Freezer conversion - coils in shelves???

I have an old upright freezer that works but has been unused since I moved in the house 4 years ago. I was planning on using it for a keezer, but started looking into getting it ready and noticed that the cooling happens in the shelves through a cooling line snaking through each shelf and from shelf to shelf. I've never seen anything like this before. From my perspective, it looks like I'm screwed - is there any other way to look at this?

Luckily I didn't order a new temperature controller.

thanks - Mark

I had a mini freezer like that. I would have made a keezer with it but I had the same damn problem.

Any chance of carefully bending the shelves towards the back of the freezer, for the ones you don't need? It is a risk, but if the freezer is old and unused, it might be worth it.

I think bending is your only option. And do it carefully. Or just use it to cellar beer and wine!

I have a similar freezer, its old and came with my house. It has 3 metal shelves with coolant lines running through them. I carefully bent the middle shelf down and against the back wall of the freezer. Carboys fit perfectly on the bottom shelf. Not pretty, but it works.

Yeah, I have one of these too. I ended up just going with a cheap chest freezer to convert instead. Never thought about converting it to cellar beer and wine--that's a good idea!

Sagan said:

Any chance of carefully bending the shelves towards the back of the freezer, for the ones you don't need? It is a risk, but if the freezer is old and unused, it might be worth it.

Click to expand...

I think this is the winner!

I'll try this - I don't have much to lose. If it breaks, I'll wind up paying my trash company $60 and be looking for a used fridge. No big deal

Thanks! - Mark

I have one now that I am using for both lageriing and cellaring. I can fit kegs diagonally on the shelves and, of course, with bottled beer there is no problem fitting six packs on them. I have not needed it as a fermentation chamber, but once upon a time i did the shelf bending thing. You would be surprised to know that it's harder to kink and screw up the coolant lines than you might think. Even if a line is more than 50% collapsed, it doesn't seem to interfere even slightly. IOW, you can bend without fear so long as you don't go so far as to crack the tubing somewhere. The refrigerant only needs a very tiny passage to make it through the evaporator coils OK. That's comforting to know before you start this modification. I would not hesitate to do it again. Unfortunately, if you do break a line or cause a leak, it won't be cost effective to have it repaired.

i was just about to make a new thred about this, but i started looking at the freezer in a different way. how about this:

instead of bending the shelves down, why not this, keep the shelves the way they are and put a slight tilt to the freezerr so that it tilts just slightly to the back. then lay the kegs on thier side, take the liquid tube and bend that(instead of risking bending a nonreplaceable freezer coil) inside the keg so that it points to the side of the keg and not the bottom. put your gas tube on the up side. then build a keezer collar for the freezer and install the tap handles in the door.

i have picss of mine and i'm going to take pics(for real this time lol) and show step by step how i'm going to do this. the one that i have has enough room for 15 kegs. thats not a bad selection if you ask me. i'll do another thread so i don't hijack, but i wanted to show a different approach to this type of upright freezer problem.

here's the link to my build
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/upright-freeze-has-coils-shelves-my-keezer-build-136786/

I hope you read this in time, when you bend the coolant lines MAKE SURE the freezer has warmed up. Considering that its been off for a long time I doubt you will cool it down just to bend the shelves. But still, make sure they are warmed up, I know a few people that tried to bend their little mini fridge freezers and broke them because they did it when the fridge was ON. Anyway, should work like a charm.

--Read a post, and thought it was the completed freezer. My mistake.

Bobby - looks good - thats exactly what I'll shoot for. Knowing that it's been done before makes it a lot easier.

Bobby_M said:

Click to expand...

justbrewit said:

i was just about to make a new thred about this, but i started looking at the freezer in a different way. how about this:

instead of bending the shelves down, why not this, keep the shelves the way they are and put a slight tilt to the freezerr so that it tilts just slightly to the back. then lay the kegs on thier side,

Click to expand...

justbrewit - I thought of doing this but I didn't want to start cutting up the tubes in my kegs or worry about their orientation

Yup, if you're careful you can bend these shelves back and out of the way. We just did this with a large upright freezer. Took a while and you have to be careful (and like was said, don't try it on cold coils) but completely doable.

sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but this one sparked my interest, as I too just acquired an old freezer with the "coolant shelves"

At first - i thought i'd try and make a collar of some sort to get the fermenters up in front of the shelves, but that might be a little costly, and i'm not too handy.

Based on the suggestion here of bending them back (while the freezer is warm, of course), I just took a look, and those lines don't seem to *want* to give.

To those experienced with doing the conversion - did you have to apply some decent force to them to get them to bend? Did you use any sort of tool to assist in the bending?

Thanks!

Maybe you could tip the freezer on its side? The compressor motor might have a tip sensor to prevent operation when tipped but you could try unbolting the compressor and try to bend that so it is upright.

isn't there something in place with these upright freezers that can actually become damaged if you run them in any position other than upright?

Compressors must remain vertical. If they are operated in any other attitude, they will fail (If there isn't a tip sensor that is, in which case they just won't start)

Now, you could remove the compressor and re-mount it. Lay the freezer down and rotate the compressor back to vertical... I've never thought to try it.

That would be interesting... If it's either wide or deep enough to put carboys/cornys in.

SweetSounds said:

Compressors must remain vertical. If they are operated in any other attitude, they will fail (If there isn't a tip sensor that is, in which case they just won't start)

Now, you could remove the compressor and re-mount it. Lay the freezer down and rotate the compressor back to vertical... I've never thought to try it.

That would be interesting... If it's either wide or deep enough to put carboys/cornys in.

Click to expand...

This will cause the condenser of the fridge on the backside to apply its heat upwards against the fridge as well the compressor will be in a pocket of hot air. Unless you add muffin fans to both the compressor as well the condenser coils I bet the cooling efficency will be lowered vs the fridge mounted upright as intended.

BrewBeemer said:

This will cause the condenser of the fridge on the backside to apply its heat upwards against the fridge as well the compressor will be in a pocket of hot air. Unless you add muffin fans to both the compressor as well the condenser coils I bet the cooling efficency will be lowered vs the fridge mounted upright as intended.

Click to expand...

You're right! But it would be fun to try no?

If it's free, old, still works vs tossing it away go for it. I have a 12 plus years old Sears a big side by side sitting in a rental house backyard for 5 years doors off under tarps. Renters were heavy smokers so it's trash. I was about to trash it but saw that cutting the divider out but using the original doors and center frame section to seal the doors will work. I'll murder it and use roofing flashing sealer that white goop to seal the cut open foam sections. An older R12 fridge that gets down to freezing in the warm section. There is hope still. Later a keezer for the family room with a coffin the old keezer passed away.

Does anyone know if this freezer has removeable shelves? BEST Buy does not have them in stock to check.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...t.+Upright+Freezer&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&tbs=isch:1

I used SIPs to extend the box and just moved the door to the front of the extension. I realize that SIPs are not easy to come by but you could make something similar with OSB and foam insulation. I keep it at 34F and Ive added another box to the right so I can control fermentation temps for lagers to saisons. It is ugly but it works.

I don't know how to insert a picture so here is a link to it on my gallery.

https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=25732&ppuser=40569

that box is awesome! .. so - question: what's an SIP and an OSB?

never mind - i see it's a sheet of cheap wood.

OSB is cheap wood, also know as oriented strand board.

Sips are structural Insulated panels.

Just bending the shelves up won't broke the freezer. If you ever want to sell it you can return it to the original condition.

God I love this site! I've been a member all of two days and I already found a use for the freezer that I've had sitting in my garage unsed for a year and a half. It's the same freezer in the picture from the previous post, except I was able to bend up just the middle rack and fit a carboy and a primary fermenting bucket side by side leaving me the top shelf and door shelves for my bottles to carbonate. 20 mins worth of work. Well worth the $25 donation to the site!

Fish826 said:

God I love this site! I've been a member all of two days and I already found a use for the freezer that I've had sitting in my garage unsed for a year and a half. It's the same freezer in the picture from the previous post, except I was able to bend up just the middle rack and fit a carboy and a primary fermenting bucket side by side leaving me the top shelf and door shelves for my bottles to carbonate. 20 mins worth of work. Well worth the $25 donation to the site!

Click to expand...

I think yours may be a little bigger then mine. I didn't have room for the carboy with airlock unless I bent both shelves.

dime0000 said:

sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but this one sparked my interest, as I too just acquired an old freezer with the "coolant shelves"

At first - i thought i'd try and make a collar of some sort to get the fermenters up in front of the shelves, but that might be a little costly, and i'm not too handy.

Based on the suggestion here of bending them back (while the freezer is warm, of course), I just took a look, and those lines don't seem to *want* to give.

To those experienced with doing the conversion - did you have to apply some decent force to them to get them to bend? Did you use any sort of tool to assist in the bending?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Someone please answer the man. I'm in the same spot.

YYMV but I just bent them with "careful force". Freezer ended up dying about 2 years later so I went with a chest style freezer for round 2. I had to snip the wire ties that attached the coolant coils to my shelves and remove the shelves. It was a bit stressful, but I eventually got it done and got a couple of years out of a $25 craigslist purchase. Good luck!