I've started a keezer build in May. I got a used chest freezer. It has worked fine for 8 months. I had the the temp controller wired into a junction box then just plugged in the freezer into the receptacle. I finished it up 2 days ago and I wired the controller into the fridge's wiring. At first it froze ice on the wall. Then it wouldn't cool below 55. I defrosted and cleaned the inside and dried it out and now it won't cool at all. I just can't figure out why it tanked the day I finished it. Is there anything I can do to confirm that the freezer is dead.
Tragedy struck dead keezer
- Thread starter f0xtr0t
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Thegreatestgray
Well-Known Member
Check your wiring also you can drop the temp on the controller and see if the compressor turns on if it doesn't I would then check to see if you have enough freon if not check for leaks if no leaks fill and test again but it might just be your wiring isn't connecting properly
What would a freon leak look like? I don't see any oil or dye dripping. I am going to double check my connections. Also would it matter which side of the cord I made switchable? I cut the wire that lead to the original thermostat and left the wire that ran to the compressed whole.
reverendj1
Well-Known Member
I think freon is normally a gas at room temp, so I don't think you would "see" a leak, unless you can see a puncture. My guess is that cutting the wire to the thermostat is what killed it. If I remember, I will ask my roomate when I get home what he thinks, as he is an appliance repairman.
Thegreatestgray
Well-Known Member
You can't see it but you can put a vacuum to it and see if it holds the vacuum applied but its most likely your wiring that's wonky since it worked before you wired it
Monster Mash
Well-Known Member
The fact it started getting cold and then quit makes me think you have a leak and when chest freezers leak it is usually in the walls to it's not repairable. I'm on my 3rd freezer in 8 years, I have a friend that had 2 brand new ones die in one year.
If you hear the compressor turn on and it's not getting cold there's not much you can do.
If you hear the compressor turn on and it's not getting cold there's not much you can do.
Daddy_Hawk
Member
Can you trouble shoot at least if the compressor is kicking on, and running? If so, then you can probably assume it's a leak. Without the refrigerant though, it's unable to cool properly, but will still run mechanically. It'll at least start to narrow things down a bit.
Junkster
Well-Known Member
If it's an older unit with a mechanical control (not electronic) from the factory, it may also have a defrost timer which is mechanical. If it happens to be in the defrost position, it will open the compressor circuit. If the controller that you added is also supplying the power to the defrost timer, the timer will only advance when your new controller is calling for cooling. Depending on the ambient temperature and the controller setpoint temperature, it may take a little while for the timer to advance. If you can locate it, some have a place to stick in a screwdriver and manually rotate it which will advance it so the switch closes and the compressor starts. If there is a cartoon (er, SCHEMATIC) it will be shown in that diagram. If all checks out with a meter and the compressor tries to start but stops (possibly with an audible click), then it may be tripping the overload. This can be caused by a bad start component(s). I worked on a cooler the other day doing this and it was just the start capacitor - cheap fix. Good luck!
Ah, well the freezer went tits up. I don't understand what killed it. The day before I started working on it. I got a lot of frozen ice on the back wall. I guess maybe in the process of setting my co2 tank down hard or one of the cornies I must of broken something. I just purchased the 9.0 cu ft Frigidaire from Lowes so it will be here in a few days.
I would not remove the factory thermostat from the equation on the new freezer. The factory stat measures wall temperature and will cycle the compressor off when the walls are cool. Removing that will cause the compressor to run when it can't do any more cooling and will overload. My guess is that is what killed yours.
I had the factory thermostat wired up. The only thing that was different was the ice build up on the back wall. I had cold crashed a fermenter so maybe that's what did it. I had talked to a co-worker who was a commercial refer repair tech before he switched careers. I asked him about using the chest freezer like this and he said eventually the compressor will go out. I know anecdotally that some people's keezer last a while. But what he was talking about was that the operating range of the freezer is like 0 and if you operate it severely out of its range it will tank sons thing about pressure levels.
Not true most of the temp probes sit in the hump and a t-stat is a t-stat they read temperature and send a make or break signal.
Hermit
fuddle
Freon on the low side runs about 0psi. Turn it off and it starts to leak out if you have a leak. That is why sometimes people say it gets worse after turning it off. If the motor is running then you have a sealed system problem. If it isn't then look elsewhere. These are very simple systems.
Yes and the wall temp in the hump where it it taking its temp will shut it down because the wall gets to be 0 degrees before it lowers the air temp inside from 45 to 43 degrees. For my money I want the external controller either measuring the air temperature of beer temperature, if you bypass the factory thermostat taking a measurement in one of these locations will cause the compressor to run and run and run in ranges that it cannot operate in efficiently or without possibly doing damage to the system. Leave the factory thermostat in the circuit it will cause the freezer to cycle off when the wall temp gets too low. Now you could in theory place the new probe in the well that the factory probe occupied but in this scenario the compressor will never get the walls which act as a heat sink to the temperatures that it was designed to. All in all I believe that either way your have a longer lasting keezer if you leave the unit as is and add and external controller to cycle power to the entire unit.
Well, as a refrigeration tech, I can tell you that the t-stat "CANNOT" function at all if you are running power to it from another t-stat that is set at a higher temperature. I removed all of my original controls on mine and it runs a mere 2 hours total run time per day. The STC-1000 controller that I am using to run the compressor and I use the heat side to run the fans to circulate the air in/out of the coffin box. My last freezer which died 3 years ago was from 1987 and would still be running if a lightening strike hadn't power spiked the house.
I am curious as to where you place the sensor?
With the factory thermostat acting as a low temperature limit my keezer typically cycles off on the factory thermostat when there is a large demand (i.e. When you put a room temp keg in the box). It just seems to me that leaving the factory stat as a low limit protects the components from running lower than their design specs and cuts down on the likelihood of freezing items in contact with the walls when the unit needs to run for extended times to cool warm items. This set up has worked so well for me over the last 3 years that I can't see a need to do the extra work to modify the factory controls.
Also leaving the factory controls in place and cycling power to the unit with an external controller and installing a collar without actually modifying the freezer itself means that I might have been able to take advantage of a warranty it I had a problem with it within the warranty period.
I don't have a lot of experience with refrigeration but I am in Residential HVAC. I wouldn't take a central air system and move the thermostat to a room that doesn't cool adequately and let it run cooling the rest of the house to 60 degrees and freeze the coil. If i were going to attempt that I'd install limiting controls to protect the system against running below it's engineered specifications which is what I'm doing by using the factory stat as a low limit.
I'm glad that you have had success operating your Keezers in this fashion. I am sure that you are more qualified than I am with regard to refrigeration. I am only trying to present another opinion based on my own experience. Just proves that like most things in homebrewing that there are many ways to accomplish making beer and keeping it cool.
With the factory thermostat acting as a low temperature limit my keezer typically cycles off on the factory thermostat when there is a large demand (i.e. When you put a room temp keg in the box). It just seems to me that leaving the factory stat as a low limit protects the components from running lower than their design specs and cuts down on the likelihood of freezing items in contact with the walls when the unit needs to run for extended times to cool warm items. This set up has worked so well for me over the last 3 years that I can't see a need to do the extra work to modify the factory controls.
Also leaving the factory controls in place and cycling power to the unit with an external controller and installing a collar without actually modifying the freezer itself means that I might have been able to take advantage of a warranty it I had a problem with it within the warranty period.
I don't have a lot of experience with refrigeration but I am in Residential HVAC. I wouldn't take a central air system and move the thermostat to a room that doesn't cool adequately and let it run cooling the rest of the house to 60 degrees and freeze the coil. If i were going to attempt that I'd install limiting controls to protect the system against running below it's engineered specifications which is what I'm doing by using the factory stat as a low limit.
I'm glad that you have had success operating your Keezers in this fashion. I am sure that you are more qualified than I am with regard to refrigeration. I am only trying to present another opinion based on my own experience. Just proves that like most things in homebrewing that there are many ways to accomplish making beer and keeping it cool.
Using your HVAC basically you are moving the t-stat from the room closest to the air handler and installing it in the middle of the house. I strap my temp probe to a keg in the center. Now be advised I have a larger then average thermal mass then most 14 five gallon kegs and 2 three gallon on the hump,I run a push/pull fan set through the coffin. The lowest setting on my freezer would freeze the beer in the keg, mine came with an electronic control with a warning beeper for when the freezer was "NOT" below 28* so it would beep every 3-5 seconds while there was power to the compressor. So to save my marriage and sanity "It" had to go. Not worried about the warranty as I modified the hell out of the top and I can repair almost anything plus I added rubber bushing around the line sets to keep them from rubbing on the sheet metal #2 cause in failure(loss of charge) #1 is starter/overload relay I keep several "3 in1" on hand. I run 5 fridges/freezers.
