My Keezer Build Begins.........

My SWMBO picked this up for me last night for 50 dollars.......


:rockin::rockin:

Sweet

Nice. It looks pretty darn clean and well kept. SWMBO's Grant went a long way in securing a good future keezer!

It was a great surprise when I got home at 11pm to see....It needs to be cleaned really bad inside. It was used by a retire guy who just spend his day's fishing and this was his freezer fro it. Now he is moving and cleaning up so I got a good deal rigth off the CL.

That's awesome, building one's own HB equipment is the most satisfaction I get from homebrewing...other than drinking . I got my chest freezer off craiglist for 80 bucks and did a number on it, its my brewing crowning achievement. Take a look at my gallery for before and after pics! Let us know if ya have any questions.

More pix,get to it

I got to start ordering parts.......one step at a time. I washed some bottles tonight to bottle tomorrow but soon my bottle days will slow down........

I got my first questions:

1) What a good way to clean this freezer in the inside? It still got a catfish smell.
2) How do I handle getting hinges for it cause it has the bar hinge inside the lid.
(I'll get pictures when I get back home, I got called into work a bit ago.)

brewagentjay said:

I got my first questions:

1) What a good way to clean this freezer in the inside? It still got a catfish smell.
2) How do I handle getting hinges for it cause it has the bar hinge inside the lid.
(I'll get pictures when I get back home, I got called into work a bit ago.)

Click to expand...

start with an assload of Oxyclean and go from there. Still stinks? Get some activated charcoal/carbon from the pet store, the cheapest they have, and dump a bunch of that in there for a few days and change it out and see if it smells any less.

Sears website will direct you to their appliance parts section and they have EVERYTHING for that stuff. I got the small plastic push clips that hold the rubber seal onto the lid of my 10 year old freezer I got off craigslist...they probably have what you're looking for.

I noticed everyone has the hinges on back. I'm assuming they came with freezer. Mine has these like car hood deals on back inside of freezer so curious on how to deal with them. Anyone got something similar. I'll post a pic later today.

Freezer Has Been Soaking In Oxyclean For The Last Few Days.......

brewagentjay said:

I noticed everyone has the hinges on back. I'm assuming they came with freezer. Mine has these like car hood deals on back inside of freezer so curious on how to deal with them. Anyone got something similar. I'll post a pic later today.

Click to expand...

Did you get that pic?

brewagentjay said:

Freezer Has Been Soaking In Oxyclean For The Last Few Days.......

Click to expand...

:rockin:

i can't guarantee that yours are like mine, but i think those hinges are mostly similar. all you should need to do is unscrew them from the body and rescrew them into the wood collar. my collar was offset maybe 1/4" in from the body and they still screwed in fine and close fine.

what do you think? I'm thinking I need to take the inside top of freezer off to see what I got to work with.

Wow! Never saw hinges like that. You may look into buying different? i don't know. If it were me i'd cut them and get new ones for the outside.

fineexampl said:

Wow! Never saw hinges like that. You may look into buying different? i don't know. If it were me i'd cut them and get new ones for the outside.

Click to expand...

Thinking that is the plan. Just wondering what would be the best way to get them out.........

Don't want to mess up the nice freezer.

brewagentjay said:

Thinking that is the plan. Just wondering what would be the best way to get them out.........

Don't want to mess up the nice freezer.

Click to expand...

good point. See if you can take it apart first. you can always rig it to work afterward if you muss it up. It's just a lid after all.

brewagentjay said:

Thinking that is the plan. Just wondering what would be the best way to get them out.........

Don't want to mess up the nice freezer.

Click to expand...

How about a pic of the back so we can see the hinges?

There is no hinges on back that's it the metal hook looking bar goes straight down into the corners.

Bump.....So anyone dealt with these type of hinges? Also I'm gonna start getting my parts. So what parts should I aim to get first.........

Thanks.

brewagentjay said:

Bump.....So anyone dealt with these type of hinges? Also I'm gonna start getting my parts. So what parts should I aim to get first.........

Thanks.

Click to expand...

mine has those kind of hinges, but i didnt add a collar or anything to mine since the kegs fit down with plenty of room.

if you do open it up, you should be able to see the screws that attach to the main box. if i remember correctly, i can on mine. if you can get the hinge removed, and add a collar, you can pick up some fence type hinges that you could attach externally.

If your kegs fit fine in the freezer to begin with dont even bother with a collar, it just makes your life easier and will give your freezer better energy efficiency. So you may be able to just to keep those hinges where they are unless they are having problems. Did you decide whether you want to do towers of front-mounted taps? I would recommend towers if you are not doing a collar so you don't worry about hitting any cooling coils.

just got mine last night and it has the same kind of hinges for the top

mine does have hex bolts on the back that I am assuming hold that sucker in place, I am going to try and remove those bolts tonight and if the lid comes off it was a success, do you have those bolts in the back, one on each end?

I really like a collar so I can have front mount taps. The collars are cool but seem to make it not easy to get kegs in and out. I could put it on wheels so I can pull it out from wall when it's keg chaning time.

I'll look for these bolts could be behind the plastic circles I see. If I go with collar I'm gonna put new hinges on.

Any one else got thoughts on collar or no and tower or no?

are you going to be putting kegs or carboys on the hump?

if you are, then you will need the collar to give you the extra 6" to get this done. Also, the collar is a good idea that way you don't have to be drilling holes in the top or god forbid, the freezer. You will probably need the collar just because of the hinges, if you don't already have hinges in the back like mine you will need the collar to mount the hinges to so you don't have to concern yourself with ruining your freezer

when I do mine I am going to be putting on a collar just so I can drill into the wood and not have a panic attack that I am going to hit a cooling or heat transfer line..that would really suck.

Advantages for you to use the collar

mounting the hinges becomes very simple because you are drilling into wood
you can put carboys or keg on the hump and you can close the top
drilling the hole for the temp regulator is simple
drilling the hole for Co2 is simple (if you are keeping the tank on the outside or if you plan on having it on the outside in the future)

my $.02

I agree Monty I wanted to go with collar the entire time I just wanted to get some more information before since someone mentioned not useing the collar.

I'm still going to have to drill new hinges into collar and freezer but that would be only holes to drill. Cause I don't think I can use existing hinges for attaching collar to freezer. Now new hinges for top to collar should be no issues as I'll be attaching to collar.

Yes I plan on using hump for carboys for lagering.

drilling for the hinges basically forces your hand...makes life a lot simpler

Monty420th said:

drilling for the hinges basically forces your hand...makes life a lot simpler

Click to expand...

So the only actual drilling into freezer will be the hinges for collar, which will be small and I'll do it in same area as old hinges were so should be okay not to hit a line......

praying to god..

So I'm working on keezer and looking for a keg kit. cheap as I can find is a 150 to 160 depending on if I want pin or ball lock..........seems ball lock cost more.

Anyone got any better prices. I'm looking for at least a compelete 1 keg kit but love two kegs.......

Bump!!! Looking for a 2 Keg Kit. Any ideas on who to get a good price from on that? Need CO2 tank. Also need a good price on temp control for freezer.

You've been neglecting your keezer build for 3 months! Don't even have the kegging equipment yet? Shame on you! Once you get it going you will kick yourself for putting it off for so long.

Good luck

Time & Money & Time..........

I bought the freezer. I just haven't had time to devote to building the thing........

I got 20 Gallons to bottle right now so I'm feeling the pain already.

So I got me a few hundred dollars to throw at this project. I think I'm going with collar. So my plan is to spend the money on a kit(2 kegs) and a temp controller.

Then see what were I stand.

Nice find on the freezer! Mine doesnt look so great on the outside but the inside was kept perfect, no smell or stains or anything so I was stoked on that and it was only 60$. Good luck with your build!

I just ordered this system for my 5.0cuft keezer http://stores.kegconnection.com/Detail.bok?no=430 with the upgraded Perlick faucets. I plan on adding an 8" collar and having a keg on the hump as well. I also ordered a Johnson A419 from Amazon for $70.

I spent the last two days reading through the "show us your kegerator" thread and have a pretty good idea of how I want it to look. Unfortunately time is not on my side. The movers will be here in August to ship everything to Okinawa for us. July should be a heavy drinking month for me LOL

Good luck with your build.

I think I'm going to go with a 4 Keg kit with 4 port gas manifold, 4 cornies, with everything but the co2 tank which saves me ton on shipping and price.....

Righ tnow I think I can get 4 keg system minus the perlick faucets as I'm going with picnic versions until I get the collar stuff worked for $220ish plus 25 shipping.

Now I need a Temp Controller? Any Suggestions?