Fermentation chamber build question

[TTfireman]

I recently upgraded to the spike flex, which doesn't really fit in my 5 cuft. chest freezer I have been using as a fermentation chamber. I decided to try to build a bigger ferm chamber instead of going with glycol for now.

My thought was to build a box on top of my chest freezer. I was planning on making it about twice as wide as my freezer, with two doors on the front. I am going to leave the center of the bottom of the box open so that the freezer will cool the whole chamber. I will obviously insulate the whole thing.

Ok, those are my plans, now to my question. I was hoping to put glass in the doors (using a 2x3 window), just so it looks cooler and I can see the fermenter without opening the chamber. What kind of glass do I need to use to not totally kill the insulation of the chamber? I am obviously trying not to spend any more than necessary building this. Certainly someone on here has knowledge about different window types.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jag75]

I'm not sure a regular dbl pane window with argon gas will even work. You may have to find glass for refrigerators and build your own . You may even find something on craigslist . Is the reason your spike + not fitting a height issue? If so you may just be able to build a collar to raise the height up .

 

[mongoose33]

You need a small insulated-glass window. It should work fine, though realize you probably (unless you pay up) won't get the same insulating value.

A normal outside window will do. You can also do this with a piece of plexiglass, but do realize that unless the glass window (or plexiglas) is high quality R-value, you will have condensation forming on the outside when you go to crash. A good double- or triple-pane unit will reduce the chances of this happening, but all the outside surface of that window needs to do is drop below the dew point in ambient conditions and you'll get condensation.

You will also need a fan to distribute air using this approach.

BTW, have you priced windows? Lot of money just to see the fermenter. You could take a picture, have it blown up, and hang it on the outside.....

*******

Having answered your question above, now this: I think you're nuts to do this. You'd be better off finding another method to control temps, including maybe just getting a larger refrigerator. This is a lot of real estate (chest freezer plus adjoining compartment) to use up to do this, and in the end, it's going to be a kludged-together thing.

At one point I was experimenting with a "box" I used to enclose my fermenter (Spike CF10). Had I been as motivated as you, I might have simply used an air conditioner attached to the box. or some other method to cool the box. Using a freezer strikes me as almost exactly the wrong thing to do.

Now, when you started describing this, I thought you'd just put a tall "collar" on the freezer, enough to accommodate the fermenter. That would work a lot better, though I still think it's a kludgy kind of arrangement.

In the end, you'll have a kludgy-looking thing, have spent in the many hundreds of dollars to make it work, and I doubt you'll be all that happy with it. I think you'd be better off going to glycol, or using another method to control ferm temps.

My 2 cents. Yeah, I'm a big believer in people doing what they want to do, but this strikes me as....

 

[TTfireman]

Mongoose, I totally understand where you are coming from. It looking “kludgy” (that’s a new one to me) is something I was afraid of. It’s not a height issue but a depth (front to back) issue. And I was trying to make something that doesn’t require me to lift the flex in and out of it to do anything with it. I like the idea of the mini fridges, but I just don’t feel like they would be able to cold crash as well as a chest freezer. I know, I need to just pay for glycol. But, man...

My flex will technically fit in my freezer, but I can’t use the handles. I had the idea of trying to find my brew hauler strap thing from back before I broke my carboy. Maybe that would help. I guess I need to just make do until I can get glycol instead of making some big stupid looking monstrosity of a fermentation chamber. Thanks for talking me out of it. I mean that.

 

[Jag75]

Look into the DIY chiller . It's cheap and super simple . Wish I'd have done it sooner.