Kenmore Upright Freezer Opinions

[colinski]

My wife challenged me to make a kegerator for under $100. So far I'm at $45 with the awesome aquarium temp control for $25 (plus parts that I already have) and now this 13.3 cubic foot freezer for $20.

Problem is, the freezer is the type that has the cooling coils as the shelves. Worst case, I guess it would make a great bottled beer cooler, but I'd rather be able to drop kegs in. I forgot to take a picture this morning to show you all, but here's a link to the parts schematic from Kenmore: here. The "liner" image is what makes up the shelves.

I assume that the freon is under pressure, so bending all the shelves down and out of the way is a no-go. But I don't actually know since I'm not very freezer savvy. Has anybody had experience with this type of setup and know how I could go about altering it?

Now if I can just find a 5lb CO2 tank and all my tap equipment for $55!

 

[Mikeman]

I've got one I setup as a fermentation chamber. I had luck bending the shelves up and out of the way, but I would only attempt it if everything was already warm.

I keep the selves held up with super trick zip ties, and reinforced the bottom shelf with a 2 ton jack stand

I left the top shelf where it was and bent the next 2 up towards that one to fit my buckets. I would imagine for kegs, it would be a similar operation.

Good luck

 

[colinski]

Thanks for the picture! Looks like it could be a little awkward, but I'll just bend gently and hope for the best