Help w/keezer purchase

I'm ready to buy a chest freezer to convert to a keezer. I already have a kegerator with 1 tap that I can fit 3 corny kegs in and don't mind the picnic taps. However, my thought is I will use the kegerator as a temp controlled fermenter going forward. Being Black Friday weekend, there are some good chest freezer deals out there, most notably a 7.0 cu ft GE for $159.00 at Home Depot. If I want to jump up to an 8.8 cu ft I can get one from Lowes for $269.00 or one from Sears for $279.00. Looking at Ed Wort's post showing how many corny kegs you can fit in each model, it shows 3 in a 7.0 and and 6 in a 7.2. But it looks like you can get more in the 7.0, especially if you build a collar enabling kegs to sit on the shelf. Then in an 8.9 it shows 5 kegs. Is my thinking wrong on this?

I'm trying to figure out if there is any reason to pay the extra $100.00+ to get the larger freezer. I'd like to have at least 4 beers on tap, preferably 5 and maybe make one of those a nitrogen tap down the road. I may also want a lager fermenter down the road as well, but I guess I could use my existing kegerator to lager one batch and then regular ale the next batch. I'm just hoping to make the smart purchase now and not find out in 3 months that I wish I had bought something else or that I wish I hadn't spent the extra $100.00. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

I just got my GE 7.0. Fits 5 with a collar and ball locks. Personally I think its the perfect compromise between size/space and number of taps. It really is only about 10" wider then my previous mini fridge kegerator but holds 3 more kegs. Painting it was actually pretty quick with some rustoleum and a roller.

I have the G.E. 7.0 for my keezer and I can fit a total of 4 ball-lock kegs with a collar. One of the kegs is on the compressor hump. There are size differences for this freezer depending on where you get it. I think the G.E. 7.0 freezer from Sam's Club is slightly larger than the one from Home Depot, for example. Best thing to do is take a corny key and make a cardboard cut-out of the bottom then take the cardboard cut-out to the store to see how many can actually fit in each freezer.

If you don't have a space limitation where you live I'd recommend as large of a freezer as possible. Even though you can fit 4 kegs in a 7.0 freezer it's a very tight fit. A slightly bigger freezer will give you more room to work and doesn't make swapping kegs in and out of it a pain in the butt. A larger freezer also allows you to store other things like bottles, hops, yeast, etc.

Go as big as you can afford. It was spendy, but I bought a 14.8 cu ft GE. I have 5 on tap plus 3 other kegs conditioning/carbing.

I've got an 8.9 cu ft, and I have 6 kegs plus the CO2 in it. I've never tried, but if I took out the CO2, I bet I could get a 7th in there. I think I spent around $300 on it.

Don't know the model off the top of my head, but I could look if you'd like.

Magic Chef 7.2 will fit 4 on the floor, and 2 more on the hump with a collar. Not sure they still make it, but mine was less than $200 new.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/flomasters-magic-chef-7-2-cuft-keezer-build-210806/

just got a 7 cu ft GE at wally world for under $160
yesterday ,don't know if there still that price though....

dynobyte,

The GE 7.0 from Home Depot is the FCM7SUWW. According to several previous threads, it can fit 4 ball locks on the floor (tightly) plus one on the hump with a tall collar. Check out https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/ge-7-cf-fcm7suww-keezer-conversion-192208/ for more details.

I also struggled with the question of this or the 7.2 or 8.8 at $100 more. I finally decided that I would be happy with 3 taps with the option to condition a fourth, and so I just ordered one of these from HD at the great sale price and a 3 tap setup from Kegconnection. Can't beat the price, but I would have probably gone bigger if I had more space. Good luck!

Thank you to everyone for your input. I kept looking and ended up running across a 12.9 cu ft chest freezer at Lowes, Model #: LFCH13M2MW. The freezer was listed for $299.00, which I thought was a great price. I ended up getting 10% off that price as I bought the floor model, so I think I got a great deal. The freezer has plenty of space! I can fit 8 kegs on the floor and a 5 gal BB on the hump. That's more space than I'll need, but as several of you mentioned I'll have room to fit bottles or condition some kegs, etc. Now I need to get more kegs and begin the process of accumulating the other parts I'll need.