A general question and not necessarily specific to home bars or brewing. I might not be posting this in the correct forum, but I occasionally see a couple of you guys lamenting the lack of traffic here. I’m considering a 7.0 cf chest freezer for food storage (initially) and potentially as a future fermentation chamber or kegerator. For its initial service the freezer would be placed outside under a covered deck. Outside temps typically range from ~10°F to ~90°F. The deck is shaded from the summer sun and gets some snow in the winter. While we do get dumps >20”, there’s rarely more than a couple inches where the freezer would sit. Does this sound like it is (or can be made to be) a workable location? Will the cold winters shorten the life of the compressor? Would it help to fashion some sort of cover to reduce snow cover during the winter months? If yes to making a cover, should I leave the compressor access unblocked? Should I leave an air gap at the bottom for air flow? (like a ‘skirt’ that doesn’t go all the way to the deck floor). I kinda think the spacing between the deck planks might be adequate for air flow. Any other info y’all might need to provide some input? Thanks in advance.
I think if you do not need to maintain temps below freezing you would be fine, but as ambient temperatures approach freezing the appliance is going to struggle to cool below freezing. The compressor will not turn on very often, if at all. And when it does it will struggle to remove heat. The cooling relies on the phase change from gas to liquid and then from liquid to gas. When it is too cold the phase change does not occur very efficiently and the compressor is not lubricated sufficiently either. It is counter intuitive but it's a problem I have seen. They are not designed to operate in very cold weather. They are designed to work from a price point. A bigger problem you may encounter is finding a chest freezer for sale. Rarer than hen's teeth a few months ago. Not sure the bottle neck has broken yet. Cheers
I watch some reality shows that are set in Alaska, and I see them loading meat and fish in freezers that are situated outside but in a covered setting. However, maybe they unplug the freezer when the outside temp drops below freezing to avoid the issue that Bill mentioned above.
Any idea an approximate ambient temp would be too cold? Maybe hook up an Inkbird controller to cut the power to the freezer when the temperature gets below XX° ? ? Freezers are slowly getting back in circulation. I had one fritz on me a couple months ago and found a cheapie at Home Depot. Nothing like my one that lasted almost 35 years. The interior of my old one was, I think, enamel. The new one looks like it's lined with an extra heavy gauge aluminum foil (sarcastic, but almost not).
That would be me. Overall it's a bad idea. In addition to the phase problem of your refrigerant (too cold for the evaporator to "evaporate"), there's more concerns: expect frost to build up on the insulation inside the unit which ultimately causes degradation. More important is the viscosity of your compressor lubricant becomes high and Señor Compressor becomes angry when not lubricated. Worse, when re-starting a unit in cold weather you need to wait until the lubricating oil rises to a suitable level which can take half-a-day, just depending. I guess if you were dead set on the idea you could build an enclosure for the freezer and place a space heater inside to keep the evaporator/insulation/oil all toasty warm. All of this would have to be vented and a couple of thermostats to control. Hmmm, doesn't that sound similar to putting it in your house? Building a heated enclosure to keep your food cold in an outside freezer during the winter would definitely put you in the running for Bonehead of Year consideration. And aren't those Alaska freezers just storage boxes, i.e. never turned on? Can't imagine them surviving an arctic winter (on or off).
The freezers are certainly just storage boxes during the long winters, even if the plug isn't pulled at zero degrees ambient (wouldn't it be so cold that the thermostat wouldn't even try to turn the unit on?), but during the summer the ambient temp is warm enough (70s, maybe 80s?) that the freezer would have to operate.
I'm thinking of putting a keezer on my porch - Laramie Wyoming - lows way below zero once in a while, and a nice 80 degrees in the summer. I'd pipe the beer to taps through the porch wall into the kitchen next to the sink. As I've got everything down to the studs and am building the cabinets and counter, I'll put in a drain underneath the taps too. Why not use an inkbird and fermentation heater? Plug the freezer and heater into the inkbird. Wouldn't this work? What issues would I need to address?
To be honest, this install sounds like a PITA. Having to both heat and cool your beer is a chore, no? Can it be done? Yes. But this is pretty much ass backwards. Just being blunt, not trying to be a jerk. And as stated within this thread previously, freezers don't work very well when ambient temps are too cold. You'll need to get the temps perfect, from keg to faucet. That is not optional, you can't expect to get anything but a glass of foam if the temps vary by more than a few degrees from 38F. And it is not as easy as plumbing a sink. You will have a remote dispense system, so you will need to chill the lines between the freezer and the faucets with a glycol chiller. Remote draw systems are about 1,000 times more complicated than a simple kegerator. You'll need all sorts of clamps, splicers, chill blocks, the glycol chiller, barrier tube in an insulated trunk line, choker and a glycol chilled tower. And more. None of this is available at Home Depot. So if you do indeed want to try this, read up, research this forum, ask questions, pretty much ignore 95% of Youtube videos and we can get started. Oh yeah, budget around $2,000 and then add 50% to fix the screw ups. Cheers
