Has anyone tried this?

[Joemama474]

I own a 7 cubic foot chest freezer that after only three years of service has up and quit on me. It doesn't look like I'm going to be able to repair it for less than the cost of a new one. So while I've got the go ahead to buy new, I have my eye on this broken one as a lagering cave, at least until I do fix this one and turn it into a kegerator . Has anyone tried lagering in a broken chest freezer with ice/cold water etc? It seems simple in theory, especially if I chill it down to the desired temp in the dedicated beer fridge first...

Any thoughts? Any experience? Any pics?

 

[philrose]

sure, It could be a massive "son of fermentation chiller" set up, cheap and easy.

 

[jpalarchio]

I have some 4" pipes running between my keezer and a broken chest freezer that I use for cellaring beers.

The cellar stays about 5-10 degrees below the keezer depending on how full and the thermal mass.

Works for what I use it for.

 

[diatonic]

Mmmm... Bigfoot.

 

[jpalarchio]

Mmmm... Bigfoot.

5 years worth. Time for a vertical...

 

[RegionalChaos]

That's a great idea jpalarchio!

 

[RiverCityBrewer]

Are both fans blowing the same direction? Or is one pushing and the other is pulling to circulate air?

Joe

 

[jpalarchio]

Are both fans blowing the same direction? Or is one pushing and the other is pulling to circulate air?

One is in, the other is out (note the arrows in the pic). I'm sure I could have better efficiencies with other methods but I didn't mess with it much. I should probably have a tube running to the bottom picking up cold air from the there, not the top. Not sure what would happen if I ran both fans in one direction.

It was more or less a cheap and easy solution that kept me from lugging the dead cooler out of the basement.

 

[BrewBeemer]

Two directions with cold from the running cooler into the dead one at the bottom then removing the warmer air from the dead one at the top back to the good cooler. Why buck the weight of heavy cold air use it to to your advantage to increase your cooling efficiency? JMO it it were mine.