Electric wiring for fans in a keezer

So I'm finally tired of the drastic temp difference between the bottom and top of my keezer. Time to do something about it!

I started thinking that pushing the warmer air down would be easier than pushing the cold (heavier) air up, plus fans mounted on the lid will be out of the way...

So I'm figuring on using two cheap computer case fans... I know others have used these types of fans for stir plates and other stuff, but what escapes me is how to power them. I'm almost sure I can't just splice a power cord and run house current to the fans, right? I'd have to use a resistor of some kind to reduce the watts/amps/volts? I read where the guy making the stir plate used an old 6v cell phone charger...

Anyone with experience in doing this? ..or has a clue about what I need to do with the electric? The specifications on the computer fans don't reveal the exact operating volts/amps/whatever, so I'm not even sure what my goal is. I'm sure it's a standard of some sort.

Also; anyone have a thought on whether I'd want to wire my fans in after my temp controller, so they only run when the compressor kicks on in my keezer? That would cut down on their effectiveness, but it seems dumb to let 'em run 24hrs a day, too. But maybe that's necessary to accomplish what I want...

The best thing to use is an old power cord with a transformer on it like a cell phone or something. You need to match the voltage on the fan to the voltage on the transformer ( 12v DC ) for example. The ones I have used cost 10$ at radio shack and would run on anything from 6v to12v DC. I dont think it would be bad to run 24-7. These fans draw very low current. Good luck

I use fans in my kegorater and fermentation chest freezer. All I do is splice an old cell phone charger (or buy one from goodwill) and wire it to a computer fan. Runs 24 hours a day. A 6 volt charger will just make the fan run slower than a 12 volt.

Look around, you can easily find 120 volt AC muffin fans.

I bought a small fan at wal-mart for $10. Plugs directly into the wall and I keep it running 24/7.

Small computer fans are cool, but not necessarily the cheapest option.

When I have my keezer up and running I simply plan on splicing an old DC charger such as from a cell phone to a computer fan, for the moment I am using a Johnson controller, which means there is an outlet that the freezer plugs into that is simply switched off and on, so I simply plan on putting something such as a power strip or other outlet splitter on the johnson and plug the cell phone charger into the strip along with the kezzer, then when the keezer is running so is the fan.

I would mount a 120mm high flow computer fan like a 700 mA fan on the bottom of the keezer protected inside a small expanded metal box with short legs to keep it off the bottom for cold inlet air to enter the inlet side. Blow upwards the cold air as it will hit the top inside of the keezer and fall back down pulling the warmer air inside plus mixing the two. I would rather blow cold up where you need it with power than hot down. JMO unless a thermodynamics member is on this forum and know more? I'm open for any better ideas that's why we are all here. You just want an even temp thru out the keezer. Remember you want the cold up as the tap tower or tap tower loop which I like better with the feed lines fed in one leg and a computer fan pulling cold air at the other leg mounted against the leg at the towers loop leg cooling the lines and tap shanks, keep them long as you can for more cooling surface area, the shanks that is. This is where the 4" PVC affords more space. We did this on a friends tap tower with a loop of 4" PVC the idea from another post on this forum. First we started with 2 1/2" that was laying around, mistake too tight to work with.
I used my commercial picture frame miter saw made for 45 degree cuts only for perfect joints, once glued and set that PVC glue joint was one. We tested 4" by 2' legs and two people could not break this joint apart on a tug a war. Thank you fellow HBT member who ever you are for posting that 4"' PVC tower loop with a the back door. I used my conduit bending level for perfect cuts at both ends on the top horizontal tubing. That with lines, insulation and a fan resulted in foam free first draw drafts. The taps sweat from the humidity being cold. This would also work with the collar keezer people if the fan directed the cold air at the extended or extra long shanks
sticking inside the collar. Added ideas here?

sweet! I'm so glad I posted - some excellent ideas! Thanks, guys!!

Never heard of muffin fans before, but it looks promising!

...and just using a cheapie $10 fan from WalMart... the only downside I can see is taking up space, but it's certainly an excellent idea!! My only question: did you drill a hole in your collar large enough to slip the plug through, do you run the cord between the insulation, or did you splice the power cord? I think I'd have to go w/ option #3 but that makes it a semi-permanent install... hmmm.

Yup, I've got a Johnson controller, so it will be easy to just plug it in after the controller, but I think I'm convinced that 24/7 running is my best option. Uses more electricity, but what the hell - I've already spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on brewing - what's $2/month more?

I've got side taps, no tower (thankfully). You can check out my keezer following the link in my sig. I ordered 4" shanks just because I wasn't sure what depth I'd need. Turns out they're way longer than necessary, but they're not in the way and the extra cooling I think is an added, unexpected and unplanned benefit!

i use 80mm fans. I also pull air up and exaust out the top through a box and pvc pipe. i also use a cellphone wallwart that puts the 12v fan down to 5volts so it turns slower. dont have to be a huge cfm.

I'm using a computer case fan connected to an old Motorola Razr phone charger. Works beautifully and took all of five minutes to wire up.

Or you buy one of these, and use the pc fans that you already have. I have a couple of these between my entertainment center and my brewery. They are cheap and work fantastic. It is also extremely handy that they have PC molex connector, just plug and go.

AC to DC Adapter - 110V AC to 12V / 5V DC Converter w/ Standard 4 Pin (2000mA Max) - FrozenCPU.com

I recently mounted a 120 mm muffin fan to the lid of my converted chest freezer. I simply ran the power wire through a small hole drilled in the back of the collar. The fan and wiring are out of the way and inconspicuous. I mounted the fan using toggle bolts and 3/4" nylon spacers. The spacers allow for air flow behind the fan. The fan blows downward and keeps the air mixed well.

Initially, I had the fan wired to turn on and off with the compressor. Later I tried running the fan continuously which works much better. The taps and lines stay much colder which was a problem previously. I would keep dialing down the controller to get a colder pour. Beer in the bottoms of the kegs would freeze before the poured beer was cold enough. It was because the lines, shank and tap were much warmer than the beer in the kegs. The addition of the fan eliminated these problems completely.

Is there any chance some of you that have added fans to your keezer could post some pics? I'm interested in seeing the different placements and I'm having trouble visualizing the ones that said they use a box and pvc especially. Thanks.

Heres mine mounted with 3 fans from an old Dell server.

The inside of my keezer is still a mess--I need to get a few more ball lock disconnects to get my beer lines up and running, then I'll tie down the lines to the inside of the collar and clean everything up. In the mean time, I just screwed three PC fans onto a piece of scrap wood, then wired them all up to a DC converter I bought from RS. Here is a pic of the setup, although I typically run the board vertically in the corner of the freezer, so the air runs sideways at three different levels.

As you can see, some of the fans have blue LED lights, which gives the inside of the keezer a cool effect.

The electrical tape on the wood is mostly to hold the wiring in place. Like I said, this is just a temporary solution...

Here ya go:







This configuration is working very well for me.

Catt22, that's a great setup. I actually have some of those white spacers leftover from my stirplate build. I think I'll mount mine up that way too!

Munsoned said:

Catt22, that's a great setup. I actually have some of those white spacers leftover from my stirplate build. I think I'll mount mine up that way too!

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I used toggle bolts to mount the fan. I bought 1/8" x 4" toggles. The spacers are 3/4". I cut about 1/2" off the toggle bolt length. This allowed the toggle wings to be folded back for insertion plus a little more for the thickness of the inside freezer panel. You may find that you can't tighten the toggles completely if the bolt is too long and hits the freezer top before you get the bolts snugged all the way. This is one that you can't do by trial and error as the toggle butterfly thingy will be inaccessible if you unscrew the bolt after insertion. You would need to buy more toggles in order to try it again. Measure and cut the 4" bolts to the length you need for your particular freezer. Hope this will make the job easier for you.

FWIW, the muffin fan circulation really brings everything up to a uniform temperature and the condensation appears to be less. I don't know why that would be and maybe it's only an illusion. Can't tell yet as I've only recently installed the fan.

After you install the fan, drop the temp slowly and allow at least 24 hours for everything to stabilize before making adjustments. Check the temperature of a freshly poured beer instead of relying on the controller setting alone. Adjust to your personal preference. This simple mod made a dramatic difference. I only regret I waited so long to do it.

Thanks for the tips.

I wound up getting a little "personal fan" for $7 at Target and just for kicks temporarily mounted it on my collar in a very convenient and out-of-the-way, but non-optimal location. It's mounted on the back next to my gas diffuser, blowing across the short dimension of my keezer (toward the front). I expected to have to move it, but gave it a shot anyway.

It does the trick wonderfully! I've moved a couple thermometers all around my keezer - at the bottom, at the top, in the corners, everywhere. I'm withing 1 degree F no matter where I put the thermometer. (and this is with 6 kegs all getting in the way of airflow!)

TAKE HOME MESSAGE: don't kill yourself with what you think will be optimum placement! Just get the air moving in there and the job is done!

I think I'm going to go with a small electric fan to plug into my johnson control unit. Not sure I want to try to wire a cpu fan up.

KCBigDog said:

I think I'm going to go with a small electric fan to plug into my johnson control unit. Not sure I want to try to wire a cpu fan up.

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All it takes is a little wall-wart 12vdc power supply, like from an old cordless phone or something like that ... hook up the + to the red wire and the - to the black wire and you're all set! And it will use less energy.

2puttbird said:

All it takes is a little wall-wart 12vdc power supply, like from an old cordless phone or something like that ... hook up the + to the red wire and the - to the black wire and you're all set! And it will use less energy.

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Forget walmart... Talk to any IT guy and he'll het you a fan from a fried computer, then go to goodwill and get. A DV charger for less than $1.50.

Doing this and puttin a fan in my keezer was one of the best choices I've made since getting kegs.

KCBigDog said:

I think I'm going to go with a small electric fan to plug into my johnson control unit. Not sure I want to try to wire a cpu fan up.

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just buy an AC fan instead of a DC fan. then you don't need a wall wart. run it off a secondary controller output or in parallel with your compressor.

this one is more than sufficient. they have smaller ones on ebay as well.
http://cgi.ebay.com/110V-115V-120-V...624?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4cf421c248

BA_from_GA said:

Forget walmart... Talk to any IT guy and he'll het you a fan from a fried computer, then go to goodwill and get. A DV charger for less than $1.50.

Doing this and puttin a fan in my keezer was one of the best choices I've made since getting kegs.

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For the record, I said wall-wart, not Walmart ... but +1 on your suggestion if those options are available, because I spent about $7 on my fan, I think (and $0 on the wall-wart).

BA_from_GA said:

Forget walmart... Talk to any IT guy and he'll het you a fan from a fried computer, then go to goodwill and get. A DV charger for less than $1.50.

Doing this and puttin a fan in my keezer was one of the best choices I've made since getting kegs.

Click to expand...

Any "how to for dummies" on this out there? Pictures?

Here's a couple of pics on how I mounted the fan. This is a 110v AC 180mm muffin fan. I run it continuously. The fan blows downward. I feel that this mod was a major improvement and well worth the effort:

What did you use for the power cord? I've procured an old cpu cooling fan, just need to power it. My only option is to plug it into a wall outlet.

KCBigDog said:

What did you use for the power cord? I've procured an old cpu cooling fan, just need to power it. My only option is to plug it into a wall outlet.

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That's just ordinary 18-2 ga. lamp cord. This is a 110v AC fan, so it can be plugged into a wall outlet directly. When using a DC fan, you would need a wall wart type DC transformer. Most any 12v DC wall wort will work as these fans don't draw much amperage at all.

KCBigDog said:

Any "how to for dummies" on this out there? Pictures?

Click to expand...

I'm planning to do something like Quaffer did in his keezer: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/converting-frigidaire-7-2-cu-ft-chest-freezer-162225/index13.html#post2665796 except I will try a 45° elbow at the top to direct the air onto the tubing and shanks, and to get a good circulation going (and I'll probably use a different color of duct tape ).

Here is my fan...

lol, duct tape and chicken wire

The fan is an antec 3 120mm speed fan I had laying around. I wired it by using an old Linksys router power cord which matched to the fan well.

It took me maybe one hour to make, notice the holes at the bottom to pull the cold air in and up.

That's pretty damn sweet! I would pay for one of those instead of having to make it!

Catt22 said:

Here's a couple of pics on how I mounted the fan. This is a 110v AC 180mm muffin fan. I run it continuously. The fan blows downward. I feel that this mod was a major improvement and well worth the effort:
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that's brilliant. i've been trying to figure out where to mount my fan once it gets here. are there nuts on the back side of the plastic lining that it screws into?

mcubed45 said:

that's brilliant. i've been trying to figure out where to mount my fan once it gets here. are there nuts on the back side of the plastic lining that it screws into?

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No, I used 1/8" toggle bolts about 4" long. Had to cut shorten them to about 3" to get enough clearance behind the lid liner. The plastic liner is too flimsy to screw into directly. You could probably use some plastic inserts if you were careful. You can buy the nylon spacers at most any hardware store. They are just generic nylon spacers and they are cheap. If you use toggles, be sure to cut them to the right length and buy a couple of extra ones in case you lose the butterfly part up in the lid, which is easy to do if you are not used to working with toggle bolts.

I wanted the fan to be out of my way and not taking up any floor space. I don't think it matters much where you direct the air flow so long as you keep the air circulating.