Chest freezer Facade

So, I scored a $20 chest freezer of Craigslist that'll hold 4 cornies... it's not in the best of shape, and the authority in the house 'suggested' it be wrapped with a wooden facade. (I was open to just painting it... wanted a black rig anyways).

I was browsing through several threads and happened upon the possible issue of heat exchange when wrapping a freezer.

I'm already halfway to the finish line on the facade, but wanna know if anyone has any insight or opinion on what my experience will be...



Lots of thoughts going through my mind right now... mostly just wishing I'd seen this issue sooner.

your compressor will just run more often trying to exchange heat. SInce it's a 20 dollar freezer just go ahead and hope you get many years from it.

if it were me, id at least leave that vent open and keep the whole unit away from the wall a bit to let air get behind it. See the attached pic of what i did. those look like some beefy boards you got there. you will definately be creating some "insulating" with your facade seperated from the freezer a bit.

Thanks! I think I'll continue as planned. The boards for the frame are 1x4's with pocket screw joinery.

Here's the full sketchup..


I will be leaving the vent exposed, and the back of the unit doesn't have anything over it.

If it dies, I'll just have to get a better looking one and leave it exposed as the chest freezer it is...

another thougth is you could pick up a couple of small fans (computer style maybe) that you could wire when the keezer comes on they kick on and move air in that area between the board and the freezer - its probably a $10 upgrade.

What program did you use to create that drawing. I've sen a lot of similar drawings. i'd like to sketch up my brewery.

It's literally 'Sketchup' ... a 3d modeling program from Google - it's totally free, and was sort of intended to increase the number of models in Google Earth by 'crowdsourcing' the task. Don't forget to checkout the 'warehouse'... tons of already made stuff there including brewstands, etc.

I may do the biscuit fan idea... probably put them on the same relay as the temp controller; who knows, the difference may be negligible considering these freezers are meant to be run MUCH colder than the high 30's... I just saw one guy post that he can't get his below 45... if that happens, I'll just rip it apart and start over - I just want to get on to the inside of it...