Bar fridge, kegerator fridge or chest freezer.

[jackgym]

I'm starting a new topic. Thanks for all your info, I've gone off the idea of the wine fridge because a lot of what everyone said makes sense.
Now I'm leaning towards a bar fridge (for appearance sake to keep the wife happy). :lol:
What do you do with the freezer section? Can you bypass it or take it out or just let it operate as normal?
Or would a chest freezer or a kegerator be better? Decisions, decisions!

 

[barls]

chest freezer for me, got one as my keg fridge and fermentation fridge

 

[CrookedFingers]

Hey Jack.

The only prob with the chesty for a ferm chamber is the lifting in and out.
If you're not old and broken like me you won't care about that.

Chest freezer for keezer build is an idea thats worth something. Kegs not as heavy as fermenters.

If the almighty dollar is not an option.... lucky you....side by side keggerators for fermenting and keg fridge ??? SWEET !

Good luck deciding dude, its up to you in the end !

 

[pcqypcqy]

I'm big on freezers, I'm going off grid soon so I use one as per normal and I run a second one on a thermostat as a fridge. Slightly more painful to use, but the "fridge" only uses a tenth of the power of a normal fridge. The chest freezer is more efficient than a fridge-freezer as well.

Freezers are cheap to buy, cheap to run, and the compressors are more powerful than you need for this situation, so they get you to your desired temperatures quickly. Most people seem to not like them, so you could possibly pick one up cheap second hand.

I bought one brand new a while back from a large retailer, Westinghouse 150 litre freezer was $400. Haier do some as well that are a slightly cheaper brand but you get more bang for your buck. Google "Appliances Online", I've bought from them in the past.

 

[Judanero]

I've got a chest freezer (used for kegerator) and have or have had fridges, and an upright freezer.

Chest freezers are good for insulation but you need to remember you will be lifting and leaning over to lower (assumably) ~23L of wort, if you're able it's no problem but if you get any sort of back or arm/shoulder injury it is a little awkward.

I liked my upright, it was slim enough to just fit the fermenter but could cold crash super quick and wasn't an issue getting the fv in and out.

I still have four fridges in the garage/ brew area and they work well. Whichever way you go make sure you have a small fan(s) moving the air around.

 

[pcqypcqy]

and if you're really keen to make it look good, do a Google Image search for "Coffin Keezer".

 

[MastersBrewery]

Bar fridge for fermenting purposes, is a good fit for standard size fermenter. Depending on how the cooling plate is implemented on the particular fridge, will determine how easy it is to set up for your purpose. I have 3 bar fridges, one I just finished up as a kegger, the other two are set under a bench to be used for fermenting. One of the fermenting ones has the cooling plate built in to the roof, the other had it wrap around as the freezer: this was simply folded back to the rear wall (the kegger had the same sorta thing). Will post some pics later today to give you an idea. A simple temp controller ( search STC1000 plenty of info on how to set them up), a heat source (location dependant ie not required in Darwin) and your done. I got all of these for under really cheap, and nothing that a can of spray paint couldn't fix even on the worst of the lot, I expect these will last me a good few years, there's little point in buying new, and fixing the up is all part of the project( I believe the ferment fridges are going to be in Minions and Spiderman livery).

MB

 

[n87]

Freezer will be able to crash chill and lager much easier, and at lower temps.

I have an upright freezer that i can fit 2 fermenters in... wouldnt trade it for the world.

Upright freezer has the advantages of:
you dont have to lift the fermenter in and out
you can sit it at a height. this allows you to take samples and transfer without moving it and disturbing the trub.

And if you can find one that suits, you can get the matching fridge to put kegs in... have a side by side brewawesomeness.

Just make sure you get one with removable shelves. alot have the refrigerant running through the shelves.... you dont want one of these.

 

[MastersBrewery]

I'd agree with the above, advantage of the bar fridge is, the chill plate was originally part of the freezer, and testing has gotten 26L down to -1c quite nicely.

 

[jackgym]

Bar fridge for fermenting purposes, is a good fit for standard size fermenter. Depending on how the cooling plate is implemented on the particular fridge, will determine how easy it is to set up for your purpose. I have 3 bar fridges, one I just finished up as a kegger, the other two are set under a bench to be used for fermenting. One of the fermenting ones has the cooling plate built in to the roof, the other had it wrap around as the freezer: this was simply folded back to the rear wall (the kegger had the same sorta thing). Will post some pics later today to give you an idea. A simple temp controller ( search STC1000 plenty of info on how to set them up), a heat source (location dependant ie not required in Darwin) and your done. I got all of these for under really cheap, and nothing that a can of spray paint couldn't fix even on the worst of the lot, I expect these will last me a good few years, there's little point in buying new, and fixing the up is all part of the project( I believe the ferment fridges are going to be in Minions and Spiderman livery).

MB

Can you explain the cooling plate, is that to do with the freezer? I was wondering if you had to immobilise the freezer section or disconnect it?

 

[jackgym]

Hey Jack.

The only prob with the chesty for a ferm chamber is the lifting in and out.
If you're not old and broken like me you won't care about that.

Chest freezer for keezer build is an idea thats worth something. Kegs not as heavy as fermenters.

If the almighty dollar is not an option.... lucky you....side by side keggerators for fermenting and keg fridge ??? SWEET !

Good luck deciding dude, its up to you in the end !

I'm not a young man, so later the lifting could be a problem.

 

[jackgym]

Hey Jack.

The only prob with the chesty for a ferm chamber is the lifting in and out.
If you're not old and broken like me you won't care about that.

Chest freezer for keezer build is an idea thats worth something. Kegs not as heavy as fermenters.

If the almighty dollar is not an option.... lucky you....side by side keggerators for fermenting and keg fridge ??? SWEET !

Good luck deciding dude, its up to you in the end !

Thanks mate, I like the bar fridge for ease of use.

 

[jackgym]

chest freezer for me, got one as my keg fridge and fermentation fridge

Thanks for that, it's just the lifting part may be a worry.

 

[nosco]

In most bar fridges the cooling plate in the freezer compartment is what cools the fridge as well.
If the cooling plate is on the top of the freezer then thats a bonus but you will have to remove the rest of the freezer compartment/shelves to fit in a fermenter or kegs.
The cooler plate on my bar fridge was on the bottom of the freezer shelf so i had to carefully bend it down to the back of the fridge making sure to not kink or crack the main pipe coz then its useless. I dont think all bar fridges are suitable. It all depends on how the cooling plate is setup.

I also had to take the door off and remove shelves from it to be able to fit a fermenter.

Theres a few good videos on youtube about it.

 

[nosco]

I also had to put a collar of 90x45 pine around the door opening and attach the door to that so i could fit a fermenter in. Its because of the hump from the compressor. It works perfectly with an stc1000 but doesnt look real pretty.

 

[nosco]

https://youtu.be/Cgt2z-lotXk

I made my first bar fridge fermenter basically the same as this. That one died so my 2nd bar fridge fermenter that im using now i extended out to fit 2 fermenters

 

[jackgym]

https://youtu.be/Cgt2z-lotXk

I made my first bar fridge fermenter basically the same as this. That one died so my 2nd bar fridge fermenter that im using now i extended out to fit 2 fermenters

nosco, thanks for all that info. I'll never look at a bar fridge the same way again. :blink:

 

[nosco]

No probs. Work training sessions can get very boring lol.