Freezer for glycol?

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DefinitelyJon

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I have a fridge I use for fermenting and just got one of the new spike conicals. I was thinking about using the freezer part of the fridge to hold a bucket of glycol and running it through the conical to chill. I'm not sure how efficient that would be or if an aquarium pump would even handle the temps. Anyone have experience with this?
 
Lots of guy use aquarium pumps inside their keezer to run a "glycol" loop through the taps with just water to keep them cold rather than running a fan.

It should work np, you're issue will be sudden changes... eg, cold crashing or bringing 80degF wort down to 65degF right after brew day if your tap water isn't very cold.

What a lot of guys do instead is convert a mash tun/cooler and $100 window a/c unit. The coils sit directly in your glycol so they're much more efficient. The problem with the chest freezer is you've got the water/glycol in a bucket inside the freezer so you're cooling the air in the freezer which in turns cools the water/bucket. It's just not as efficient, it will work fine... but you'll cycle more than if the actual coils were submerged in the glycol.

I'd say if you've got a freezer go for it, parts are already on hand. If you're going to spend over $100 on a freezer then check out some of the glycol chiller DIY builds instead. It'll be cheaper and more efficient (and take up less space).
 
Sorry for the late response back I didn’t see your post. It’s running just fine with the bucket of glyol in the freezer. It’ll take temps down near 40 but it’ struggles to get it below that. I’ll probly use this for the time being until I decide I want another conical. It’s great still using the fridge side for fermenting carboys
 

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