Sizing your Chest Freezer for Corny Kegs

I have plenty of 80-160gb drive laying around. maybe I will give that a try. thanks for the suggestion.

does anyone know if the 5.0 holiday with the 1/4 hump will fit 3 pin locks?

Rick500 said:

Just carted home my black Frigidaire 7.2 cu. ft. freezer today from Lowes. (Had to have them order it for me; they don't stock the black ones.)

Item #: 279057 Model: FFC0723GB

Definitely a good deal for $228, and I found a 10% off coupon, so even better.

It'll hold 3 Corny kegs plus a 10 pound CO2 cylinder without a collar, 5 plus a 10 pound CO2 cylinder with a 2x8 collar.

I think I'm going to build the collar and use it for 4 kegs, and keep a little spare room for misc. stuff.

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looks like it will, but i thought i'd ask...

would this fit 5 pin locks? looks like it will if you add 1/2" to each of them.

I picked up a GE FCM5 freezer that I am converting. Does anyone have experience having the C02 outside and then running a line into the freezer? Where do you drill the hole?

A) make a collar and drill through that
B) make a hole in the lid, don't ever drill through the freezer

Rivenin said:

A) make a collar and drill through that
B) make a hole in the lid, don't ever drill through the freezer

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Completely agree. The easiest for me was the collar.

Another option is if you have a drain in the bottom and are only going to have a single-body regulator, you could snake the gas line through the drain. This way no drilling is required! Be sure to insulate the drain when finished.

cheesecake said:

does anyone know if the 5.0 holiday with the 1/4 hump will fit 3 pin locks?

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The one posted in the first few posts should fit 3, but it is no longer available. The current Holiday 5.0 has a huge shelf and might fit 3 if you make a huge collar.

well i ended up buying the 7cf holiday at lowes for 179. brought my corny kegs in with me (got some interesting looks!)... found out 3 fit easily on the bottom (pin lock) and 1 more should fit on the hump without issue, maybe 2... i only had 2 kegs with me so i couldn't do much measuring
But it is going to be delivered tomorrow, so this should be interesting!

I have 3 five gallon ball locks on the floor of my Holiday 7.0 and 2 three gallon ball locks on the hump. It's tight, so I don't know if you will be able to get 5 pin locks in, but keep us posted either way as the Holiday 7.0 is a popular model for keezer conversions.

If you build a stand to extend the height of the hump throughout the entire keezer, you may be able to fit 5 pin locks. This is how I've got mine setup.

cheesecake said:

does anyone know if the 5.0 holiday with the 1/4 hump will fit 3 pin locks?

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Just looked at Lowes.....NO Way.

Not withourt a collar.

I can fit 3 ball locks and C02 tank in my 5.0 Holiday, but I also have a collar that allows for more height.

I think they have changed the hump. I will look again, but I think it now has a straight across hump with no way for 3 cornies. DAMMIT!

Here's a picture of my 5.0 Holiday with just 2 in there but you can see I can easily fit another where the 6 pack is....

With a collar, right?

i didn't measure, but at a glance it looked like 0% probability of a 3rd.

(Note the changed hump)

cheezydemon3 said:

With a collar, right?

i didn't measure, but at a glance it looked like 0% probability of a 3rd.

(Note the changed hump)

Click to expand...

Correct, with a collar.

delivery has came! i'm at work right now, so i can't check it out.
Delivery dude said to let it sit 24 hours at "4" and set from there.
so day after tomorrow i'm going to try the "get to fridge temps without a controller" trick.

Rivenin said:

delivery has came! i'm at work right now, so i can't check it out.
Delivery dude said to let it sit 24 hours at "4" and set from there.
so day after tomorrow i'm going to try the "get to fridge temps without a controller" trick.

Click to expand...

well i got bored tonight and said eff it...


here is 3 pin locks in the holiday 7cf keezer. i can deff fit one more on the hump, not sure about 2 though, but highly doubtful.

picking up the perlicks this friday, oh yes... oh yes.

Here's more proof that you can fit 3 Corny's and C02 tank in the newly designed Holiday 5.0 from Lowes....if you add a collar.....1 on the hump and 2 in the freezer.

travisnd said:

Here's more proof that you can fit 3 Corny's and C02 tank in the newly designed Holiday 5.0 from Lowes....if you add a collar.....1 on the hump and 2 in the freezer.

Click to expand...

It's the same story with the Holiday 5.0. You can fit 3 on the floor and 2 on the hump. The downside is that it requires a prohibitively large collar. I ended up getting a few three gallon kegs to put on the hump so I only needed a 4" collar.

I have the old holiday 5 cf but I was thinking of switching to pin locks so I was wondering if I could still fit 3 in there

Im planning a keezer build but dont brew my own yet. Ide like to fit a commercial 1/2 barrel and maybe one or two cornys for premixed vodka cranberry lol. Thing is im about to move so space will be limited now. Whats the smallest freezer I can get that will fit that? I plan on making a collar and using a tower I already have.

This is an amazing thread, but I'm in the UK and these all seem to be US models.

Does anyone know if I can get three cornies into the Haier BD-203GAA ? It seems like it should as its 24"x15" in the internal well and my cornies do seem to be just shy of 9" diameter. In fact, it looks like with a 2x10 collar it could do 5 as the shelf is 7.5"x15"

But I wonder if anyone else has done it...

I have died and gone to heaven.

Whirlpool 15.4 cu ft on craigslist for $50 Johnson digital $65

$115 and I have 3 cornies and 2 buckets in the thing with TONS of room left.

Time for more kegs!

Holiday 7.0 (Lowes) In progress. I read a ton of bad reviews about this freezer so I didn't attach the collar, it just has weather stripping sealing the bottom of the collar to the freezer. I haven't modified the freezer at all other than reattaching the lid to the collar so I don't void the warranty if it craps out on me - And if it does, I'll remove my collar, reattach the lid and return it!


Shanks came today. (4 1/8")
[img=http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/9136/imag0276t.th.jpg]
[img=http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/2753/imag0271dv.th.jpg]


Johnson Controls Analog Temperature Controller and fan wire.
[img=http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/7330/imag0268rv.th.jpg]


I had about a 10-20º difference in temperature from bottom to top so I installed a 3" AC fan to circulate the cold air. It works perfect and I only have about a 3-4º difference now which I'm happy with.




Back, hinge.
[img=http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1474/imag0273z.th.jpg]

Here is the sizing, the cardboard was cut for 1/6 barrels at 9 1/4"
[img=http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2594/imag0275h.th.jpg]

I'll post more as I make progress.
Cheers!

Both the GE and Maytag 14.8 cu. ft. freezers are on sale at Home Depot for $404. Which one is better?

Blue_Monkey said:

Both the GE and Maytag 14.8 cu. ft. freezers are on sale at Home Depot for $404. Which one is better?

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Don't know which one is better, but both have been substantially cheaper, even as low as $299 but more recently $340

Fauxsho said:

I had about a 10-20º difference in temperature from bottom to top so I installed a 3" AC fan to circulate the cold air. It works perfect and I only have about a 3-4º difference now which I'm happy with.




Back, hinge.
[img=http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/1474/imag0273z.th.jpg]

Here is the sizing, the cardboard was cut for 1/6 barrels at 9 1/4"
[img=http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2594/imag0275h.th.jpg]

I'll post more as I make progress.
Cheers!

Click to expand...

Interesting idea with the fan. Any thoughts to trying to insulate the collar?

LateraLex said:

Interesting idea with the fan. Any thoughts to trying to insulate the collar?

Click to expand...

I got the idea from billybrew.com and it worked really well. I sort of jumped the gun on this whole project and probably should have taken some extra steps into consideration instead of just trying to see results. I did think about insulating it while I was building the collar but to be honest I was tired of running to Lowes and I had planned this whole thing out step-by-step budget-wise and it didn't really find its way into the build.

I'll probably insulate it sooner or later as I am not really happy with my temperature probe being so close to the side of the freezer, so when or if I decide to reposition it, I'll take everything apart and insulate.

Overall it holds a pretty consistent temperature within 3-4 degrees from top to bottom so I'm sort-of happy. I am having some condensation problems though so I'm going to try my luck with a "rechargeable" dehumidifier, also a suggestion from billybrew.com

I've got 3 of the Eva-dry brand rechargeable dehumidifiers they work great. I keep one in my keezer and two in my lager/yeast/hops fridge, which gets opened more often than I'd like.

I've got the Fridgidaire 5.0 CF freezer. I bought it because it was small and our apartment isn't too big, but wish I had shopped more because I can barely squeeze 2 kegs in there. I don't see myself needing more than two kegs so big deal, but still almost freaked when I actually tried putting them in there. I may build a collar so I can Lager at least one beer with them but I'm just doing picnic taps for now.

masonsjax said:

I've got 3 of the Eva-dry brand rechargeable dehumidifiers they work great. I keep one in my keezer and two in my lager/yeast/hops fridge, which gets opened more often than I'd like.

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How often do you have to "recharge" the one in your keezer?

Once a month on average I'd say. I also have PC fans circulating the air in there and try not to open the lid too often, stays pretty dry.

That doesn't sound too bad. I was afraid I'd be recharging it quite often so I was unsure about purchasing one. I'm still in the "under construction" stages of mine so the freezer has pretty much turned into a vessel where I just keep my commercial beer cold. So, depending on my mood, I open it when I need a beer, which can be pretty frequent on certain nights. Whether that effects the level of condensation I'm experiencing, I don't know.

Thanks for the input.

Cheers!

Great Thread.... Very Helpful!!

Very cool! I have my keezer all picked out. Going with the 14.8 cf for $395.10 - 5%. Very excited! Belgian ale on tap! 2 stouts on tap! Strawberry kiwi ale on tap! Maybe a vanilla java porter! Woot!!

2brewishuman said:

Very cool! I have my keezer all picked out. Going with the 14.8 cf for $395.10 - 5%. Very excited! Belgian ale on tap! 2 stouts on tap! Strawberry kiwi ale on tap! Maybe a vanilla java porter! Woot!!

Click to expand...

um.......

i am with you most of the way, lol.

Great thread as I'm pondering my future kegging arrangement.

Hey ya'll.

Put my keezer together with a Frigidaire 8.8 Cu. Ft. Chest Freezer (Color: White)
Item #: 90724 Model #: LFFC09M5HW from Lowe's.

There wasn't too much info out there about this freezer (many people refer to it at a 9 cu. ft.), but I was pretty sure from poking around on HBT that I'd be able to get 6 kegs in there. I ended up being able to fit 7!

For visual proof, here's a picture with seven kegs, four on the floor, and three more on the hump (one is barely on the hump, and could probably be pushed to the floor, but why bother). I opted to keep my CO2 tank outside the keezer.

This thing has been great, I can serve four beers and carb up three more that are on deck!

Hope this helps out anyone looking at this particular chest freezer.

Jesse, I just bought the same freezer hahaha. I agree there wasn't a lot out there in regards to this freezer, but i can get 4 kegs and my 20lbs tank of the floor and two on the hump. To get the 4 on the floor I have to position my co2 tank just right. it's like putting together a big puzzle haha. I am in the process of painting the top with chalkboard paint, and hopefully I will be adding a collar to it by the end of the year so i can use the hump space.