In the market for an upright freezer... suggestions?

[jmark]

Okay, so my chest freezer got repurposed as a keezer over the winter, so now that temps are warming up again, I need to find a new temperatured control environment. I could go with another chest freezer, but I'm moving from 5 gallon batches to 10 gallon and like the idea of using a 15 gallon plastic conical to hold a full batch - hence the need for an upright. So... a couple of questions:

1) It seems that a lot of uprights have coils in the shelves. Presumably these types of uprights will not work since I'm guessing the shelves are not removable?

2) What INSIDE dimensions are likely for the 14/15 cu ft units I see around? Looking at possibly a SS conical in the long term, it seems that I'd need around 52-53 inches for, say, a Blichmann with legs/casters. Is that doable in a 14 or 15 cu. ft unit?

I appreciate any suggestions you might have on models to consider and/or insight on the above questions,

Thanks,
Mark

 

[jmark]

Okay, found some answers to my questions, so recording here for prosperity in case others have similar questions.

1) If the freezer has coils in the shelving, move along... some reports of bending them out of the way have been found, but it's not worth the hassle

2) Looks like a 14.5 gallon Blichmann will fit in a 13.7 cu. ft. freezer easily as long as you don't add the leg extensions or wheels. Seems like a 20 cu. ft may be needed in that case.

 

[ELA]

This is a question I have as well, so thanks for taking the time to put your findings in here. I have a 14.5 gallon Blichmann with the leg extensions, and I'd like to keep them on as it makes the trub dump/yeast harvesting easier. Did you ever determine if a 20ish cu. ft. unit would be large enough to allow for the leg extensions?

 

[jmark]

I haven't made the splurge on the SS conical yet, so I don't know for sure, but based on the data on the Blichmann site, you'd need an inside height of at least 49.25" to handle the leg extensions. Not sure if that takes into account room for an airlock and/or blowoff apparatus. It's tough to get internal dimensions of uprights, but it looks like most ~20cu ft. uprights are around 70" total height, so I would guess that's good enough - I would certainly take a tape measure along though to make sure.