Upright Keezer, 8 taps, 11 kegs

[JonW]

if drilling on the rear, couldn't you do an 'exploratory' drill by using a hole saw to cut just the exterior and then poking the foam to see if there are any coils?

Yes, lots of ways to explore and find out if it is safe before just pushing a drill all the way through. C'mon people, just figure it out!

 

[deathmatch782]

I drilled my freezer last night for gas holes in the back panel. I saw a schematic somewhere that showed the line locations and there was nothing in the back panel. The model of my freezer is Frigidaire LFFH2067DW2

 

[krazydave]

Mine definitely has coils on the top and sides. It's very apparent once it's been on for a few minutes as the whole thing gets warm except on the rear. Mine also looks almost identical to deathmatch782's pic above. If your gonna drill, I would go for the back wall unless your model has it's coils back there and you know it for sure.

 

[barrooze]

For those of you with freezers smaller than 20 cu.ft., how many kegs can you fit? I've been looking at the 17 cu.ft. range and am wondering how many pin lock kegs will fit. It seems that the limiting factor is the internal width of the freezer, and the 16s, 17s, and 20s all appear to have the same external width of 34in. Is it safe to say that the 5 on bottom/6 on top configuration will work for most freezers in the 17 cu.ft. range (assuming there's enough height for the kegs because the height and depth are changing while the width is remaining the same?

Thanks!

 

[krazydave]

Many of the smaller ones that I saw when I was shopping, also had compressor humps on the bottom that limit what you can actually fit down there.
I also know that in my 20 cu. ft. freezer the six pin locks on top and five on bottom is pretty tight, but it does just barely work. Not sure that it'd work in anything much smaller.

 

[Howhownow]

Every once in a while I see this thread pop up and think "this f'n thing!".
Good job, OP. :rockin:

 

[JonW]

Every once in a while I see this thread pop up and think "this f'n thing!".
Good job, OP. :rockin:

Thanks!

I got a kick out of a Facebook post I saw a couple of weeks ago from The Homebrewing Society when they asked people "What's in your kegerator?" and they showed a picture of mine! They should have used one of the newer pics that showed the digital tap list.

 

[krazydave]

Hah! I saw that also and figured that they had asked you to use the image.

 

[GriffinsRoost]

I finally finished up my build this weekend. 6 taps with room for 2 more. 6 regulator secondary, and another with a Y for carbing.

I used pressure sensitive veneer for the backsplash. Stained and then glued down the trim with construction adhesive. I then stained the veneer to match, and put 2 coats of urethane on the whole thing. I built the drip tray shelf with a piece of pine, more trim, and corbels I ordered through home depot online.

The goal was to make it nice enough that SWMBO would allow it in the house. It now sits in our formal dining room.

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[General_Jah]

looks fantastic!

 

[vwmasstransit]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1469096568.685882.jpgI pulled the plastic plug out of the side for the racks. Then I used my fingers to "drill" the rest of the foam out, ensuring if I hit a line it wouldn't be damaged. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1469096686.460509.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1469096717.241407.jpgI have almost the same freezer and a few posts back, but I got the fridge/freezer version. It's 17CF and I can easily fit 8 kegs. As you can see from the "stage 1" pic 4 on the bottom just fine. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1469096923.499586.jpgAnd here is "stage 2" with the nitro taps in and operational. "stage 3" will be to put the last 2 CO2 taps in.

 

[barrooze]

I've got my freezer! Now I need to build out the inside. How are you all of you attaching your gas manifolds? I see some of you modding your door, adding material and mounting to that (as GriffinsRoost as shown), but for those of you who've not mounted to a modded door, how are you attaching? Would self-tapping screws be fine and mounting to the sides? I'm concerned with hitting coils if I do that...

Thanks!

 

[GriffinsRoost]

Self tapping screws should be fine as long as you use short screws. The coil is closest to the outside wall(this is why the outside gets hot) with insulation in between.

 

[JonW]

You can see in the first pic of this thread that I mounted mine under the wood/wire shelf. This way it is tucked into the 2x2 frame and not in the way of anything else.

 

[Brew207]

A friend of mine is starting a bar in Costa Rica and needed some help on their Keezer Build. Luckily, I found a 20 cubic foot freezer for free on the side of the road and decided to document the build for their benefit (and for mine). I have one more video to go, but here is the 1st with links to the second and attached links in the comments sections for build items. It should compliment your thread nicely.

Part 1
https://youtu.be/pghGVWdZnm8

Part 2
https://youtu.be/C8-xzX4Vruk

 

[meanmoe]

This is a great thread. After much deliberation on whether to build a coffin keezer or go upright, I decided that this was the way to go. So I just acquired one of these 20ft^3 freezers. It's the frost free version very similar to the OP. I've gone as far as to remove the shelves and plug it up.

I have an STC-1000 controller and want to wire it in to the freezer's wiring, are there any guides on how to do this? If it's in the thread and I missed it, I apologize, I've gone through almost all 35 pages.

Also, would it be beneficial to wire in the defrost heater to the hot side of the controller?

Anybody have pictures of their controller mounted and how they handled the sensor?

Thanks a lot in advance.

Edit:

Here's the wiring diagram:
I was going to splice the STC1000 power in to A and B, and then bypass the "Cold Control" for the STC-1000 cold side. Should I also bypass the Defrost Themostat on the hot side or is that a bad idea?

 

[GriffinsRoost]

I did not use a separate temperature controller in my build. I simply adjusted the factory installed thermostat to operate at a higher temperature. A guide to doing that is in this thread:

Guide to set internal chest freezer thermostat to >32F; Eliminate external control

It took a couple of days of adjust and wait to zero in on it, but the up side is that I didn't need to modify any wiring.

If you DO choose to use the STC-1000, I don't think it is necessary to bypass the defrost heater. The defrost thermostat actually helps you out here and will disengage the defrost heater when the coil temp gets above 40 degrees, to prevent excessive heating in compartment. The defrost timer will still shut off the compressor for the defrost cycle, but the effects on temperature in the chamber would be minimal.

You are pretty close with your wiring. A-B for STC power. You should need to run 3 wires from the wiring section located in the "hump" at the back of the freezer. 1 wire for 120V, 1 wire for Neutral, and 1 wire for cooling output. You would put a jumper from the 120V to one side of the cooling relay. the 3rd wire (cooling output) would wire to the blue wire that you would disconnect from the thermostat.

I have the same freezer as a fermentation chamber, where I DID use the STC controller. So if you do decide to go that route, let me know and I can snap some pictures of my wiring for you.

 

[meanmoe]

Thank you!

I integrated in the STC-1000. It was very easy.

I simply opened up the hump inside the freezer, cut the wires going to the thermostat and wired them into the controller. The Black went to 120V in and was spliced over into the cold relay. The Blue went to the cold out. Then I spliced the neutral white wire from somewhere else into the 120V out.
Just like you described.

I ran the wires out of the hump and up the inside corner to the top of the freezer then along the roof, still in the corner, towards the front. The controller sits there. Right now it's hanging by ducktape, but soon I'll have an enclosure built from acrylic and mounted.

Thanks again.

Next step will be to drill out the door for shanks and faucets, but I had to get it running so I could shove some kegs in it and reclaim my chest freezer as a fermentation freezer for brew day... which went great!

 

[meanmoe]

When you guys cut the door shelves out, how did you mount the new backing?

I'm going to mount a primary regulator, a 2 4-body regulators, a small distributor, and maybe a computer (Rasppi and arduino).

 

[GriffinsRoost]

I just glued some flooring underlayment to the paper board using wood glue. Kept a few shelves on bottom for cans and bottles.

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[meanmoe]

Thanks for the additional pictures. So behind the plastic is paper covering insulation?

Are you using 4" shanks? How much thread is left on the shank, i.e. how much thicker could the underlayment be before the beer nut wouldn't have enough threads?

By the way, I'm also looking at putting a veneer on the door.

 

[GriffinsRoost]

It is not just paper. More like a high density cardboard. It does have some rigidity to it. There are several people in this thread that just screwed down the shanks on the board without adding any other material. That might be OK if you were just screwing down the shanks, but if you are attaching manifolds and regulators, you need something for the screws to hold on to. They would pull right out of the cardboard backing. The extra backing also gives more rigidity when cranking down on the shanks.

I used the 4 1/8" shanks. After adding the thickness of the underlayment (I think I used 1/8" utility board), and the veneer, there was just enough thread to screw on the tail pieces. Had I used plywood or something else on the front instead of the veneer (won't work anyway since the door is not completely flat), there would not have been enough thread.

Here is a link to the veneer that I used: http://www.rockler.com/psa-pressure-sensitive-veneer-new-sizes-new-24-inch-x-32-inch

It was just the right size.
One note, be EXTREMELY careful when applying the veneer. The backing is super sticky, and once it is laid down, it is there for good.
I purchased this scrapper to get good pressure on it to help the adhesive form a good bond: http://www.veneersupplies.com/products/Veneer-Scraper-for-Backed-Veneers.html
It is best to have some help when you are putting it down. I did not, and had to reposition because it was not going down straight. Fortunately I realized it early on as I was placing it, so I was able to pull the little amount up that I had down, but some of the adhesive stuck and created a small bubble.

This is the method I used for doing the panel. First thing I did was to lay out the veneer flat on the table, then measured the actual dimensions and cut the trim. Once I had test fit and adjusted all the trim pieces to match the veneer, I stained and sealed the trim with urethane (left the back raw, and rough sanded, marked each piece by location).

If I recall correctly, I aligned and glued down the left side trim, top left rosette and top trim first and used them as a guide for laying the veneer, and then glued down the rest of the trim. Once the glue set, I stained and sealed the veneer.

 

[bugnout]

JonW, Great work. Since Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I'm stealing most of your ideas for my project. I was on my way to buying a Danby and modifying it to have 2 kegs available, but this project fits the need for a keezer and a place to lager in the same bill.

I found an old Kenmore 20+CF last week on CR for $100. Only issue was one of the door shelf brackets was broken. I spent the weekend cleaning it up and readjusting the thermostat. It is steady 39.5 F now. This evening I'm going to disable the defrost timer, build the wire shelf support and make the door brackets for the drip tray shelf.

Thanks for the inspiration, I'll post pictures once I've completed the build.

 

[krazydave]

JonW, Great work. Since Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I'm stealing most of your ideas for my project. I was on my way to buying a Danby and modifying it to have 2 kegs available, but this project fits the need for a keezer and a place to lager in the same bill.

I found an old Kenmore 20+CF last week on CR for $100. Only issue was one of the door shelf brackets was broken. I spent the weekend cleaning it up and readjusting the thermostat. It is steady 39.5 F now. This evening I'm going to disable the defrost timer, build the wire shelf support and make the door brackets for the drip tray shelf.

Thanks for the inspiration, I'll post pictures once I've completed the build.

I would leave the defrost timer intact. I disabled mine at first and it only took one humid day before the evap coils were a solid block of ice and not letting much airflow through. With so much thermal mass in there, I have yet to actually see the internal temp really climb much more that half a degree when the defrost cycle is on.

 

[bugnout]

I would leave the defrost timer intact.

Thanks, good tip, I'm in the Midwest and average humidity here is >70% year round

 

[toms_Jeep]

I was reading through this and noticed a lot of you getting freezers off Craigslist used for around $200. I am finding a few in the $300 range Denver Area.
My question is;
How old is too old to get? I mean is $225-$250 for a 2006 unit good should I be buying newer or paying less (he is asking $300)
I have looked at 2 in very good condition and working well one from 2006 and the other was 2001.

 

[sikkingj]

The difference in vintage will be the energy star rating (how much electricity it consumes) and the amount of wear and tear on the freezer. As a keezer you put a few more miles per year on the compressor then would normally happen.

Find one that meets your space requirements and then progress from there.

 

[Howhownow]

Weird thing about these older fridges is that often they can consume equal or less power than a modern one. It has to do with the fact that they do not run auto defrost cycles. That also means you'll have to manually defrost the freezer every once in a while.

I was very skeptical, but when I hooked up my '57 I did not see any appreciable jump in electrical cost.


Edit: sorry, I did not read close enough. Any 'modern' fridge will auto cycle, and energy rating should be accessible.

 

[BrunDog]

Keep in mind that most manual defrost uprights have shelves which are evaporator coils - which means they are not relocatable.

 

[jakeasaur]

Keep in mind that most manual defrost uprights have shelves which are evaporator coils - which means they are not relocatable.

And when run at refrigerator temperatures the coils will rust and leak brown gunk all over your kegs. At least an older model did when I tried to use it as a bottle fridge