal, so the decision has been made. This unit will maintain between 33-38F, and I have a digital controller en route as I write this. Thanks for all the feedback.

NTXBrauer said:

I got lucky, and found a True GDM-12 on CL for a steal, so the decision has been made. This unit will maintain between 33-38F, and I have a digital controller en route as I write this. Thanks for all the feedback.

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If you use a controller, I would recommend wiring such that evaporator fan remains on all of the time. This will maintain good airflow and keep it frost free. The compessor / condenser unit in the lower section usually has a standard 120vac plug attached. You can insert your controller there instead of on the main power plug. I have 3 gdm units in use and find they run better that way on a separate controller.

raouliii said:

If you use a controller, I would recommend wiring such that evaporator fan remains on all of the time. This will maintain good airflow and keep it frost free. The compessor / condenser unit in the lower section usually has a standard 120vac plug attached. You can insert your controller there instead of on the main power plug. I have 3 gdm units in use and find they run better that way on a separate controller.

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Thanks for the advice raouliii. I am considering wiring only the compressor to the controller. My only concern would be that the fan will run non-stop, and shorten it's useful life.

The condensation & frost control would be a beneficial trade off though, and this thing is made in the USA, so my expectations on performance are high.

NTXBrauer said:

Thanks for the advice raouliii. I am considering wiring only the compressor to the controller. My only concern would be that the fan will run non-stop, and shorten it's useful life.

The condensation & frost control would be a beneficial trade off though, and this thing is made in the USA, so my expectations on performance are high.

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The TRUE units have commercial grade components that are meant to, in the case of the evap. fan, run continuous. It only draws 9watts, so it has very little power draw/cost. The evaporators on these units are designed to get VERY cold, which will create a lot of frost in a high humidity environment like a fermentation chamber. The constant airflow, during compressor off time, is needed to enable defrosting in between cooling cycles.

I use a GDM-12 as my corny cooler with no modifications of the thermostat.
I use a GDM-10 as my fermentation chamber with an integrated STC1000-style controller replacing the thermostat. I installed a heat circuit but have never needed it.
I use a GDM-6 for storage of my hops, a yeast bank and cold crashing starters, with no modifications.

NTXBrauer - drudging this post up from about a month ago, but was curious how the GDM-12 was working out. Also wondering what the interior dimension of that unit are?

blwitt said:

NTXBrauer - drudging this post up from about a month ago, but was curious how the GDM-12 was working out. Also wondering what the interior dimension of that unit are?

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So far, so good...the unit is working as expected, and I am very pleased with it. I have the compressor plugged into the temp controller, so it only runs when needed to cool to the desired temperature. The fan is directly connected to an outlet and is on all the time to circulate the air and control condensation.

I just put a measuring tape on it, and it measures 44" high x 22" wide x 19" deep. (just a bit over 10 cu ft. usable area) It will hold 4 FVs at the same time ranging from 5 to 6.5 gallon carboys or buckets.

If you can find a good deal on one, you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for the info on the dimensions and glad to hear it's working so well. I'm going to scour the central/north TX (I'm in Waco) area for a good deal on one. Your ferments look like they are going nicely in that photo!