Computer Fan In A Chest Freezer

[paul]

Ive made an observation that a chest freezer has cooling elements in all 4 walls it has a large surface area that cools, where a fridge only has a small plate at the back that does the cooling for the whole fridge.

So wouldnt a fan be needed in a fridge a lot more than in a chest freezer.

Im on my second chest freezer for serving beer and I havent found that ive needed a fan. I also use another chest freezer for fermenting and havent needed a fan in there either.

 

[SJW]

I went to Jcar today and picked up a meter for $30 so I will run some tests of my own. 1 with the freezer and fan on and another without the fan on and see the diff.

Steve

 

[Batz]

OK,I'll dispense with my tests :lol:
Up until now 46 hours not even .01c

Batz

 

[stowaway]

edit- should have read whole thread

 

[KGB]

paul: do you have a collar on yours? Generally you can have a problem when you have a collar (so the top section has no cooling elements) and your beer lines are coiled up near the top. They will be at least slightly warmer than the rest of the fridge and your beer will foam when you start to pour until the lines and tap are cooled by beer being drawn from the keg.
Doesn't happen to everyone bhut if it does it is pretty annoying.

 

[SJW]

I am in the process of setting this thing up. I need some help. I am paying 13.208 cents per Kw for my power. Now when I enter this value into the meter do I enter it as 13.21 or 00.13? I had it as 13.21 and my fridge and freezer used 80c in 2 hours. This can't be right? can it?

Steve

 

[crundle]

I have a collar in my kegerator and have a 12v fan running from 12 volts (fan wont turn on any less voltage). The fan comes on when the freezer comes on only, but it blows a gale inside the freezer, and I have noticed that it runs for a shorter time when it does kick in. My temperature sensor is located near the top of the collar, and I have no issues with bubbles in the beer lines.

In the past when I had the keg in the kegerator without a fan, I experienced bubbles in my beer lines up top of the kegerator, and ice inside my kegs when they foamed out at the end of the beer. It was only when I installed the fan that this went away, so I am a fan of fans. If others don't see the need for them, then good luck to you, but as for me, I will be happy to spend a few cents more in power to have more even temperatures.

Excuse the dodgy woodwork, but it holds together and provides me with cold beer, so I can live with it....

 

[NickB]

Hey, that blower fan is great! Seems to be an easier model to mount as well. Where did you get that from and for how much??

Cheers

 

[crundle]

the fan was from a rack mounted server that a mate pulled apart for some spare parts, can have a look for the name and any identification tomorrow.

Any computer fan should do, but the only issue I have with this one is that the fan comes on at random and the blades are semi-exposed on the front, so I might put a sticker warning of the danger of touching it or something funny to that effect anyhow.

It is a centripetal fan, but for a normal computer fan, it is still pretty easy to set it out a little from the collar using plastic sleeves over the screws behind the fan, and then using some plastic to create a curve for the airflow to follow. I was keen to blow the air down to the bottom of the freezer to stir it up and to even out the temperature, but any movement would probably be effective.

 

[dj1984]

like the bit down the bottom crundle friends to help me drink beer i didnt know you had friends!! (sorry about the off topic part)

 

[MartinS]

I have a collar in my kegerator and have a 12v fan running from 12 volts (fan wont turn on any less voltage).

This is often the case with higher-end fans. You could probably still control the speed of the fan with PWM if you wanted to, but it's probably more hassle than it's worth.

 

[KHB]

How does everyone place there micro switches ie mounting to the collar a picture would be good if there is any chance

Cheers KHB

 

[cdbrown]

Mount it high on the collar so that when the freezer is shut it depresses the switch, closing the circuit and turning on the fan. The ones I have seen have 2 small diameter holes through the case so just put some screws and away you go.

 

[Offline]

...
So wouldnt a fan be needed in a fridge a lot more than in a chest freezer.
...

The fridge will have its cooling element (evaporator) at the top so as it cools the air the cold air then falls to the bottom of the fridge and the hotter air rises up to be cooled

A chest freezer with its cooling elements in the walls works similar until you put something higher then the elements, i.e. a collar

 

[schooey]

Hey, that blower fan is great! Seems to be an easier model to mount as well. Where did you get that from and for how much??

Cheers

I'm pretty sure I've seen these fans at Jaycar once before... here or a bigger model here

 

[cdbrown]

They are some very noisey fans without much air movement when compared to a standard pc case fan

 

[KGB]

Excuse the dodgy woodwork, but it holds together and provides me with cold beer, so I can live with it....

No worse than mine! As long as it does what it needs to do.