RIP my Keezer friend

[denverdan]

I haven't been on hbt in quite a while. However, my first Keezer build was inspired by this forum. The information I was able to gather from other members here was inspirational and highly informative. Unfortunately, my Keezer is beginning to die. The freezer is no longer able to hold a temperature below 50 degrees. Bummer. I attached some photos of the poor thing. I guess appliances don't last forever. Fortunately, I'd guess about 250 gallons of beer have flowed from it.

We have a smaller upright fridge in the garage our previous homeowners left us. I can easily fit 4 kegs in it. So that may be my future distribution system. Maybe it's not as elligtent as converting a chest freezer to a Keezer, but with some additional ideas from hbt, maybe I can create something new and unique. Fortunately, refrigerators have their cooling coils in the back with gives a lot more possibly to framing the refrigerator just right with wood, etc. Due to chest freezers having coils distributed throughout it's shell, I was only able to frame it in 1/4 mdf paneling ( which still looked fairly nice once painted).

RIP my Keezer friend.

 

[TechFanMD]

That is really sad. Sorry to hear that you'll have to get rid of it.

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

Pour some out for the dead keezers. RIP.

 

[pigroaster]

May you in time remember the good times you had together!

 

[ba-brewer]

50 is low enough to cellar and lager beer, you can let if fade gracefully.

 

[TechFanMD]

Just curious - did you investigate at all? The condenser could be really dirty, or possibly a stuck thermostat. You probably use an external controller, so you would have the freezer itself set for max cold and then the controller just turns it on/off to meet the temp setting on your external control. If the freezer thermometer thinks that 50F is actually 0F - or whatever the freezers lowest setting is - it will never get colder (because the freezer setting is triggering before your external temp controller).

I think compressor/refrigerant issues on newer (ie past 20 years) are pretty rare on the whole. Not to say it doesn't happen, but they're pretty resilient.

Hopefully it is something simple and won't require you to give up such a great setup.

 

[denverdan]

I actually did some troubleshooting already. I plugged the freezer directly into the wall and bypassed the controller. It still runs incessantly and the temp stalls out at 50. However, when the freezer is running, there is one small area on the inside that feels ice cold. The rest of the walls are not cold at all. Maybe there is a blockage in the line in that one spot?

I do have some rust spots where a keg was touching the side of the freezer. Maybe that created the issue.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I wonder if cladding the sides even with thinner material puts extra load on the system? I think my keezer will at most be painted.

 

[TheHopfather]

My fermentation fridge recently crapped out, after some investigation it turned out it was the relay that starts the compressor. A $20 part and a few minutes of work to swap it out. Telltale sign was everything appeared to be running, no cold air was blowing out of the fan and the compressor was getting hot to the touch. Might be worth checking out, you can test it with a multimeter to see where the power stops flowing in the system. Might be an easier fix than you think.

 

[denverdan]

I wonder if cladding the sides even with thinner material puts extra load on the system? I think my keezer will at most be painted.

It probably shortens the life. However, my freezer has been working fine for 8 years (up until now). It has 1/4 in. painted mdf board glued to 3 sides of it. You can still feel the heat radiating from the sides when it's running. The reasoning for the cladding is that the freezer lived in our kitchen for a while and needed to look "presentable". It looks more like a piece of furniture than an appliance. If I were to build a new keezer now, and given that it would live in the basement, I'd probably just do a simple wood collar and paint it with chalkboard paint.

 

[TechFanMD]

I deal with small refrigeration systems a lot with work (every customer site has one to go with our instruments). It is almost always a thermostat (sounds like it isn't your issue), a relay, or something that isn't the compressor or gas.......but of course some of the time it is......and that gets expensive quickly.

 

[day_trippr]

Sorry for your loss. First pour o' the day will be in your keezer's memory.

The fact that there is a cold spot (I wager in a corner) indicates the compressor is indeed running but the working fluid is so low the high pressure side, isn't. What little dense vapor remains flashes at the beginning of the evaporator loop (again, usually in a corner). In time even that cold spot will disappear.

So, yeah, "It's Dead, Jim"

 

[ba-brewer]

I think the guys that make a bigger shell around the keezer have the right idea. You can swap out the freezer and don't have to redo the decorative part.

 

[ExMachina]

I actually did some troubleshooting already. I plugged the freezer directly into the wall and bypassed the controller. It still runs incessantly and the temp stalls out at 50. However, when the freezer is running, there is one small area on the inside that feels ice cold. The rest of the walls are not cold at all. Maybe there is a blockage in the line in that one spot?

I do have some rust spots where a keg was touching the side of the freezer. Maybe that created the issue.

This is EXACTLY what my 18 year old freezer has started doing. It's killing me because it seems like it it otherwise working but that the coolant is somehow not making it around anymore. If you ever figure out what's the issue let me know. I'll do the same.