Keezer newbie questions

[Garyius]

Complete keezer newbie here. My wife and I have redone our back room as a beer room, installed a laminate floor (click type is a two man job and still sucks BTW) repaint, et al.

We have our manual defrost chest freezer, 41 inches long, 21 wide.

I have it set up with a johnson thermostat, and am running it with a picnic tap for now as I finish up.

I have three newbie questions:

1. Manual defrost. Is there some better way other than wiping the inside back wall off with a washcloth every few days?

2. I am going to build a replacement lid. My plans right now are for 1/2 ply top and bottom with 3/4 red oak wide wrapping and a single 3/4 ply running off center lengthwise and two 3/4 ply cross members, and insulation and edge gasket. What am I doing wrong with this design?

3. I am going to place the draft tower dead center, and overfeed the beer tubing with copper flex tube for a foot. Other than padding the inside end of the copper tube like mad, will this work for cooling and what else do I need to know?

 

[kegtoe]

take a look at my post if you wnat and can PM me with other specific questions.

1. i jsut wipe my keezer out when i tranfer kegs.
2. why are you building a replacement lid if you jsut putting a draft tower on the top?
3. I have a week irish coffin style. I have NO insulation in it and my beers pour fine.

 

[Garyius]

I put two pieces of 1/2 ID copper tubing over the lines in the tower, and extending down into the chest 1 foot.

The new top is 1. because it was a free freezer with a cracked top, and the top had more water than the drip tray. 2. It looks cool.

I have two containers of damp rid now and it has cut the wetness by about 90%.

I get slight foaming on the first beer poured. I am considering extending the heat transfer by ganging another two feet of empty copper (three feet total on the ganged piece) down towards the bottom of the freezer.