small battery powered fan for keezer - why is it stopping?

[Beavis740]

I bought two small fans powered by two AA batteries. I set one in my fermentation chamber (a front opening minifridge); and the other in my keezer (a medium size top opening deep freeze).

When I open the door to either chamber, after a period of an hour or two, the fans are invariably not turning. I can hear the motor trying, but it can't turn the blades.

When I remove the fans from the chambers and let them rest awhile, they spin like crazy.

Is there some kind of weird science going on? A pressure or a temperature issue? Can't figure out WUTs going on.

 

[Pkrd]

Batteries don't like the cold. They aren't a good solution for a keezer or fermenting chamber either, as they'll need frequent battery changing.
Running 5V fans off a USB power supply works well.

 

[Brewdog80]

Yep, solder your wall wart into the fans and plug in outside...

 

[magno]

Definitely the batteries not liking the cold... I spliced the power to the fan to my fermentation fridge's power supply, so that the fan turns on when the fridge compressor does.

 

[day_trippr]

A large portion of the logic for using a "stirring fan" is to level out the chamber temperature when compressors are turned on or off.
With a chest freezer one should rapidly come to the conclusion "24/7 Works Best".
It might take a little bit longer to come to the same conclusion using a fridge...

Cheers!

 

[Golddiggie]

Instead of going with a battery operated fan, I went with one that runs on 120v for my keezer.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VYGQPCZThe speed control means I get to set the amount of air it moves. It's been working very well since I installed it (when I put the keezer together). Just drilled a hole large enough for the connection to run through and then sealed it up after. I mounted the controller onto the back of the collar so it's out of the way (not dangling off the back).