Anybody use a freezer like this one?

[polvofiloso]

I bought this Beverage Air commercial freezer off Craigslist. Anybody use one of these for a fermentation chamber? It will hold about 15 cornies. I also bought a Johnson controller from the same guy, and I plan to use it for my fermenter/cellar. Looking forward to controlling my ferment temps better, especially with summer coming.

I'm also wondering if anyone has used one of these as a keezer. Looks like it would be pretty easy to attach a tower (or two) to the top of it.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Dude, same company that makes the Firestone Kegs (well..Spartanburg, IL)!

Sweet score!

 

[polvofiloso]

Well I had to swap the electrical plug on it (it had one of those plugs with one blade turned sideways). Got that done and plugged it in. It ran for a few hours and never got cold, so I've got some troubleshooting to do. I bought it knowing it might need work. At least the compressor runs though.

 

[Rivenin]

I'd love that! It would completely save my back not having to list so high

 

[LandoLincoln]

That's a great fermentation chamber. That's pretty much the idea I have for my custom made one. If you lifted that thing high enough off of the floor, then when you go to rack to secondary or to a bottling bucket or a keg, you wouldn't have to move the carboys an inch so you could avoid kicking up any trub or yeast.

 

[polvofiloso]

Yeah I liked the idea of the drop front, for ease of loading in and out. Now I just gotta figure out why it won't get cold and fix it. Anybody know a refrigeration tech in inland So Cal?

 

[Kindyr]

Neither a refridgeration tech, nor an electricion, but I remember once running across a 220V window AC unit that had a plug that sounds like the one you replaced. Have you confirmed that it's intended to run on 110 and not a dedicated 220 outlet?

 

[polvofiloso]

Neither a refridgeration tech, nor an electricion, but I remember once running across a 220V window AC unit that had a plug that sounds like the one you replaced. Have you confirmed that it's intended to run on 110 and not a dedicated 220 outlet?

Yep, check the info plate in my photo above. 115V. Thanks for the suggestion though

 

[LandoLincoln]

That sideways plug sounds like it needs a 20 amp circuit. But if the compressor is running...sounds like it needs a freon charge.

 

[cxchef]

I bought this Beverage Air commercial freezer off Craigslist. Anybody use one of these for a fermentation chamber? It will hold about 15 cornies. I also bought a Johnson controller from the same guy, and I plan to use it for my fermenter/cellar. Looking forward to controlling my ferment temps better, especially with summer coming.

I'm also wondering if anyone has used one of these as a keezer. Looks like it would be pretty easy to attach a tower (or two) to the top of it.

Just an FYI this is actually a milk cooler from school food service. They are super durable but I do believe it is a fridge and not a freezer. I have 15 of them in the school district I run.

 

[polvofiloso]

Just an FYI this is actually a milk cooler from school food service. They are super durable but I do believe it is a fridge and not a freezer. I have 15 of them in the school district I run.

Thanks for the info! The guy I bought it from said he got it at a school district auction. The info plate says its a refrigerator OR freezer. But at this point all it is is a fancy box LOL.

 

[Hang Glider]

I don't have one of those (SWEEEET find!) but I have a Beverage Air glass-door merchandiser. Stopped cooling after about 6 months. Turned out the fan that pulls air thru the coils had jammed up and wasn't turning at all. (Freon charge was fine). I found a new replacement fan online (about $90) that was an exact match, and it's been running fine ever since.

http://www.partstown.com/beverage_air/bev541-148b

 

[Scubajay]

Thats great how is your brew stand progressing

 

[polvofiloso]

Thats great how is your brew stand progressing

scubajay, no progress on it. Like I said earlier I probably won't start working on it until later this year.

 

[polvofiloso]

I don't have one of those (SWEEEET find!) but I have a Beverage Air glass-door merchandiser. Stopped cooling after about 6 months. Turned out the fan that pulls air thru the coils had jammed up and wasn't turning at all. (Freon charge was fine). I found a new replacement fan online (about $90) that was an exact match, and it's been running fine ever since.

http://www.partstown.com/beverage_air/bev541-148b

Thanks for the tip! I'm gonna try to find some time to dig into this thing a little more this weekend

 

[polvofiloso]

Just to update this thread I recently sold this freezer. I decided not to tinker with it and found a working Bev-Air 58" 2-tower kegerator on CL so I no longer had any use for this one. I'll post up a thread with photos of the new (to me) one soon. It needs a little TLC but it's pretty cool.

 

[StainlessBrewing]

Sweet! Let's see some pictures. So you have 4 taps now?