Keezer fans

[pretzelb]

After reading about others who are having issues with a temperature controller and after watching my own controller shut off at 42 and then dip down to 37, I think it might be time to look into a fan. But, I am very ignorant of electrical projects so the typical cpu fan idea is probably not a good idea. As a result I'm wondering the following:

1. If you do add a fan to your keezer, does it run 24/7 or just when the controller kicks in?
2. If your fan runs 24/7, any idea of the cost?
3. Is there a non-handyman solution for adding a fan to a keezer? Maybe something that can just be bought even though it's more expensive than a diy solution?

 

[TomSD]

I got a marine bilge blower... that wired to any handy charger/adapter (cell phone, router, etc) that you have handy will give plenty of air movement. It is rated at 12v but with that much juice and it blows and sounds like a leaf blower, lol. It runs 24/7... doesn't make much sense (to me) to have it only run when the freezer is running as the whole point is to keep the air circulating. No idea of the cost but I've had it hooked up to my killawatt in the past and it was pretty trivial. Now that everything is together though I really should keep the killawatt hooked up for like a month to get a good idea of general power usage.

I use a variable adapter so can change it up but usually keep it at 4.5v. I only got the variable adapter cause I wanted to test different speeds though. Just using an old cell phone charger or whatever is plenty.

The other upside of that particular fan is it is made to push air through a duct. If you need to get the air somewhere in the keezer it is as easy as getting a length of ducting. I actually have mine running to the bottom of my keezer right now to push the hot air from the top down to the very bottom. Keeps it nice and stable in there.

Oh I got the ducting and the bilge blower on amazon... the blower was like twenty bucks and the ducting was like twelve bucks for ten feet.

 

[theo1069]

I have a Keezer that I built last January and ran into an issue with uneven cooling. I ended up using a window type fan that I found on clearance at Target for $10. It fits inside great and works wonderfully. I leave it on the "Low" setting 24/7. I experimented with having it only come on with the compressor plugged into the Johnson controller, but found that it only made the problem worse.

It is similar to this:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00008XET9/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[TomSD]

Wow that is a lot of fan... how did you fit it in the keezer?

 

[theo1069]

Wow that is a lot of fan... how did you fit it in the keezer?

It is a lot more fan than is probably needed. Honestly I went in looking for a desk type fan to sit on the compresser hump, but in January they were hard to come by. This was kind of something I stumbled upon that ended up working great. The sides are made so that they adjust to the window size so it wedges in perfectly to the keezer. These are old pictures from when I built it so the fan isnt in yet, but it fits right in above the co2 tank and regulators.

Givin, this is a big ass chest freezer, so I had some room to play around with.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139345&id=504835479

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I use a PC muffin fan with a 12v wall wort. Runs 24/7 and moves the internal volume of air s'thing like 12 times a day. I see the ingenuity of the ducting but really, it's overkill IMO.

I set my fan across two kegs and have it blow down. Given the CFM of the fan and the volume of the freezer all that air is getting moved and my cycle times of the keezer are halved. Furthermore, the mix of the air even keeps the faucet shanks cooled so much that I now have condensation on them to deal with.

A 12v, 500ma muffin fan uses 6 watts per hour or .144 killowatt hour. Mutiply that time what you pay per kwh and you have your cost. At 3 cents per killowatt hour times .144KWh I basically pay 10 cents every 24 hours to run my PC fan 24/7. Or $36.50 a year.

Someone please correct my math if I am incorrect.

 

[Naked_Eskimo]

Yeah, I'm looking at getting a fan or two for my keezer. Can pick up a PC fan for <$10 shipped at newegg. I have plenty of cell-phone chargers in the house, so all I need to do is cut the wires and join red-red and black-black. No worries.

 

[TomSD]

Yeah, I'm looking at getting a fan or two for my keezer. Can pick up a PC fan for <$10 shipped at newegg. I have plenty of cell-phone chargers in the house, so all I need to do is cut the wires and join red-red and black-black. No worries.

Yeah I have PC fans laying all over the place.. there are currently twelve or so dead towers in my office that I regularly scavenge from. I went with the bilge blower just for options and ease of use. PC fans are definitely the cheaper route though specially if you mess with computers as you probably have a couple laying around.

 

[Naked_Eskimo]

TOM...quick question: if a fan is rated at 12V but your charger is 5V...would this cause an issue, even though the charger has a higher output mA rating.

Not sure if the fan will just run slower, or this will cause potential over-heating issues/fire-hazard?

 

[TomSD]

My understanding us if the source is capable of pushing more amps than the fan requires you are fine. The fan will draw what it needs, nothing more.

I'm actually the opposite (drawing more amps than the charger is rated for) which, if I understand it correctly, is a bad thing but it has been running for a while now and the charger is barely warm to the touch. Actually much less so than most of my chargers that are working normally, lol.

An electrical type person would need to chime in on this one to be sure though as the deeper you get into that stuff the less I understand it, lol.

 

[Naked_Eskimo]

So we're more interested in the amps rather than voltage ratings?

 

[TomSD]

My understanding is the amps are the concern as far as overheating, fire and the like. The device wants to pull so many amps. If the supply has more then all is good but if it doesn't have enough things start to heat up.

Voltage will regulate the power a device is receiving which can control things like how fast a fan blows, how much a pump pumps, etc. Most fans/pumps have a minimum voltage they require to start moving then from there you can control the speed. More volts than the device is rated for would burn out the device, of course, either instantly or eventually depending on how much more.

The two together (multiplied) determine watts which is actual power usage.

 

[pretzelb]

I have tons of spare fans I could use but I also have a healthy fear of electrical projects mostly because I know less about electricity than most 5 year olds. I did search for some diy stir plate projects which use the same pc fans and power supplies from Radio Shack, but not one of them was clear enough on the wiring for me to understand.

What really concerns me is the combination of electricity with an area that is going have moisture if not small amounts of spilled liquid from time to time.

I do have an old desk fan that isn't doing anything which would fit on the compressor hump. It still concerns me to have that running in the keezer though.

 

[TomSD]

Once it is wired up the risk of injuring yourself is trivial. You are only talking 5v - 12v DC... not like sticking a fork in the wall socket.

 

[SweetSounds]

Once it is wired up the risk of injuring yourself is trivial. You are only talking 5v - 12v DC... not like sticking a fork in the wall socket.

+1
It's 12 volts or less. It's less dangerous than the dome light in my keezer

 

[rawlus]

http://web.me.com/rawlus/Keezer/Photos.html#4
two salvaged computer fans, wired to a 3 speed switch, also from a computer, the switch wire-nutted to the bare and stripped ends of a DC flashlight charger brick.

i mounted one fan as a pusher and one reversed as a puller - which serves to keep air moving in a circular motion (or so i believe) inside the keezer. fans are mounted on hangar bolts lightly screwed into keezer lid, then wingnuts on hanger bolts with a 1.5 inch nylon spacer to keep them off the lid surface a bit.

total cost about $5 for hangar bolts, wingnuts and nylon spacers.

 

[pretzelb]

+1
It's 12 volts or less. It's less dangerous than the dome light in my keezer

Actually I'm more worried about it being a fire hazard. Again, maybe it's my total lack of knowledge which scares me but I fear a wire coming apart due to my bad craftsmanship or water getting into it someway.

 

[VikeMan]

fans are mounted on hangar bolts lightly screwed into keezer lid, then wingnuts on hanger bolts with a 1.5 inch nylon spacer to keep them off the lid surface a bit.

How long have you been using this setup? Seems to me the hangar bolts would work their way loose, but I don't really know. TIA.

---VikeMan

 

[Toecutter]

I have a mini fridge that I keep 2 corneys in. it has a hole cut in the top with PVC ducting leading into my tower which is attached to the bar top. I put a high volume CFM computer fan ducted into the copper pipe that contains my beer lines which leads goes from the mini fridge into the tower. objective is to keep the lines as cold as possible all the way to the spigot. I still dont feel I get enough airflow,and like the idea of the Bilge fan, but it may be too big for my mini fridge.its already pretty tight with 2 cornies and a 5 Lb C02 tank.

 

[TomSD]

I have a mini fridge that I keep 2 corneys in. it has a hole cut in the top with PVC ducting leading into my tower which is attached to the bar top. I put a high volume CFM computer fan ducted into the copper pipe that contains my beer lines which leads goes from the mini fridge into the tower. objective is to keep the lines as cold as possible all the way to the spigot. I still dont feel I get enough airflow,and like the idea of the Bilge fan, but it may be too big for my mini fridge.its already pretty tight with 2 cornies and a 5 Lb C02 tank.

Well the bilge blower can go anywhere and can even be in the middle of the ducting (what it was designed for really). So you could put it in a corner somewhere there is room and drop a bit of ducting down to the bottom to get the cold air then run the outlet up and into your tower.

I just have it dropping down into the bottom where I've lifted the kegs off the floor to improve circulation. Tempted to reverse it and pull the cold air up instead of pushing the hot air down but then every time I opened the keezer I would blow all the cold air out in about two seconds, lol.

Once I have a good feel for how it is cooling, including some data from a killawatt i have attached to it, I will probably reverse it to see what difference it makes.

 

[rawlus]

How long have you been using this setup? Seems to me the hangar bolts would work their way loose, but I don't really know. TIA.

---VikeMan

they're just little computer fans - no way they'll work their way out of the heavy plastic lid... i mean, you could YANK them out if you wanted.. but they're not gonna FALL out anytime soon. its a coarse thread through the plastic lid lining...i didnt drill a pilot hole, just screwed them into the plastic and the insulation behind it...