Aldi Stirling 150L Keezer

[maxim0200]

Oooo its keezer roulette! :lol:

Yeah i think its a weekday special. Hopefully they will get them back in eventully.

 

[manson81]

Anybody know if these would still floating around at aldi? Or do they return unsold specials each week back to the warehouse?

SWMBO has decided that my converted fridge kegerator is the reason for our large power bill, and after buying a power monitor tonight, she may be half right. Only going on 3 hours of data, and extrapolating out, looking around $60 a quarter... Obviously I need more data to be accurate, but not looking good so far.

So if I can get a freezer and run it for $35 a year or less, I'll be in the good books!

Just gotta toss up whether I buy a cheap new one like this, or an old $30 job off Gumtree and risk it still chewing heaps of power.

 

[Bribie G]

You could be lucky. For example they had 8kg washing machines over a month ago and they still have four or five sitting in my local store. Depends how many, if any, they ended up with after the special ended.

 

[doon]

They still had 3 or 4 at south melbourne store the other day

 

[manson81]

Was planning on calling around and checking if any of my local stores have any. Turns out you can't call aldi!

I'll have to drop into a few and see what I can find.

I have just ordered all the gear I need to convert it from keg king though!

 

[manson81]

Dropped in to aldi at Stafford on the way home from work and apparently every aldi in brisbane is sold out of the freezer. Damn! Now I gotta find alternatives...

 

[macca05]

Great deal on those freezers.

You might want to be careful drilling any holes in them though. R600a is the flammable type of refrigerant although I suppose that just adds to the level of excitement.

Any fridge mechanics out there with an opinion on these?

I can't seem to find any hint on the Aldi website. Is this one of those one weekend only type deals?

There are two ways you can drill into fridges or freezers. With the keezer most add a wooden collar between the top of the freezer and the door so you then just drill all your holes through the wood.
Another way which I did for my fridge was to drill through the outer wall of the fridge. Then using a nail that is longer than the thickness of the wall. Poke it through the hole and through the foam. If you touch the other side and you can wiggle it around a bit and you dont feel/hear any contact with metal/ally (whatever the tubing is) you should be good to go Worked a treat for my fridge

 

[manson81]

I bought one of these from 2nds World a few years ago to convert to a kegerator. They're permanently on special for $250. With a collar it fits 4 kegs, but not the gas bottle.
It's so good I went and bought another one to use as a fermentation fridge. Fits 2 fermenter's in nicely, and it runs at a fraction of the time that my big old upright freezer did for cold crashing in summer.

How would yours go without the collar? I'm trying to get out of putting a collar on mainly because I don't know how!

I'm happy with only two kegs in there..

 

[stakka82]

I am an absolute spastic with my hands and I managed to do it... So it has to be easy. Many guides on the web and this site.

 

[maxim0200]

Il be going a collar b/c my gas tank is to tall, for those who want to know itl need to be 70mm+ for a KK 6kg cylinder and a micromatic reg.

 

[maxim0200]

Il be going a collar b/c my gas tank is to tall, for those who want to know itl need to be 70mm+ for a KK 6kg cylinder and a micromatic reg.

 

[manson81]

Yeah, my tank is huge too but was planning to mount it outside

 

[mr_wibble]

Has anyone fitted an STC-1000 into the Aldi / Stirling yet?

Mine arrived yesterday thanks to MashMaster & express shipping.
(The one *still* coming from China can be a spare.)

I expect there's some space above or below the existing control panel, as this is under the "compressor hump".
Of course getting your hands in there can be a problem, but a bit of child-labour is good for those hard-to-reach places.

The last freezer I modified was already beaten up, and cost a fair bit less, so I wasn't so concerned about stuffing it up.

Nothing in this thread, so I guess I'll go it alone, and take some photos.

 

[maxim0200]

I will be fitting a stc-1000 when it comes on a slow boat from china:angry::angry::angry:

I am thinking about putting it in place of the existing thermostat, i will be putting up a how to when it comes.

 

[mr_wibble]

My STC-1000 is installed. Woohoo!

Here's some notes:

I sited the stc-1000 / stc1000 25mm above the existing control centre. This was mainly to clear the existing wiring, so I could get my hands in there.
There's plenty of room here. I gave the corners of the hole a light tap with the punch before drilling, it keeps the bit in place.
I drilled out the corners with a 1.5mm (2mm?) bit, then cut between the holes with a cheap-shit(TM) angle grinder (1mm cutting disk).
Oh, you need a 72mm by 30mm hole, but best decide on this size for yourself.

The thing holding the power cable in has those 3-flap screws FAARK! I replaced these with some phillips. Getting these feckers out was the hardest part of the job. And I even had a bit for it. You have to be so careful working around those coolant pipes.

I pushed my screwdriver from inside the "compressor hump" right through. I'm not sure it's 100% perpendicular (it's close), but it comes out on the wall of the hump. The metal interior of the freezer is basically only a medium foil. Pushing my screwdriver from the inside of the hump made a dent in the foil on the inside the freezer. I simply pushed (a bit more firmly) on this dent from the inside, found the hole and managed pentration. Maybe I thumped the back of the screwdriver with my hand, I can't remember.

So ... it seems I missed the coolant system. I have attached photos of about where I put my hole.
I just guessed this position, but I did take a good look to make an educated guess at what direction the pipes seemed to be going first.

I undid the power cable and pulled another 15cm through for the wiring. This was enough, but it was still pretty tight.

Once I had the heater and sensor wires pulled through my hole I siliconed it up on both sides. The wires together filled the hole I made, so I couldn't see the point of extra insulation, there was nowhere to put it.

 

[backyard_ brewer]

Has anyone ever seen any other homebrew paraphernalia at Aldi?

 

[maxim0200]

Mr wibble bloody great job mate! Thankyou for the pics and writeup!

Yes there is aldi apple juice??? :lol:

 

[maxim0200]

What settings did you use for your stc?

 

[mr_wibble]

What settings did you use for your stc?

I set F1 to 18 and that was it.

I checked it this morning at 05:30, the read temp was 16.7 - a bit low, ambient was 8.5
but the heater pad was on.
So thats working ok.

 

[technobabble66]

Has anyone ever seen any other homebrew paraphernalia at Aldi?


Bribie G.
He sees brewing equipment.
Especially at Aldi.