Do collars cause the freezer to be less efficient?

[mnadamn]

I once built a box out of plywood with a refrigeration unit dismembered and added to it in a small bar, it was cycling all the time. A second layer of plywood was added with 2" pink sheets of foam between it made a noticeable difference. This is why i'm against collars.

You also have to remember that a heat rises, in this wood box you had made has a weak R vale of 0.47 (for 3/8 ply) throughout the entire box. In the chest freezer you are looking at an R value of 15-20 throughout the area with the coldest temperatures and the collar (weak point in the insulation factor) is very minimal and at a higher level almost always above the temp probe placement thus causing little ill effects. This is why adding the insulation helped you so much and the effects were so noticeable, you had no insulation. Collars do work, and they work well, the reason you expressed you disliked them was because you built your own uninsulated fridge which didn't get the job done.

I have personally been thinking about taking the dorm fridge that I have and building a fermentation chamber with it I have no doubt that with the proper insulation I will be able to create a larger space then the original fridge but also maintain lower temps.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Why not purchase a feezer that has enough head room as well space to handle 4 to 6 corney's with your taps out of the the front panel without adding a collar to the chest freezer? I could never understand going thru all the trouble making a chest freezer what it was never intended to be used as.
By this making a smaller CU/FT freezer handle a larger volume than the manufactures designed their units in the first place. They already are on the smallest compressor size for the "Green World" why make it work harder or to their maximun limits? The compressor hump problem, just get a bigger chest freezer and move on. JMO's not to start a war just my thinking about adding collars to chest freezers. Unless you must show stained wood I do not have a clue. Function vs looks here. Granted there are many great collared freezers posted but not for me.

The idea is to not permantly alter the condition of the freezer. If, for some reason you change your mind in the future and want a different setup, you can just take the collar and the temp controller off of the thing and have a freezer again. It's called thinking ahead.

 

[BrewBeemer]

And how do you buy a freezer knowing where the coolant lines are before purchase? I doubt the few times a day my freezer runs and the 15 mins its on for that period is really pushing the compressors limits. And thats with one of the larger collars I've seen.

Not all of us have unlimited funds so we can go out and buy the biggest and newest chest freezer. Some of us are using hand-me-down freezers and we took what we could get.
Adding a collar and turning up the temp that the freezer maintains does not make the compressor work any harder, probably even less work for it.

I din't have any income for over 7 years nence why a cheap plywood cooler then foam board with another layer of 3/8" plywood. A total waste of time and money as later we added a larger freezer that will handle corny's without a collar. We looked at each other and got drunk laughing how stupid we were on building that turd of a cooler. Young and not to smart I guess? The btand new freezer holds 6 corny's with the gas bottles and regulators mounted outside, we really went over the top this time and paid $100 for it My friend rebuilds welding regulators he would not touch my last Victor regulator just threw it against the concrete wall and told me to never put a regulator in a cooler with all that moisture again. This time he handed us two free brand new Victor 100 series brass regulators of high quality, they are mounted outside. It cost me a couple gallons of brew as he stopped by a few times checking up on our installation. If wrong and inside the cooler again he would of taken those Victor regulators away from us.
It was too hard to stick a 150 CU/FT Nitrogen/Co2 bottle in the new freezer it would stick up beyond the top of the bar top by 15 inches unless a regulator is modern art and a bar top conversation piece.