GE 7.0 Coffin Keezer Build

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cgolden101

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After spending months searching through keezer builds in this forum I have finally decided to take the plunge and try to build one. Hopefully this thread will give future keezer builders inspiration or at least give you ideas on what not to do. Thank you to everyone on this site who has ever taken the time to document their build as I know I wouldn’t have been able to do this otherwise.

For this build I have turned to my grandfather who has spent his entire career as a machinist building airplanes and making furniture pieces on the side. He knows a little something about everything and has a shop with any tool you could ever want. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend time with my grandfather and learn a little in the process.

I have chosen the GE 7.0 cu. ft freezer for this project because it seems to be one of the more well documented freezers on this site. I will be able to get 4 corny kegs in the floor (tightly) with a 5 lb CO2 Tank on the hump without the need for a collar. We have been working on this for about 3 weeks now so I will post pictures of our progress so far and when everything is finished I will try to compile a parts list with pricing info.
 
We started by building the base out of 2x4s. The base is larger than the freezer by the width of a 2x4 all the way around in order to let air flow around the freezer.

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The design of the base was taken from another build in this forum where the side boards are raised up from the cross boards. This was done so that casters can be mounted while minimizing the height the keezer is lifted off of the ground. The end result will look like the keezer is barely off the ground and the casters will not be visible.

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In order to mount the side panels to the keezer we built a frame that will screw into the base and the panels will be attached to the frame from the rear. This could really be done in any number of ways but my grandfather wanted to teach me to make box joints. The joints are very strong but very difficult to make. You have to do a lot of fine tuning to your jig to get the spacing just right.

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This is what the side frames look like dry fitted.

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Finished frame dry fitted. It is a lot easier to mount these frames to the panels first and then screw into the base

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A few notes: If I had to do it over again I would probably do something else for the base. 2x4s were an easy solution but as with any dimensional lumber like this it is hard to get everything straight. We spent a lot of time making adjustments so that everything would sit even without any rocking.
 
We found a great deal on walnut from a local saw mill for $2.80 a board foot. The reason for the low price is that there is a lot of sapwood (lighter color wood) in these pieces. If you were making a high end kitchen you would probably avoid these boards but I happen to think it looks interesting and it beats the heck the $5-8 a board foot that you would normally pay for walnut. The boards were rough cut lumber so we had to straighten and plane all of them down to 3/4" boards. It is a lot of work when compared to just buying finished lumber but what is the fun in that?

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We made raised panels for the front and sides of the keezer so the first thing we had to do was glue the boards together for the panels using biscuits and wood glue.

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We then made the stiles and rails for outside frame of the panels and used the router table to cut out the slots for the panels.

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Finished frame for the panels.

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We then routed the panels and set everything up to glue and assemble. This is a two person job.

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Clamps!

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Finished front panel.

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Finished side panels.

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I believe I have fixed the picture issues. I will post more tonight on attaching the panels to the keezer and starting on the coffin top.
 
Excellent choice on the wood, I agree that the contrasting sap wood gives it more character. Wait till you coat it in poly, it will really pop then. Looks like an awesome build so far.
 
Wow, this looks awesome, nice work so far! I look forward to seeing the finished product.
 
I'm still trying to get caught up on the progress we made so far. This post should bring the build up through last weekend and I will have more from the work we do today and tomorrow.


This is what I was referring to in my last post when I said it is much easier to attach the frames to the panels and then assemble the frames together with the panels already attached.

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Once we attached all the panels together we set it on the base. The one concern that I had been having since the start of this project was that there was still nothing holding the freezer in place. You could pretty easily slide the freezer forward and I didn't want to be moving the unit around in the future only to have things shift around. I solved this problem in the next step by adding a collar around the top and by screwing in spacers on the base to hold everything in place.

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I will start out by saying that I wish I could go back and incorporate this internal collar into my original design. If we had planned for it then we could have made it look a lot better but 99% of the time the top will be closed anyways so it doesn't really matter. The idea for the collar came soon after we put the panels on the base because within 5 minutes I had already dropped something in the gap. I immediately realized that if I left a gap I would inevitably drop something important in there in the future and have to take the whole thing apart to get it. The added benefit of this collar is that it also completely eliminated the movement of the freezer coupled with the spacers at the bottom.

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Once we completed the panels we cut a piece of 1/2 inch hardwood plywood for the top and began to lay out a prototype for the coffin box. Up until this point everything was pretty straight forward but once you have to start thinking about things like "where will my lines run", "how do I circulate air", "how far apart should my taps be", etc. progress really slows down.

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One of the hard things to decide was tap spacing and height. Ultimately we chose to build a coffin 20" wide and have the taps 4" on center. I looked at several builds in the forums and ultimately decided to have the center of the shanks at 12" in height. It is very helpful to have all of these pieces in hand to get a good visual for coffin design.

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Below is the completed prototype for the coffin. One of the things that I was battling with in this build was coffin depth. I am doing a tile backsplash with under mount lighting and when you add in the faucets, 4"+ shanks, 4" cooling fans and 1/2 inch foam insulation you end up needing a pretty deep coffin box. My coffin is about 11.75" deep and the faucets will extend out to about 13" which is half the depth of my table top. I think it will look pretty good in the end but one thing I might would reconsider in a future build is smaller fans. My fans are probably overkill and it would save me an inch or so to get smaller ones.

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We laid out two 4" holes for the fans to circulate air and and a 2 1/4" hole to run the hoses and temperature probe. Initially we cut just in the plywood so we could make sure the outside trim fit perfectly before drilling into the freezer.
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For the trim we used 3 1/2" boards and mitered joints.
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Once the trim was on and we knew the lid would close we drilled through the freezer. This was pretty difficult to do even with a good hole saw. Our 18 volt battery drills couldn't handle it and we had to switch to a drill with a plug.
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I wanted to add some lighting under the taps and happened to come across some remote controlled LED light strips at Costco for about $30. These were easy to install and you can change the color of the lights with the remote which I thought would be a nice touch.
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I tapped into the 12 volt power supply running to lights in order to power the fans.
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Testing the lighting.
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Next I installed the temperature control to the side of the coffin and insulated the inside with 1/2" foam.
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We built a channel for all of the cables to run out of the coffin box and attached the coffin to the base from underneath.
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I created the back panel out of 1/2" plywood and insulated it with the same foam as the inside. I got some kind of weather stripping from Home Depot that cost about $5 and seems to create a pretty good seal.
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I used window latches in order to secure the access panel. In order to get enough downward pressure to create a good seal I had to grind down the part that attached to the coffin a little bit.
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We did a lot of work this past week and the keezer is almost done. To this point we hadn't attached the top part to the freezer itself. It was easier to do the staining and finishing with the lid off. In order to attach the lid we used countersunk pop rivets. In order to get through all of the material we had to use rivets with a 5/8" grip range which are surprisingly difficult to find. The big box retailers didn't have anything over a half inch so I ended up having to go to a local hardware store.
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Once the lid was secured I was able to finish installing the fans for air circulation.
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For the finish we used an American Walnut stain and 4 coats of polyurethane.
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I chose to do the staining before the tiling because I chose 4" travertine tiles for the top and backsplash and I didn't want to take any chances of getting stain on the tiles or grout. I think the tile turned out pretty good and I am going to be spending the next week sealing the tile as much as possible.
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Looking wicked good ... I like the subway tile look on the "back splash", which creates a very nice contrast with the very formal-looking woodwork. Really good stuff!
 
I must say, this looks great. So what holds the panels on. Did you put srews in from the inside and then wood glue ?
 
I must say, this looks great. So what holds the panels on. Did you put srews in from the inside and then wood glue ?


Thanks for the feedback. We built frames from 1 1/4" poplar and then glued and screwed the frames into the back of the panels. We then screwed the frames together and to the base to put everything together. The poplar worked out really well for the frames because it holds screws really well and is not a heavy wood. My main goal was to keep the keezer as light as possible which is why I avoided using something like 2x4s to build the frames.
 
Really nice work cgolden - very impressive. You're going to have an amazing rig. I'd love to hear more about your plan for controlling temperature/fans in the keezer and the coffin. Are you using just that one A419 or will you have another for the keezer? Where are temp probes going? Any details would be awesome.

Keep up the good work - look forward to seeing the rest of the build.
 
Could you elaborate futher on the problems you had with the base. What was rocking exactly, was it the freezer sitting on the base, or were the casters not all sitting flat on the floor. I like the design you used for the base so i'd be curious what you would do to improve it.
 
Could you elaborate futher on the problems you had with the base. What was rocking exactly, was it the freezer sitting on the base, or were the casters not all sitting flat on the floor. I like the design you used for the base so i'd be curious what you would do to improve it.

I think the problems I had with the base were a combination of base design and the design of the bottom of the freezer. When I first put the freezer on the base I did have some noticeable rocking. I noticed after the fact that the 2x4s were not perfectly straight so if I did it over again I might would consider using a hardwood that is a little more "finished" and that would be less susceptible to warpage. The biggest problem I had though was that the bottom of the freezer is not flat. I am going to try to illustrate this below so bear with me but when the freeezer sits normally on the ground it rests on 4 slightly elevated feet in the corners that are about a half inch wide and 2 inches long.

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In my drawing you are looking up at the base and you will see that these elevated feet rest correctly on the rear crossbar. However, since I was leaving a gap around the front of the freezer to circulate air it meant that I needed to add a 3rd cross bar for the front of freezer to rest on. In my base design in order to get the front casters in a place that would best distribute the load the 3rd cross bar was not able to go in the location of the elevated feet. The result was a forward tilt which was very noticable. The solution was to dado the 3rd cross bar on the ends so that it sticks up higher than the other two. See pic below.

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This only fixed part of the problem though because there are a number of bolts and ridges sticking out of the bottom of the freezer that still caused it to rock. Ultimately it was a trial and error of using a chisel to notch out for these bolts. I don't have a picture of that but once I notched out for all of the bolts the rocking was fixed.


Looking back I might would have changed the design of the base so that the crossbars supporting the freezer would run the other way (short spans running from front of freezer to rear). I could have bypassed the elevated feet while still having 3 or 4 supports. Another possibility would have been to leave the design as is but to add a piece of 3/4" plywood for the freezer to rest on. This would have made the supporting surface flat but would have added more weight.
 
I will add one other thing while we are on the subject of freezers not being flat. Just as the bottom of the freezer was not flat neither was the top. It looks flat but in reality there is a bit of a curve to it. When we attached the top counter/coffin to the freezer the natural curve in the lid caused everything to tilt forward. Ultimately before attaching the top to the lid with rivets we had to add a shim to the front in order to level everything out. I unfortunately didn't get a pic of this but it is something to think about if you find that your top is tilting forward as well.
 
Really nice work cgolden - very impressive. You're going to have an amazing rig. I'd love to hear more about your plan for controlling temperature/fans in the keezer and the coffin. Are you using just that one A419 or will you have another for the keezer? Where are temp probes going? Any details would be awesome.

Keep up the good work - look forward to seeing the rest of the build.


I am using the one A419 controller to control the temperature but the probe will actually run from the coffin down into the keezer through the same hole that the beer lines run through. I mounted the unit in the coffin for ease of access and it was the easiest place to channel the power cables out of. The fans and the lights are on a different circuit and will always be on. I did not want to wire the fans into the temp controller because that would mean they only come on with the compressor kicks on. To me, the fans are there to keep the coffin temp uniform with the keezer, so only coming on when the keezer temp falls below the setting kind of defeats the purpose.

I still haven't had enough time to comment on how effective this setup will be at keeping a nice uniform temperature so I will be sure to leave feedback once I have been able to test it out some more. One thing I have been contemplating is rigging up something to suspend the temperature probe in liquid. I have seen several examples on the forums and I think controlling the temperature of the liquid is more important than the air which would also reduce the amount the compressor turns on and off.
 
I am using the one A419 controller to control the temperature but the probe will actually run from the coffin down into the keezer through the same hole that the beer lines run through. I mounted the unit in the coffin for ease of access and it was the easiest place to channel the power cables out of. The fans and the lights are on a different circuit and will always be on. I did not want to wire the fans into the temp controller because that would mean they only come on with the compressor kicks on. To me, the fans are there to keep the coffin temp uniform with the keezer, so only coming on when the keezer temp falls below the setting kind of defeats the purpose.

I still haven't had enough time to comment on how effective this setup will be at keeping a nice uniform temperature so I will be sure to leave feedback once I have been able to test it out some more. One thing I have been contemplating is rigging up something to suspend the temperature probe in liquid. I have seen several examples on the forums and I think controlling the temperature of the liquid is more important than the air which would also reduce the amount the compressor turns on and off.

What do you mean the fans are on a different circuit? I am in the process of doing a similar coffin, and im completely clueless on how to power the fans. Any details are much appreciated.

amazing job btw!
 
What do you mean the fans are on a different circuit? I am in the process of doing a similar coffin, and im completely clueless on how to power the fans. Any details are much appreciated.

amazing job btw!


Thanks for the complement! So the temperature controller uses a probe to measure the temperature and determine when to supply power to the freezer. This means that the circuit running to your freezer compressor in constantly switching between on and off states. If you were to wire the fans into this circuit they would only come on when the temperature at the location of the probe falls below the threshold. However, to me the fans should be constantly running to keep the temperature of the keezer and coffin uniform so the cold air doesn't settle to the bottom. This means that you need to have another circuit for the fans to always be on.


In order to wire the fans you need to figure out what voltage you need to power them. I got 2 computer fans that run at 12 volts. To power these fans you can use any wall power adapter that outputs 12 volts (truthfully you could use a lower voltage but the mismatch would cause the fans to run slower). It is easy to find these as old cell phone chargers at Goodwill or lying around the house. I just happened to find the LED light strips that already had a 12 volt power supply I could tap into. Now what you need to keep in mind is that a lot of these fans come with 3 wires (red, black, yellow). The yellow wire is used by computers to modulate fan speed and is not needed for our application.

8560938520_e8955154b1_b.jpg



Most of these fans come with a 3 pin to 2 pin adapter like below.

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Then you simply need to splice the power adapter and the 2 pin fan adapters to give you red and black wires. All you need to do is wire these in parallel (twist all reds together and twist all blacks together). I soldered everything together and used electrical tape to cover the exposed wire. As long as no blacks are touching reds it is really hard to mess something up since we are dealing with low voltage.

8559830521_a86462a322_b.jpg



The end result will look something like below. There are 3 wires running out of the back of my coffin. 2 come from the temperature controller (1 female that you plug the freezer into and 1 male that plugs into the wall). The 3rd wire powers my lights and fans.

8560938124_026cc39e0f_b.jpg
 
It's been a while since I've posted on the build but the project is now complete and I've got photos of the finished product.

This is the finished coffin with lines running through the center hole and fans circulating air from the keezer into the coffin and back down. I've had enough time to test the effectiveness of this setup and the coffin temperature has stayed within 1 degree of the bottom at all times which I am very satisfied with.

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Here is a view from the underside of the beer lines, temperature probe and fans.

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I am using a 5 lb CO 2 tank with a dual gauge primary regulator.

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I also chose to use a 4-way secondary regulator so that I can fine tune pressures if needed and force carb home brew. It cost a little more than simply using a 4-way distributor but I think it is worth it for the extra flexibility. Since I couldn't screw this into the wall of the freezer I glued a piece of 3/4" plastic with liquid nails and screwed the regulator into that.

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The first keg on tap is Sweetwater IPA although the first batch of home brew will be kegged soon. I learned the hard way that you need to mark your lines with tape or something to remember where they go or you will spend 30 minutes tracing beer lines. One other important note for this particular freezer model is a regular sankey tap paired with a 1/6th barrel is too tall without a collar. The lid will close but the line gets pinched. I will have to invest in a low profile coupler or stick to home brew.

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Perlick 525ss are installed and ready to pour.

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The led lights that I installed are remote controlled and can change colors, dim, etc. I thought it would be a nice touch with parties/gatherings so that you can change the colors based on the season or teams that are playing.

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Finished Product. I have moved some heavy furniture in the last few years and this was by far the hardest thing I have ever carried up stairs. Buy some beer and get more than 2 people to help.

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Some final thoughts: The lid is very heavy and I am currently using the factory hinges which work but seem unstable. I think I am going to add some hydraulic hinges to make opening the lid easier and add more support. I am also interested in rigging something up to submerge the temperature probe in liquid so that I am controlling the temperature of the beer rather than the air surrounding it. This will be more efficient for the compressor by kicking on less frequently and running longer.

Thanks for taking a look at my build and if you have any questions I will do my best to answer them. Now all I have to do is start kegging some home brew to fill up these taps!
 
This is amazing. This is a very broad question, but what tools did you feel were essential in your build? Particularly with the woodworking...beautiful stuff.
 
This is amazing. This is a very broad question, but what tools did you feel were essential in your build? Particularly with the woodworking...beautiful stuff.

I will answer this in the context of making a coffin keezer with raised panels for the outside while keeping budget in mind.

Essential tools:
  • Miter Saw
  • Table Saw You could possibly use a circular saw and clamped boards as guides. This would be a lot more work but you make due with what you have. If you are making panels there is a certain level of precision that is required to have all the pieces fit together so a table saw is highly recommended.
  • Drill If you are building a coffin you need one that has enough power to cut the holes out of the freezer. The batteries in our 18 volt drill were older and on the weak side. Ultimately we had to use a drill with a cord to make the cuts with the hole saw but if your batteries are in good shape you may be able to get by with a cordless drill.
  • Router and Panel Making Bits
  • Clamps Take the number of clamps you think you need and double it.
  • Hole saw

Optional Tools:
  • Biscuit joiner If you are gluing smaller boards together to make a larger panel you need to create a joint. The most common method would be to use biscuits which require a slot to be cut out of both boards and a biscuit is then glued in to hold it together. If you do not own a biscuit joiner you can use a slot cutter router bit in your router to achieve the same results.
  • Planer If you are starting with unfinished lumber you will need a planer. This would be too much of an investment if you don't have access to one and don't have plans to use it long term. They will finish the boards to your specifications at a lumber mill if you can't find what you need at your warehouse home improvement store. It costs a little more but is a lot cheaper than buying a planer
  • Rivet Tool We used rivets to attach the top to the lid of the freezer. There are a lot of other ways that it could be attached so this one is optional.
 
Less equipment needed than I thought. I guess most of the challenge is between the ears. It's the Indian, not the arrow.
 
Nice work! Couple quick questions... Dimensions of your coffin? Also, I am using 4 pin lock kegs, 3 on floor, 1 on hump, which will require about a 4" collar.... What is the total height of the counter top? Do you think it will be too tall with a 4" collar?
 
Nice work! Couple quick questions... Dimensions of your coffin? Also, I am using 4 pin lock kegs, 3 on floor, 1 on hump, which will require about a 4" collar.... What is the total height of the counter top? Do you think it will be too tall with a 4" collar?

My coffin is 20" wide by 14"tall by 11.75" deep. The backsplash is recessed by about 2.5" and the center of the taps are about 11.5" from the tile.

I originally planned to do a collar because I wanted to keep my options open to maximize keg configurations and possibly add a bigger CO2 tank. However, I wanted my keezer to look like a piece of furniture and I felt like adding a collar would make it look too boxy. To give you some perspective my keezer is currently 49" wide on the bar top and 36" from the ground. Adding a 4-7" collar like I originally planned would make it almost as tall as it is wide which doesn't look like most furniture pieces (think entertainment center, dresser, buffet, etc).

On the flip side if I wasn't making this a "decorative" piece I would much rather have the flexibility of a collar. If squareness doesn't bother you then the collar would allow you to add in pin locks or 1/6 barrels a little easier. Adding a collar would also put the top more at a bar height so it could make it a nice place to stand around with a beer.

One thing that I don't see people talk about much is that even without a collar the top with a coffin is very heavy. It can be tough to hold it open while moving kegs around and the stock hinges seem to be barely capable of supporting the weight. I would imaging that adding a collar that is attached to the top would make it extremely heavy and hard to handle. If you attached the collar to the bottom part of the freezer you are making it more difficult to lift heavy kegs up and over to get them inside. Ultimately I decided that the adding a collar was not worth the added trouble (trying to get everything sealed and airtight) and it did not fit in with my design but if you are set on pin lock kegs it may be worth it to be able to fit the fourth keg.
 
Thanks for the complement! So the temperature controller uses a probe to measure the temperature and determine when to supply power to the freezer. This means that the circuit running to your freezer compressor in constantly switching between on and off states. If you were to wire the fans into this circuit they would only come on when the temperature at the location of the probe falls below the threshold. However, to me the fans should be constantly running to keep the temperature of the keezer and coffin uniform so the cold air doesn't settle to the bottom. This means that you need to have another circuit for the fans to always be on.


In order to wire the fans you need to figure out what voltage you need to power them. I got 2 computer fans that run at 12 volts. To power these fans you can use any wall power adapter that outputs 12 volts (truthfully you could use a lower voltage but the mismatch would cause the fans to run slower). It is easy to find these as old cell phone chargers at Goodwill or lying around the house. I just happened to find the LED light strips that already had a 12 volt power supply I could tap into. Now what you need to keep in mind is that a lot of these fans come with 3 wires (red, black, yellow). The yellow wire is used by computers to modulate fan speed and is not needed for our application.

8560938520_e8955154b1_b.jpg



Most of these fans come with a 3 pin to 2 pin adapter like below.

8559830697_1c95240766_b.jpg



Then you simply need to splice the power adapter and the 2 pin fan adapters to give you red and black wires. All you need to do is wire these in parallel (twist all reds together and twist all blacks together). I soldered everything together and used electrical tape to cover the exposed wire. As long as no blacks are touching reds it is really hard to mess something up since we are dealing with low voltage.

8559830521_a86462a322_b.jpg



The end result will look something like below. There are 3 wires running out of the back of my coffin. 2 come from the temperature controller (1 female that you plug the freezer into and 1 male that plugs into the wall). The 3rd wire powers my lights and fans.

8560938124_026cc39e0f_b.jpg

Thanks for the info!
 
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