Preferred fridge/freezer design for kegs & bottles?

[xxguitarist]

I'll be bottling my first few batches completely, and eventually be buying a corny setup. I'd like a fridge, keezer, whatever, that easily handles both bottles and kegs. Mini fridges seem better for bottles, keezers seem better for kegs.
Input?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

That's why I use my old kitchen fridge for my main kegerator. It has enough room for 2 kegs, plus 3 shelves of bottled beer.

 

[malkore]

with a chest freezer, you have the compressor 'hump' to put bottles on. depending on the size of the keezer you might fit 12-20 bottles on that hump, more if you devised a way to stack them.

 

[MistyMountainHops]

You could probably get a small fridge for bottles and a freezer to turn into a keezer for nothing on craigslist if you looked.

 

[MistyMountainHops]

*close to nothing

 

[xxguitarist]

I wasn't aware that the bump in a chest freezer was quite that large. This might work out better than expected. I don't want to be buying two separate appliances, since we already have the kitchen fridge & a basement (vertical) freezer.

I'll search also, but is there a commonly recommended temp controller for the chest freezers?

 

[Whut]

I have two of the Johnson Controls A419's and they're great. Don't know if they're commonly recommended though but I do see them on sale a lot.

 

[goose1873]

i have digital rancos and love them but they are like $50 on ebay.

...+1 on keezer. you'll love it once you start kegging...

 

[ksbrain]

I have a stand up side-by-side fridge for my kegs. I can fit four ball locks in there, with a shelf above the kegs for yeast harvest jars, two drawers under the kegs for brewing materials, and a door full of shelves for bottles. I retired my old top-freezer stand-up fridge in favor of this one. That said, I've never had a chest freezer, but I'm pretty happy with my setup. The only thing I'd see a chest freezer getting me is more taps or room to carbonate a few kegs waiting for open taps. I suppose one day when I have a bar in the basement, a chest freezer probably fits in under a bar better, too.

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I have two of the Johnson Controls A419's and they're great. Don't know if they're commonly recommended though but I do see them on sale a lot.

+1. I use one of these on each of my kegerators. A little pricey at $80 a pop, but well worth it.