My Keezer Build Begins.........

[brewagentjay]

My SWMBO picked this up for me last night for 50 dollars.......

:rockin::rockin:

 

[neovox]

Sweet

 

[Pubwilson]

Nice. It looks pretty darn clean and well kept. SWMBO's Grant went a long way in securing a good future keezer!

 

[brewagentjay]

It was a great surprise when I got home at 11pm to see....It needs to be cleaned really bad inside. It was used by a retire guy who just spend his day's fishing and this was his freezer fro it. Now he is moving and cleaning up so I got a good deal rigth off the CL.

 

[shot0rum247]

That's awesome, building one's own HB equipment is the most satisfaction I get from homebrewing...other than drinking . I got my chest freezer off craiglist for 80 bucks and did a number on it, its my brewing crowning achievement. Take a look at my gallery for before and after pics! Let us know if ya have any questions.

 

[Brewman79]

More pix,get to it

 

[brewagentjay]

I got to start ordering parts.......one step at a time. I washed some bottles tonight to bottle tomorrow but soon my bottle days will slow down........

 

[brewagentjay]

I got my first questions:

1) What a good way to clean this freezer in the inside? It still got a catfish smell.
2) How do I handle getting hinges for it cause it has the bar hinge inside the lid.
(I'll get pictures when I get back home, I got called into work a bit ago.)

 

[fineexampl]

I got my first questions:

1) What a good way to clean this freezer in the inside? It still got a catfish smell.
2) How do I handle getting hinges for it cause it has the bar hinge inside the lid.
(I'll get pictures when I get back home, I got called into work a bit ago.)

start with an assload of Oxyclean and go from there. Still stinks? Get some activated charcoal/carbon from the pet store, the cheapest they have, and dump a bunch of that in there for a few days and change it out and see if it smells any less.

 

[shot0rum247]

Sears website will direct you to their appliance parts section and they have EVERYTHING for that stuff. I got the small plastic push clips that hold the rubber seal onto the lid of my 10 year old freezer I got off craigslist...they probably have what you're looking for.

 

[brewagentjay]

I noticed everyone has the hinges on back. I'm assuming they came with freezer. Mine has these like car hood deals on back inside of freezer so curious on how to deal with them. Anyone got something similar. I'll post a pic later today.

 

[brewagentjay]

Freezer Has Been Soaking In Oxyclean For The Last Few Days.......

 

[fineexampl]

I noticed everyone has the hinges on back. I'm assuming they came with freezer. Mine has these like car hood deals on back inside of freezer so curious on how to deal with them. Anyone got something similar. I'll post a pic later today.

Did you get that pic?

Freezer Has Been Soaking In Oxyclean For The Last Few Days.......

:rockin:

 

[android]

i can't guarantee that yours are like mine, but i think those hinges are mostly similar. all you should need to do is unscrew them from the body and rescrew them into the wood collar. my collar was offset maybe 1/4" in from the body and they still screwed in fine and close fine.

 

[brewagentjay]

what do you think? I'm thinking I need to take the inside top of freezer off to see what I got to work with.

 

[fineexampl]

Wow! Never saw hinges like that. You may look into buying different? i don't know. If it were me i'd cut them and get new ones for the outside.

 

[brewagentjay]

Wow! Never saw hinges like that. You may look into buying different? i don't know. If it were me i'd cut them and get new ones for the outside.

Thinking that is the plan. Just wondering what would be the best way to get them out.........

Don't want to mess up the nice freezer.

 

[fineexampl]

Thinking that is the plan. Just wondering what would be the best way to get them out.........

Don't want to mess up the nice freezer.

good point. See if you can take it apart first. you can always rig it to work afterward if you muss it up. It's just a lid after all.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Thinking that is the plan. Just wondering what would be the best way to get them out.........

Don't want to mess up the nice freezer.

How about a pic of the back so we can see the hinges?

 

[brewagentjay]

There is no hinges on back that's it the metal hook looking bar goes straight down into the corners.

 

[brewagentjay]

Bump.....So anyone dealt with these type of hinges? Also I'm gonna start getting my parts. So what parts should I aim to get first.........

Thanks.

 

[riored4v]

Bump.....So anyone dealt with these type of hinges? Also I'm gonna start getting my parts. So what parts should I aim to get first.........

Thanks.

mine has those kind of hinges, but i didnt add a collar or anything to mine since the kegs fit down with plenty of room.

if you do open it up, you should be able to see the screws that attach to the main box. if i remember correctly, i can on mine. if you can get the hinge removed, and add a collar, you can pick up some fence type hinges that you could attach externally.

 

[shot0rum247]

If your kegs fit fine in the freezer to begin with dont even bother with a collar, it just makes your life easier and will give your freezer better energy efficiency. So you may be able to just to keep those hinges where they are unless they are having problems. Did you decide whether you want to do towers of front-mounted taps? I would recommend towers if you are not doing a collar so you don't worry about hitting any cooling coils.

 

[Monty420th]

just got mine last night and it has the same kind of hinges for the top

mine does have hex bolts on the back that I am assuming hold that sucker in place, I am going to try and remove those bolts tonight and if the lid comes off it was a success, do you have those bolts in the back, one on each end?

 

[brewagentjay]

I really like a collar so I can have front mount taps. The collars are cool but seem to make it not easy to get kegs in and out. I could put it on wheels so I can pull it out from wall when it's keg chaning time.

I'll look for these bolts could be behind the plastic circles I see. If I go with collar I'm gonna put new hinges on.

Any one else got thoughts on collar or no and tower or no?

 

[Monty420th]

are you going to be putting kegs or carboys on the hump?

if you are, then you will need the collar to give you the extra 6" to get this done. Also, the collar is a good idea that way you don't have to be drilling holes in the top or god forbid, the freezer. You will probably need the collar just because of the hinges, if you don't already have hinges in the back like mine you will need the collar to mount the hinges to so you don't have to concern yourself with ruining your freezer

when I do mine I am going to be putting on a collar just so I can drill into the wood and not have a panic attack that I am going to hit a cooling or heat transfer line..that would really suck.

Advantages for you to use the collar

mounting the hinges becomes very simple because you are drilling into wood
you can put carboys or keg on the hump and you can close the top
drilling the hole for the temp regulator is simple
drilling the hole for Co2 is simple (if you are keeping the tank on the outside or if you plan on having it on the outside in the future)

my $.02

 

[brewagentjay]

I agree Monty I wanted to go with collar the entire time I just wanted to get some more information before since someone mentioned not useing the collar.

I'm still going to have to drill new hinges into collar and freezer but that would be only holes to drill. Cause I don't think I can use existing hinges for attaching collar to freezer. Now new hinges for top to collar should be no issues as I'll be attaching to collar.

Yes I plan on using hump for carboys for lagering.

 

[Monty420th]

drilling for the hinges basically forces your hand...makes life a lot simpler

 

[brewagentjay]

drilling for the hinges basically forces your hand...makes life a lot simpler

So the only actual drilling into freezer will be the hinges for collar, which will be small and I'll do it in same area as old hinges were so should be okay not to hit a line......

 

[Monty420th]

praying to god..