Run fan in keezer full time?

[zachattack]

Don't understand how a fan will help with condensation, I always thought that depends on your local humidity and how much air leakage one has to the keezer.

Maybe if I lived in a dry climate I would be a fan of freezer keezers, but IME in the northeast a fridge is better...my keezers always turned to swamp in the humid summer months...

Tons of us in the Northeast use keezers! Mine has been fine in a humid basement, funky garage, etc. The fan helps with humidity because it keeps the air circulating so the desiccant can more effectively grab the moisture.

If your keezer turns to a swamp in the summer, you have an air leak. At the peak of summer I'm regenerating my Eva Dry only once a month or so.

 

[pretzelb]

I've heard that condensation is caused by an air leak but I've never been able find where mine is leaking. I know my kegs are colder near the bottom without any fans and that is where the condensation starts. Hopefully the fan will help.

 

[user 204491]

Yeah, condensation is caused by air getting into your keezer somehow. Might be the seal between your lid and your collar, might be the seal between the collar and your keezer, could be your collar is not tight, or maybe you just open the darn thing up too much.

Using a fan helps with the condensation as it keeps the air moving along which makes any sort of dehumidifier more effective. I also use the large Eva-Dry in mine. I think I need to recharge it once a month or so.

If you're having severe condensation issues you could also look at putting a fan directly on the Eva-Dry using velcro or rubber bands. That would make it even more effective.

 

[TorMag]

I have yet to put finish my keezer, I have the collar of course, but right now I have wires hanging out under the lid. I know bad seal.... How do you run wires out of the collar, did you just drill a big hole and then seal it up? What is the best method?

 

[user 204491]

For my gas line I drilled a pretty snug hole in the collar, worked the tubing through that, and then I sealed inside and out with a bead of silicone caulking (the same stuff I used to seal my collar to the freezer).

For the wires (I've got two fan cables and a temp probe), I simply cut out a very small bit of the weatherstripping (maybe 1/2" wide) from the top of my keezer and ran all three wires though there. It's a pretty small opening, and there's still the seal of the freezer lid holding things tight.

I know that's not a perfectly airtight solution, but it is a very tiny ingress point, and in 8 months of use I've not had any condensation problems.

 

[pretzelb]

I keep my gas inside so up until I added the fan my only hole was for the temp probe which I then filled with caulk. It has been so long since I added the collar I don't recall but I think I have weather striping between the collar and the freezer. I left the freezer lid alone on top of the collar because it fit well and should be just as good as if the collar wasn't there.

The fan has me stumped. For now I cut a small trench in the collar for the cord. If I was to drill another hole it would need to be excessively big to fit the plug. If the trench works I can add caulk to tighten it up.

I should probably take it all apart but with 2x10s it is fairly big and I'm being lazy.

 

[TorMag]

I keep my gas inside so up until I added the fan my only hole was for the temp probe which I then filled with caulk. It has been so long since I added the collar I don't recall but I think I have weather striping between the collar and the freezer. I left the freezer lid alone on top of the collar because it fit well and should be just as good as if the collar wasn't there.

The fan has me stumped. For now I cut a small trench in the collar for the cord. If I was to drill another hole it would need to be excessively big to fit the plug. If the trench works I can add caulk to tighten it up.

I should probably take it all apart but with 2x10s it is fairly big and I'm being lazy.

I was thinking of going with the trench idea too and then filling it up with wood putty on the back side. So how many of you keep your gas in the keezer?

 

[user 204491]

On mine I put weatherstripping on the top of the freezer/bottom of the collar connection as well as on the top of the collar/bottom lid connection. Even though the freezer lid has its own seal, I found that it wasn't sealing tightly on mine as boards generally aren't straight enough to provide a good seal. Give it a try around yours with the dollar bill trick. Essentially put a dollar bill on top of the collar and close the lid. If you can pull it out without much effort then you don't have a tight seal. Try this all the way around your collar.

I wouldn't overthink the cord management too much. Just notch out a bit of the weatherstripping a bit, and run your cords through there. The lid seal should help keep out all but the smallest amount of air there.

Although at this point I think we've veered far , which was should you keep your keezer fan running 24/7, and to that I say yes.

 

[pretzelb]

On mine I put weatherstripping on the top of the freezer/bottom of the collar connection as well as on the top of the collar/bottom lid connection. Even though the freezer lid has its own seal, I found that it wasn't sealing tightly on mine as boards generally aren't straight enough to provide a good seal. Give it a try around yours with the dollar bill trick. Essentially put a dollar bill on top of the collar and close the lid. If you can pull it out without much effort then you don't have a tight seal. Try this all the way around your collar.

I wouldn't overthink the cord management too much. Just notch out a bit of the weatherstripping a bit, and run your cords through there. The lid seal should help keep out all but the smallest amount of air there.

Although at this point I think we've veered far , which was should you keep your keezer fan running 24/7, and to that I say yes.

Yea, I was thinking I should start another topic of condensation but we have nearly covered it all here. I might give the weather striping a try between the lid and the collar.

 

[Thorsbrew]

Just joined and started homebrewing recently but I thought I'd chime in and offer my experience.

Yeah I use a fan 24/7. Though I wanted to note that I was also going to get the eva-dry dehumidifier as others here mentioned until I found out it's nothing more than a box with a little bit of silica gel beads and a heating element to dehumidify them. Well i can dehumidify them in the oven so i instead opted to buy a 5lb bag of silica gel beads for $22. Not sure exactly how much is in the eva dry units but based on what i saw on amazon it must be at least 20-30 times the quantity for roughly the same price.

 

[zachattack]

Hey Thorsbrew, good call. That's been discussed in a few other threads here. My small eva-dry does the job for me (I have it located right below the fan) and in my opinion it's much easier to just plug in the 40W heater overnight every month or two than deal with loose beads and heating up an entire oven. Though remember they can be baked out in a microwave as well

 

[pretzelb]

So far adding the two fans seems like a great idea. I still need to seal for air leaks but the beer is flowing at a great temperature and I don't seem to get as much foam.

View attachment 1463857861264.jpg

 

[user 204491]

Awesome, glad that helped. I've got one in the back left corner and another at the front right corner, both fans at the bottom of the keezer, and both blowing up. Another thing that really helps is if you can get the kegs lifted up off the floor of the keezer a bit. I put an old wire fridge shelf at the bottom, supported in the middle with 6 canning jar rings. That raises the kegs off the floor by about 1 - 1 1.5" which is plenty to keep the air moving down there.

 

[Blkblu]

After running my keezer for 2 yrs with a USB fan pushing cold air into tower and back into keezer I have decided today to insulate the collar I get lots of ice build up I also sealed up any other possible leaks (hopefully) excited to see how it performs now

 

[william_shakes_beer]

nvr mnd

 

[Zepth]

Using an old computer fan and USB 5v adapter to quiet it a little. 24/7 use. I was having an issue with stratification. This compounded with the beer line coils on top of the keg, CO2 would come out of solution and until the lines were purged it would be a foamy sputtering pour. Not anymore, proper beer right from the start.