Are old freezers worth using?

My mom has a really old(almost 30 yrs old) yet really large chest freezer in her basement. It just stopped wotking 6 years ago and has been just sitting there since. Enter my homebrewing. Like I mentioned it is quite old and I am not sure what is wrong with it, is it worth trying to fix up? Or will it probably be cheaper just to get a new one. I was however not sure either what to do with it. Keezer(would probably hold 10-12 kegs) or ferm chamber, or just use it for lagering and eising. any help or advise would be great.

IMO it is worth using if you can get it working...not worth putting any money into it, at least not much...free / cheap working fridges and freezers are plentiful around here on C'list.

Ill plug it in and see if the compressor works. if it leaked can it be refilled cheaply? assuming i find the leak and fix it.

I'd say to get it running, (assuming it doesn't right now) would cost as much as a newer model used off Craigslist or garage sale.

Maybe you could build a (big) collar on it, and put an a/c unit on the collar, if you can find one cheap. Or a smaller collar and cut the a/c through it.

Test the compressor with an ohm meter (google it); just plugging it in is not a good test to see if the compressor works, because, if the overload or relay is out, the compressor will not work. With that being said, if you have a good compressor, the overload and relay are easy fixes and really cheap, fifteen to twenty bucks will probably get it done. Definitely worth a shot! Good luck.

I would say: No, it isn't worth it - even if it's running. You would be amazed how much juice old chiller suck, verses anything that came with an E-Star emblem. A 30 year old beast could cost you as much as $20-30/month to run. One year of that money could buy a brand new E-Star rated unit...

Cheers!

20 or 30 bucks??? Not sure that's accurate.

FoundersBrew said:

20 or 30 bucks??? Not sure that's accurate.

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It's accurate.

30 years ago when my boys were getting to that age that they ate everything in sight, the SO and I sprung for a big deep freezer (20 cf) and did a lot of shopping to fill it at the local wholesale club (a BJs, fwiw). At the time the local electric company rate was 11 cents per kw. The bottom of the monthly bill showed kw usage for the prior 13 months, and there was no doubt that that freezer was adding around $25 each and every month.

The mitigating factor was it was still saving us at least a couple of hundred bucks each month from bulk meat and frozen veggie purchases, but as soon as the youngsters went off to college that beast was immediately decommissioned, and eventually given away...

Cheers!

I ran the #'s just for fun. I always heard the old fridges/freezers were energy hogs, but never heard of anyone's actual bill.

At $.11/KWH, if it cost $25/month, that'd be 227 KWH that the freezer was using per month.

30 days X 24hr/day = 720 hours. Assuming the compressor was on 1/3 of the time, that's 240 hours/month.

227KWH/240 hours = .954KW.

954W/120V =~8 amps, which I would think reasonable for an older compressor.



Realize though that you'll use significantly less energy than the above if it's being used as a ferm chamber at 70°F and not a freezer at 0°F. Especially if it's kept in a conditioned space (not outside or your hot garage).

Ha ha day trippr knows the unit i speak of. did you get yours from montgomery ward? thanks for all the help everyone still not sure if im gonna use it. at least i am more aware of what im up against.

I got an old one for free through Craigslist. It was in BAD shape cosmetically, but it ran.
I cleaned it up, fiberglass repaired the lid that rusted through, and repainted it.
It ran for about a year, then died. Bought a new one at Lowe's, as was very happy with free setup and removal of the old unit. I didn't want to deal the basement steps again.

My FIL does HVAC, has stated many a time that even though he has all the tools and access to all the refrigerants, it's a waste of time trying to find a leak and also fixing it.

The chest freezer I used for my keezer is older than I am (36). My parents bought the freezer a couple years before I was born. It is still running strong...knock on wood. Looking for another big chest freezer for fermentation control now.

I would say give it a shot! Aside from the compressor, they are usually pretty easy to fix. I picked up a 1974 JC Penney refrigerator for $15 on Craigslist last week for a kegerator project. It 'didn't work'. Why? Dirty coils... Took about 5 minutes of cleaning.

I went with a new chest freezer just because I didn't want to spend all the time building the collar, etc, etc only to have a used compressor konk out on me a couple months later. Hopefully, this thing will run strong (and effciently) for me for many years to come.

blackbear219 said:

I went with a new chest freezer just because I didn't want to spend all the time building the collar, etc, etc only to have a used compressor konk out on me a couple months later. Hopefully, this thing will run strong (and effciently) for me for many years to come.

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With the garbage being produced today, don't be surprised if a new one goes out the first year. In my opinion, it's better to take a chance on fifty bucks, rather than a few hundred; but, to each his own.