Frigidaire upright freezer keezer-able?

I've been searching, but I can't find anyone who has coverted an upright frigidaire freezer to a keezer/kegerator.

Someone is selling one on my local CL for a good price. I'm planning on taking a look tomorrow, but maybe someone here can save me some time if they know these freezers won't work.

This is very close to the picture and model number provided:
Frigidaire 8.7 cu. ft. Upright Freezer - Model FFU09K0F at Sears.com

My concern is that the shelves might have coolant lines running through or under them.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

I have the 20 cubic foot one works fine I haven't drilled it out for taps because I want to convert the smaller chest freezer that I have. That and the wife likes having a big fridge in the basement.

Most newer freezers have glass or metal shelves without cooling lines. An upright freezer/refrigerator makes an excellent kegerator.

I personally would go the used route because if you really want to maximize space and fit the most kegs, you'll be pulling off the door shelving. I used an old refrigerator for my kegerator, it holds 4 kegs and the CO2 tank with the door stuff ripped off. I built a shelf on the bottom so the kegs sit above the hump in the back, and there is just enough room to slide 6 packs underneath

Ok so I bit the bullet and bought it. Of course, since I am an idiot, I didn't inspect it close enough, and to my horror the ENTIRE INTERIOR HAS COOLANT LINES RUNNING THROUGH IT!!!









Is this salvageable? Can I safely bend these lines?

Ugh this sucks.

I wouldn't risk bending the lines, esp on a new freezer. It would suck to have $360 of useless metal.

Can you return it?

It's doable. You just have to be cautious not to kink or break the coolant lines. Here's where Bobby_M bent the lines in his upright freezer. I'm doing the same thing, but my freezer's a bit older than yours.

McKBrew said:

I wouldn't risk bending the lines, esp on a new freezer. It would suck to have $360 of useless metal.

Can you return it?

Click to expand...

This was from craigslist for $100, so returning isn't an option unfortunately.

Well put it back on craigslist...

Find a whole bunch of 2.5 gallon cornys?

I think you will have overlap if you try bending them, and not quite sure how you could bend them without having a major cold spot... If you can find something doable for the same price, get it and post this, otherwise get out the tape measure, a beer, and your patience for bending- good luck.

To anyone who knows about coolant lines-
Would heating the lines with a small torch help with the bending, or would it just blow up?

Right now I'm weighing the pros and cons of attempting to bend, or putting it back on CL.

Part of me wants to take this on just to see if it's possible, as a reference for others. I love everything else about the freezer, so I'd really like to make this work.

Double check your measurements, make sure it will hold what you want it to hold; price out temp controller. Look for a better alternative for your total with controller or less, see if it's worth it...

The more I think about this, the more I think it will work. Honestly, the time and effort it would take for me to sell the freezer, buy and transport another, is worth $100 to me.

However, what is the worst case scenario? What happens if I do accidentally break a coolant line? Are there health risks? Is there pressurized liquid in there that will spray all over the place?

I need to work out the geometry to know exactly how much space I will have, but right now I think the best thing to do is leave the bottom shelf as it is, and push the top two shelves up, securing them somehow to the top of the freezer.

Due to the direction of the bends, the top shelf would be bent greater than 90 degrees (but not by much), while the middle shelf would be bending under 90 degrees. This would make the top shelf the most dangerous I imagine, while the middle shelf should be easier.

I would lose some space in the top rear, but I could make up for it by removing the door shelves and building a platform for the bottom.

Do it! Health-smealth... I imagine someone would be willing to buy/take it for scrap if you kill it. I would think having the heavy kegs on the bottom would be better then on the lower shelf (not sure what you have in mind when you say platform), but I'm not the one doing the bending. It looks like there is one pivot point on the corner, so you can bend them along the one side or the back side... I'd be weary of the 90, if it doesn't break, pinching so it doesn't circulate right... Worth a try it sounds like. Measuring and debating time...

Good luck!

Oh, and worst case, have the room to use it as a fermentation chamber?

Instead of risking breaking the lines, you could build a huge box, attach the freezer, add a temp controller and throw in some blowers to circulate your air and use it as a nice cold storage, lagerator, fermentation chamber... etc.

Thanks to everyone for all of the ideas and suggestions, I really appreciate it.

My latest idea is to take the top shelf and bend it down and back, and the middle shelf left and up.



If you can see, I would be bending under 90 degrees in both cases, and it would give me a lot more room.

I saw Bobby_M's upright freezer, and it looks like he bent his coils quite a bit than I would need to, so that's encouraging.

Does anyone know what I could use to secure the shelves in place to the walls if I am successful?

Honestly instead of trying to attach shelves to the walls, I'd consider just building a free standing shelf inside. Not sure how high this thing is inside, but you could build a shelf on the bottom big enough to stand bottles and put the kegs on top of it. (I did that with my kegerator).

McKBrew said:

Honestly instead of trying to attach shelves to the walls, I'd consider just building a free standing shelf inside. Not sure how high this thing is inside, but you could build a shelf on the bottom big enough to stand bottles and put the kegs on top of it. (I did that with my kegerator).

Click to expand...

Maybe I wasn't being descriptive enough. Yes, I do plan on building a shelf for kegs/bottles at the bottom, but I was asking how to secure the shelves after I have bent them to the sides.

xumbi said:

Maybe I wasn't being descriptive enough. Yes, I do plan on building a shelf for kegs/bottles at the bottom, but I was asking how to secure the shelves after I have bent them to the sides.

Click to expand...

Aha. I'd recommend a product called liquid nails. I used this stuff to glue a locking hasp to the side of my kegerator. It doesn't budge.

I think you might have good luck with the bending because mine is at least 40 years old so if that tubing can handle it, yours should too. I don't know why I took all the wires off of my tubes, it probably wasn't necessary.

Bending the shelves as you described - top one down and middle up and left - should present no problems. The trick with bending cooling lines, especially the aluminum ones (which are somewhat less durable to repeated bendings) is to spread the bend or twist (which is mostly what will be going on) over as much lenth as possible. In your case, you won't be bending so much as unbending, and twisting one of the two lines for each moved shelf. You could probably bend the bottom shelf up and left as well, but it would sit against the middle shelf in doing so.. IMO you should bend the middle and bottom shelves and use the top one for storing other stuff like bottles and yeast/hops/whatever. The bottom of the machine will then be taking the abuse of jostling kegs around and whatnot, rather than the shelf or some sort of platform, or the shelf sandwiched between a platform and the keg.

tentacles said:

Bending the shelves as you described - top one down and middle up and left - should present no problems. The trick with bending cooling lines, especially the aluminum ones (which are somewhat less durable to repeated bendings) is to spread the bend or twist (which is mostly what will be going on) over as much lenth as possible. In your case, you won't be bending so much as unbending, and twisting one of the two lines for each moved shelf. You could probably bend the bottom shelf up and left as well, but it would sit against the middle shelf in doing so.. IMO you should bend the middle and bottom shelves and use the top one for storing other stuff like bottles and yeast/hops/whatever. The bottom of the machine will then be taking the abuse of jostling kegs around and whatnot, rather than the shelf or some sort of platform, or the shelf sandwiched between a platform and the keg.

Click to expand...

I have considered bending the bottom and middle shelves. I think if I did, the bottom shelf would result in an increased bend, whereas the others would be unbending. I will double check, since I would actually prefer this method.

By the way, I realized I had my angles wrong in my previous posts. The goal is to bend from 90 to 180 degrees, not from 90 to 0 degrees.

Thanks again for the feedback, I will post something in the DIY section after xmas when I start the conversion.

Edit: I was right, as can be seen in this pic:



If I bent the bottom shelf up in either direction, it would have to be a less than 90 degree bend, which I would like to avoid. I'm fine with just building a platform for the kegs to take the strain off the shelf, and giving up the convenience of an extra shelf at the top.

xumbi said:

If I bent the bottom shelf up in either direction, it would have to be a less than 90 degree bend, which I would like to avoid.

Click to expand...

I imagine you meant to say "more then"... for support, I would put corner posts (maybe a middle) one underneath the bottom shelf, and a board of some sort on top to help distribute the weight. Hope it all works out xumbi!

After much deliberation, I put the freezer back on craigslist, and surprisingly sold it for the same price within a day.

It turned out that the angles wouldn't work. The top shelf couldn't clear the middle shelf, and the middle shelf couldn't be moved until the top shelf came down... I didn't even try to bend it, I worked it all out with a tape measure. So the question is yet to be answered, whether or not this type of freezer coil can be bent safely.

My new plan is to pick up the 5.3 cu ft holiday chest freezer from lowes and convert that. Wish me luck!

Least you broke even, and since the money was spent before, it makes it easier to spend again!

It worked for me. No issues at all with the bend. I am in CA and if it were to break I would call the electric company and they pickup energy wasting appliances and give you $50.00. I paid $40.00 for this one used and could have made a profit.

Cheers.

Whats inside:
Irish Red Ale
Air

In the conical
Toungue Splitter IPA

In the mail
Carabou Slobber.

Would it work to run it through a temp. control? Granted the Shelves are an issue, though it looks like they'll disconnect from back. Can you unhook and then nudge them out of the way? Probably not well enough to be convenient. I ask, because I have a vertical freezer as well.