Chest Freezer

[BlightyBrewer]

I've just bought a chest freezer for my kegerator project, and I am a little concerned about whether the internal floor is up to supporting three kegs full of beer. The internal floor is not supported very well underneath, and I am concerned that 60kgs of beer could cause it to fail! My question is, whereabouts are the cooling lines located? If I brace this floor underneath, am at risk of squashing the cooling pipework?

[Scooby]

Why not get a piece of marine ply and cut it to fit the bottom of the freezer, it would distribute the weight. You could give it a few coats of unibond or such to seal if you wanted or even a piece of regular ply or mdf coated would do. I don't reckon you would need to do it though.

[adm]

You'd have thought that part of the type approval testing for a freezer would be that the floor of it needs to be able to support the weight of its own internal volume filled with solid ice.

Maybe not though.....

In any case, I've got a cheapie Vestfrost one and it quite happily supports 5 full cornies. Well....it might not be happy about it, but it does it nonetheless.

[Aleman]

I have a piece of 2 by 4 installed underneath the floor of mine across the middle of the freezer . . . it doesn't need it . . . but I am reassured by its presence

[BlightyBrewer]

No risk of damaging the cooling lines?

[Aleman]

Cooling lines in a chest freezer run in the walls not the floor. . . . My chest freezer has a 6 inch void under the floor so fitting a support length wise was no big hardship. . . . . Also because of this a corny is too tall to fit in it so some sort of collar is required to increase the height . . . A plus of that is that you can drill through the collar with out hitting any cooling lines

[adm]

I guess I'm lucky......my chest freezer (Vestfrost) takes full cornies with no collar needed

I've drilled a few holes through the walls - my approach was to go gently through the outside skin first with a small drill, then poke around inside with a skewer to see if there were any cooling lines before going all the way though with a big drill. Worked just fine!

[BlightyBrewer]

Added two supporting beams just for my own peace of mind.

Re the collar, can I just paint this with gloss?

[Aleman]

My first collar I made out of 2 by 4 . . . and left it unfinished cause I'm lazy . . .



my second collar I made out of the top 12" of the dead freezer . . . which just happened to be the same brand as the new one I bought . . . stroke of luck that

This is the outside . . . I cut the two skins at different heights outside at about 10 inches and the inside at 12ish so the collar would rest on the lip of the new freezer. . . . The inner ally skin was then glued and very carefully riveted to the inner skin of the new one . . . you can just see it on the inside shot. . . . All the interior angles were sealed with silicone sealant to prevent moisture ingress.

[196osh]

That looks fantastic Aleman.

[flything]

Good work!

That's what I like about this hobby, the way it encourages you to try stuff, fettle, bodge and generally find solutions, that and the beer.

[adm]

Looks great. One question though.....why are some of the cornys in bags ?

[SiHoltye]

I'd bag them if I wanted to really try and not sample them early when a bit tipsy. When drunk if something looks hard to do...I usually don't bother I know me

[Aleman]

Looks great. One question though.....why are some of the cornys in bags ?

Try and prevent Mold growth on the posts really . . . . its a pretty moist environment in there and in order to stop mould what I do once filled is to rinse the top of the keg with a litre of boiling water, then I bag them . . . usually using a new pedal bin liner (plastic bags are usually pretty sterile from the manufacturing process), and tape the excess bag around the keg. The keg goes in the Kegereezer, and when ready to use, I rip the bag off, wipe the posts and insides of the disconnects with a 70% iso propyl alcohol solution . . . job done. . . . . . It can get pretty skanky in there if you have a leak though



The keg that was leaking is the one left in there . . . you can see the beer collecting in a loop of the bag . . . . . Lesson learned Don't be lazy and check the thing each week . . .while you clean the lines is a good time

[Bobba]

I notice you've got a couple of fans there, one near the gas regulators and one on the left hand side when you look in. What are they for?