Chest Freezer Shortage

[corey1581]

My keezer freezer went out when I moved, and I had to replace it with my fermentation chamber to keep me in the game. When I got to replace my fermentation chamber, the chest freezer coronavirus sticker shock about killed me. For me, this had put chest freezer prices up there with some of the fancy fermentation systems I previously thought were too expensive.

I have looked at some circulation cooling systems. I'm a bit of a DIY guy and am unafraid to try new things. Has anyone had any success with some of these circulation systems?

 

[slayer021175666]

Still have the freezer? If so, try to fix it. Most things that go wrong with them are simple and inexpensive. Having no previous experience, I just fixed my side by side by learning on the internet. A used motherboard on ebay was like 40 bucks and few easy tests with a multimeter was all it took to find out what it needed. Might have taken 20 minutes total, for the labor.

 

[corey1581]

Still have the freezer? If so, try to fix it. Most things that go wrong with them are simple and inexpensive. Having no previous experience, I just fixed my side by side by learning on the internet. A used motherboard on ebay was like 40 bucks and few easy tests with a multimeter was all it took to find out what it needed. Might have taken 20 minutes total, for the labor.

I think mine is more of a coolant leak, which requires a bit of skill to fix. I should note the freezer is ancient and may even be older than I am.

 

[madscientist451]

My TRUE glass door (fridge) kegerator quit, and I can't find a chest freezer to replace it. I'd try to fix it, but I'm never home, been working 7 days a week since this COVID thing started. Plenty of OT to buy whatever I want, but some things aren't available and don't have much time for brewing anyway.

 

[cayde1001]

I was in a similar situation about 2 months ago and researched the different options for a couple weeks. Ultimately i ended up going the DIY glycol chiller route and could not be happier. Before i had a small very inefficient standing refrigerator that i used as a ferm chamber, which could barely cold crash a 5 gallon batch to 43F over 24 hours. Now i have a glycol chiller that can cool two fermenters at different set temps. I can also crash a 5 gallon batch from 65 to 32 in less than an hour. I would even guess the chiller even runs half the time that the refrigerator did.

In the end i probably ended up spending a bit more but also believe I have a much better setup had i been able to find the right size chest freezer.

 

[corey1581]

Cayde, would you be willing to share your design?

 

[cayde1001]

I used the DIY Glycol Chiller guide that ornate brewing has on their website. The glycol unit consists of a 5000 btu window unit (i ordered a returned unit from amazon for about $100), a 50 quart rolling coleman cooler, 3 gallons of glycol (mixed with 6 gallons distilled water), a 260GPH pump (for circulating the glycol solution), and an stc-1000 temp controller (you could also use an ink bird 1 stage controller for this). I built a rolling cabinet to house everything. I will upload some pics for you later today.

On the fermenter side I use the 30L/60L speidel fermenters. I use a temp twister coil and a thermowell which are drilled through the lid, both fit through included bulkheads so that everything can hold pressure. If you have traditional glass fermenters with the small neck you can look at the coolstix. To pump the glycol i used an 880 GPH pump and 3/8 silicone tubing. I use Fermentrac to control and track the fermentation temps with a brewpi controller that i had previously built (you could use a 2 stage ink bird controller). I built a cabinet out of 1/4 plywood and insulated with foam sheets to house the fermenter. For heating I just use a 20W seedling mat stpled to the inside of the cabinet.

My setup is the chiller cabinet below a workbench that has the 2 fermenter cabinets on it directly above. My glycol lines are about 6ft and they have no problem holding temps and cold crashing. I inslulated my lines by wrapping them with black rubber/foam insulation and it seems to do a good job. When fermenting (@64F) the ac unit might run 1.5 to 2 hours in a day, and when cold crashing (@34F) maybe 3 hours. This setup does not keep the temps (+/- 1F) as exact as my ferm chamber did (+/- .2F) but is still within my comfort zone. I keep the glycol solution around 25F - 30F. The lines/fermenter sweat a lot when cold crashing but the insulation keeps everything clean and i have the fermenter sitting on a 9x13 sheet pan. For cold crashing i drop the temp in 2 steps just so the ac unit can keep up (not sure i really have to do this but it makes me feel better for some reason).

I think in all i spent a little more than what i would have on a 8-9 cuft chest freezer but less than what i would have if i bought just a glycol chiller online. I built with the intention of being able to chill 2 fermenters at the same time, one of them being for 10 gallon batches. I have used my new setup on 3 batches so far and it works great.

 

[Granite03]

I had a chest freezer for about 5 years with glycol in the bottom well that fed my draft taps and conical fermenters. It worked great for its purpose, though cold crashing stretched it a bit. It was also my hop storage in the top bins. In March with COVID-19 kicking off I just let it run to keep the draft lines cold 24/7. Well, it lasted about a month before it died. That small compressor wasn't built for the task I was giving it.

I went to get a replacement freezer and experienced the national freezer shortage crisis. Apparently everyone was stocking up on freezer goods. I couldn't find one in any store or on-line. I moved on and got a Penguin chiller, which works well with a proper-sized compressor though I really miss my hop storage area.

 

[cayde1001]

38"W x 24"D x 25"H

 

[corey1581]

wow, that looks amazing...thanx for the pix. I'll have to check out that guide.