Anybody using a Spike Flex Ferm in a chest freezer?

[Hwk-I-St8]

I'm curious to know if they fit and how hard they are to wrangle into it?

I currently use a BmB and have a carboy strap thingy to lift/move it into place. I've been thinking about putting a ratcheting block and tackle above the freezer to make things easier...maybe even on a ceiling mounted gantry so I could hoist from the floor, then slide into position above the freeezer and then lower it in.

It's not that I can't lift that stuff, I just don't wan to blow out my 57 year old back.

I'm curious how heavy the flex+ is and if anyone has found or made something to make it easier to move. 5.5 gallons is pushing 50 lbs by itself. If the flex weighs another 25, that's pushing what I'd want to try to set into a chest freezer.

I know they have a coil chiller, but there are several issues. First, coming up with a chiller is either a big DIY thing that may require attention during fermentation. Second, if I'm using a kviek, I may want to heat things up. I've got a nice heating pad in my freezer.

I'm just not interested in a solution that requires me to rethink my temp control, but I'd like to ferm under pressure.

 

[Brewsncrabs]

I had the same question for the same reasons as you. For my chest freezer the fit was just too tight and I swear I saw somewhere that you shouldn’t lift it with the handles if it was full. I could be wrong about that. I decided against it.

 

[Jag75]

I was using a chest freezer especially when doing lagers or brewing in the hot summers here. It got really old lifting stuff in and out , even with the strap and I'm only 44yrs old. It took me all of a few hours to make my own DIY chiller . It was shockingly easier then I though it would be. I wish I would have built it sooner . You could pump your wort into the fermenter already inside the freezer , then keg while inside so you dont have to lift a full fv