GE 7.0 Cu Ft Keezer and Ferm Chamber combo

[virgil1]

I just bought a 7.0 Cu Ft GE Freezer for a Keezer. I only need two kegs at a time, so I was considering building a box out of rigid foam insulation for a ferm chamber for my 6.5 gallon glass carboy and putting that INSIDE the keezer. I would be using homemade brewpi to control all my temps, but my question is whether or not it could hurt the freezer? I figure I'd need a heat source, and some fans with a way to open/close the hole to blow cold air through.

 

[ba-brewer]

I did an experimental chamber like you mentioned to see if I could do some lagers. The chamber was a 7 sided box built over the hump. I used a 17W seedling mat wrapped around the fermentor as a heat source. I also added extra insulation in the open areas of the box to limit the space that was being heated. Keezer set to 40F and and the heat mat was on almost continuously to maintain 50F. I had a kill a watt meter attached to the controller and the keezer used almost twice the energy with the chamber inside. I ran the test in the spring and the keezer was not running all the time, might be slightly different during summer. It did work, maybe better insulation and a bigger heat source the energy usage might be less.

I ended up doing something different for lagering, but I did put a water reservoir inside a keezer with a PC CPU cooler in an external box to cool my ales during summer.

 

[virgil1]

I did an experimental chamber like you mentioned to see if I could do some lagers. The chamber was a 7 sided box built over the hump. I used a 17W seedling mat wrapped around the fermentor as a heat source. I also added extra insulation in the open areas of the box to limit the space that was being heated. Keezer set to 40F and and the heat mat was on almost continuously to maintain 50F. I had a kill a watt meter attached to the controller and the keezer used almost twice the energy with the chamber inside. I ran the test in the spring and the keezer was not running all the time, might be slightly different during summer. It did work, maybe better insulation and a bigger heat source the energy usage might be less.

I ended up doing something different for lagering, but I did put a water reservoir inside a keezer with a PC CPU cooler in an external box to cool my ales during summer.

Thanks! I was looking at doing an external box with a transmission cooler (like this one http://amzn.com/B000CIIDZE ) and a fan. Then put a reservoir(probably with antifreeze in it) in the keezer. Was trying to conserve overall space, and was hoping I could put it in the Keezer instead. I wasn't sure how much of the 'cool' would get through some rigid foam insulation with a carboy inside.

 

[ba-brewer]

This is the CPU cooler I'm using.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CFDSB4C

My chamber is 18"x20"x30" 1.5" rigid foam, using a 2ft piece of 6" PVC for my reservoir, a STC-1000 for control. Controller is set to .3C of variation, only takes about a minute to bring the temp back to normal(usually over shoots by .3C) and takes a while to heat back up. It keeps my fermentor at about 67 when the rest of the garage is the mid mid to upper 70s.

 

[virgil1]

This is the CPU cooler I'm using.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CFDSB4C

My chamber is 18"x20"x30" 1.5" rigid foam, using a 2ft piece of 6" PVC for my reservoir, a STC-1000 for control. Controller is set to .3C of variation, only takes about a minute to bring the temp back to normal(usually over shoots by .3C) and takes a while to heat back up. It keeps my fermentor at about 67 when the rest of the garage is the mid mid to upper 70s.

Thanks! Do you use a fan to blow through it?

 

[ba-brewer]

Yes this one.
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-SickleFlow-120-Radiators/dp/B0026ZPFDE

The fan is pushing air through the cooler. I needed to add a few washer between the fan and cooler or the fan would load up and the overall air flow would drop.

Using one of these little pumps to move the water.

http://www.amazon.com/Magicfly-DC30A-1230-Brushless-Waterproof-Submersible/dp/B009X6ADCM/

 

[virgil1]

Yes this one.
http://www.amazon.com/Cooler-Master-SickleFlow-120-Radiators/dp/B0026ZPFDE

The fan is pushing air through the cooler. I needed to add a few washer between the fan and cooler or the fan would load up and the overall air flow would drop.

Using one of these little pumps to move the water.

http://www.amazon.com/Magicfly-DC30A-1230-Brushless-Waterproof-Submersible/dp/B009X6ADCM/

Thanks for all the links! That's really helpful. Last question, what's the coldest you think you could get it?

 

[ba-brewer]

I am not sure how low it will go but I have been able to maintain 65F just fine.

I did try 62F once, I prechilled down to 60F before putting in the chamber and the temp was at 62F 12hours later. My door is in the front so I turned off the pump so I was not chilling with the door open and forgot to reconnect the pump and the temp rose up into the upper 60s. Fermentation was well under way by the time I figured it out so I did not try to bring it back to 62F, but I think it would of worked.

I started with one big chamber that was twice the size of the current chamber(s) and one CPU cooler was able to hold 65F in that area. I have since divided into two (18x20x30) chambers so I can control two independent fermentations. They both have their own CPU cooler and pump but share the same reservoir.

I also have a third fan/pump/cpu cooler inside the keezer to keep the water at a more constant temp, but it worked just fine without it.

 

[virgil1]

Thanks for all the links! That's really helpful. Last question, what's the coldest you think you could get it?

Thanks! Looks like you can save a few dollars on eBay on some of those coolers too. This is a smaller one, but it comes with a fan:
http://r.ebay.com/L7Zydj

 

[ba-brewer]

I am sure it would still work, may require a little longer run time to get the same cooling.

When I bought the one I linked it was a little less and a prime item. There are different ones that are prime now.