How cool could I keep my unplugged chest freezer?

[Matteo57]

Hi! I have a chest freezer that went out on me, it's dead. I was thinking about selling it and trying to get a few bucks off of it but then thought of something else. How cool do you all think I could keep my chest freezer if I had a CPU fan or two blowing in it with 1-2 two liter bottles of frozen water in them? I would have to change out the ice every day every day unfortunately but figured it's already insulated so i'm good there.
I would keep it in my garage and during about 2 months during the summer it can get up to around 100 in my garage. Do you think it would be able to keep it in the 70s even?
The idea would be to keep 2 15.5g kegs that I turn into aging vessels with either sour beer or barrel aged type beer (barleywine or stout most likely) and make them a solera type project.
Any thoughts on this? Think it would keep things cool enough or should I just sell it?
Thanks for any input on this! :rockin:

 

[day_trippr]

Who does one sell a dead chest freezer to?
Or more to the point, who buys a dead chest freezer?

I expect using a couple of bottles of ice with a fan will do precious little, no matter how often they're changed out, even in a "room temperature" setting, never mind 100 degrees.

Get thee to Craig's List - and avoid anyone selling dead chest freezers...

Cheers!

 

[Matteo57]

Who does one sell a dead chest freezer to?
Or more to the point, who buys a dead chest freezer?

I expect using a couple of bottles of ice with a fan will do precious little, no matter how often they're changed out, even in a "room temperature" setting, never mind 100 degrees.

Get thee to Craig's List - and avoid anyone selling dead chest freezers...

Cheers!

There are people on craigstlist that you can sell things like a broken fridge or freezer to who fix them up and then resell them for a lot more money. I'm sure I could sell mine for $40-50 bucks.
I would guess, but not assume, that you could keep the inner part of a insulated freezer fairly cold if you use ice and a fan, but I have never done it that way so I'm not sure. I was wondering if anyone had ever tried.
In a room temp setting it would be easy to keep a good chunk cooler than the room in a freezer with ice and a fan blowing the cool air around. I'm worried about a HOT room like my garage.

 

[RM-MN]

Do a google search on "son of fermentation chamber" because that is what you are really trying to make from your dead freezer. Freezers are usually pretty well insulated and with a good lid gasket are reasonably airtight. It might work for you most of the time but you might have problems when it gets to 100 degrees. That might be a good time to make a saison instead of your typical ales.

 

[nasty_rabbit]

The ice driven fermentation chamber will work in those ambient temperatures. I started with a Son Of A Ferm. Chamber And moved up to a Mother to be able to accommodate two carboys. Summers in Georgia bring garage temps to 100 + and I can maintain fermentation temps 63 or lower with daily ice changes. Spring or fall ice changes are reduced to once every 2 or 3 days and in the winter I have to use a heater. This is with a cube made out of 2 inch foam insulation, a factory made freezer should be so much more efficient. If you have the floor space I would use it. An STC 1000 controller to run a CPU fan and a working freezer to freeze 1 gallon jugs of water should be all of the additional items that you need.

 

[Matteo57]

The ice driven fermentation chamber will work in those ambient temperatures. I started with a Son Of A Ferm. Chamber And moved up to a Mother to be able to accommodate two carboys. Summers in Georgia bring garage temps to 100 + and I can maintain fermentation temps 63 or lower with daily ice changes. Spring or fall ice changes are reduced to once every 2 or 3 days and in the winter I have to use a heater. This is with a cube made out of 2 inch foam insulation, a factory made freezer should be so much more efficient. If you have the floor space I would use it. An STC 1000 controller to run a CPU fan and a working freezer to freeze 1 gallon jugs of water should be all of the additional items that you need.

Awesome! I was thinking of just putting two big 15.5gallon kegs in there with the dip tube and all taken out then a rubber orange carboy topper on top an airlock and a plug on the other hole on the topper. Do a solera project with it.... Maybe 1 sour and 1 darker stout barrel aged type beer. Sounds interesting enough at least....
Thanks for the input! I thought it would probably work just wasn't positive.