Second story on chest freezer?

[BaldApe]

Greetings,

I have a 7 cu ft chest freezer, and I am contemplating adding a second level to it.

My idea is to make a well-insulated shell like the collar typically added to a freezer that's too short for cornies and fittings, but to make it about 4 ft tall with the door on the end. I would design it with removable shelves above the existing freezer, and use a temp controller to operate a fan to draw cold air up to the top chamber. The idea is to have the bottom level for long term storage of full cornies, bottles, whatever, and use the top for fermentation. A 2-stage temp controller would draw up cold air from the bottom to chill the chamber, and a FermWrap or similar heater would apply heat if needed to each fermenter.

I already have several STC 1000 2-stage controllers wired up. I'd use one to maintain cold in the lower chamber, another to draw cold air up from below, and one each to maintain each fermenter.

TBH, this is most likely a pipe dream. But my question is, would this work in principle? Can the chest freezer handle that much volume if I insulate the upper chamber well enough?

 

[PADave]

How would you get into the bottom freezer section?

 

[BaldApe]

The floor of the top section would come out. I figure two pieces that slide in from the end. The far end of the end piece has a cutout for a piece of duct that draws air from below.

The chest freezer isn't very long, so I can reach the opposite end pretty easily.

 

[PADave]

Sounds like a lot of work. But in theory, the top section wouldn't need that much cool air to keep fermentation temps. Unless floor space is a premium, two separate units would be the more practical choice. Would probably cost more to build than to just buy another freezer.

 

[mongoose33]

I had the same thought....unless floorspace is at a huge premium, you'll end up spending as much or more to do this as it would to buy another ferm chamber...or three.

I have two refrigerators as ferm chambers; one semi-normal size in which I can get two fermenters at a time, and another smaller 4.4 cuft dorm-style refrigerator.

Those smaller dorm-style fridges are on Craigslist all the time. I recently checked out such refrigerators on CL for Columbus Ohio; they ranged in price from $75 down to....$30. A normal price for those is $50-60.

The other consideration here is lifting. I have a keezer and I can lift kegs in there, but it's not all that enjoyable to do. It's why I like the refrigerators as ferm chambers--no lifting other than about 3". And with the big ferm chamber, the freezer compartment on top is perfect for chilling a rack of bottles prior to filling them off the keezer.

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Now, having said that, I have on occasion in my life done things mostly just to see if I could. Maybe that motivates you and this would thus be a "demonstrate it" project. If so, more power to you, document heavily including pics, and post the pics and final results here.

Good luck and enjoy the process whatever you choose!

 

[Mic Carp]

I am curios as all get-out to see what happened with this idea. I too loke to think outside the box and jury rig crazy contraptions.

 

[BaldApe]

I am curios as all get-out to see what happened with this idea. I too loke to think outside the box and jury rig crazy contraptions.

I never did it. While it was probably feasable, I had better thengs to do with my brewing budget