Fridge Or Freezer

[Damian44]

Would there be any advantages of a second hand fridge over a second hand freezer, for brewing lagers and CCing Beers? I would be installing a FridgeMate temperature controller kit, on it. Thanks.

Cheers Damo

 

[sah]

There are pros and cons for both. Off the top of my head.

• When you open the door of an upright you lose all the nice cold air that has just cost you money (energy) to make. This doesn't happen in chest configuration with the lid on top.
• A collar can be made for the chest style so you avoid drilling holes through your fridge, voiding any warantee and risking hitting a cooling line.
• Uprights are more common and tend to be cheaper.
• It's more difficult and risky lifting fermenters and kegs into a chest. Easier with an upright.
• If you use an upright for a kegerator, if it has a freezer compartment it's a good place to keep your hops and make ice. You can't do this with a chest.
• You can make a bar top for a chest.
• It's more difficult racking and taking gravity samples from a chest.
• Chest's tend to fit in more kegs or fermenters, especially if you make a collar for it.

 

[sah]

You can have beer taps coming straight through the wall of an upright at the right height, where with a chest a font is more practical.

 

[paul]

The advantage of a chest freezer is that it can cool down your beer a lot quicker than a fridge because it cools from all sides rather that a tiny plate in the top.

If you put a 50l keg into a fridge it'll take 3 days to get it cold enough to drink.

In a chest freezer it'll take a day.

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Another freezer benefit:

When you make a not very good beer, you can chill it down to just above freezing point and serve it to your mates as a VB clone...

 

[snagler]

There is a 200 litre chest freezer on sale at k mart at the moment for $299 ($200 off normal price) Got one the other day but I still havent got it out of the box yet. Im planning on putting a collar and taps on it.

 

[puffer_pics]

I ferment my beer in a chest freezer, The disadvantages of a chest freezer are you have to life the beer over and into the freezer and that the condensation does not drain away like in a fridge. So there is usally condensation on the bottom of the freezer. That if left the yeast spores and mould grow in and make a real mess. Although it depends on the temperature your leaving the freezer set at, if lagering or fermenting a lager beer its usally not a big deal with the growth.

 

[Kleiny]

i just picked up an old fridge for $20 at a garage sale today
i have not seen a chest freezer for under $200 anywhere

Fridges are cheaper thats an advantage

and the fridge works (for how long i dont know) BUT IT WAS $20

 

[Zwickel]

another advantage of a chest freezer: it holds more kegs than a fridge and/or youve more space for another utilities like yeasts, hops and others.

:icon_cheers:

 

[clintmo]

There is a 200 litre chest freezer on sale at k mart at the moment for $299 ($200 off normal price) Got one the other day but I still havent got it out of the box yet. Im planning on putting a collar and taps on it.

i just got one of those too still in box also lol im at my parents so has to wait until home to be unwrapped

 

[Damian44]

i just got one of those too still in box also lol im at my parents so has to wait until home to be unwrapped

DOH!!!


My extended family has a fridge sitting around, i could borrow. Could i install the FridgeMate temperature controller kit, and take it off and install it on another fridge without damaging 1st fridge? Or am i all together way to tight?


Cheers Damo

 

[Screwtop]

DOH!!!
My extended family has a fridge sitting around, i could borrow. Could i install the FridgeMate temperature controller kit, and take it off and install it on another fridge without damaging 1st fridge? Or am i all together way to tight?
Cheers Damo

Fridgemate comes in kit form so you need to wire it up and maount it in a project box. After that it's plug and play. No mods at all to the fridge, portable from fridge to fridge.

Screwy

 

[PistolPatch]

There are pros and cons for both. Off the top of my head.

• When you open the door of an upright you lose all the nice cold air that has just cost you money (energy) to make. This doesn't happen in chest configuration with the lid on top.
• A collar can be made for the chest style so you avoid drilling holes through your fridge, voiding any warantee and risking hitting a cooling line.
• Uprights are more common and tend to be cheaper.
• It's more difficult and risky lifting fermenters and kegs into a chest. Easier with an upright.
• If you use an upright for a kegerator, if it has a freezer compartment it's a good place to keep your hops and make ice. You can't do this with a chest.
• You can make a bar top for a chest.
• It's more difficult racking and taking gravity samples from a chest.
• Chest's tend to fit in more kegs or fermenters, especially if you make a collar for it.

Superbly written post I reckon SAH :super:

I disagree with your first point though it is entirely accurate. I have 6 kegs running to one tap and have to open the door any time I want to change beers. Practically, this is never a problem. My beers pour well - a lot better than you can get them pouring out of a chest. (Knowing me, I'll probably write on this late in this post

But the question is fridge or freezer?

I think that generally the correct answer is upright freezer. I think the second answer is upright fridge. I think the worst answer is upright fridge/freezer. As to where a chest freezer lies, it depends.

Let's look at the bad/dubious alternatives first.

Chest Freezer Did a brew today and had a plumber I work with (his name is Kenny believe it or not) come around with 2 mates. One of his mates had just spent $1200 on a kegerator system. The system involves a font on top of the bar fridge. Man, was I angry but what can you say? The beer will not pour because of course it is warm before it reaches the tap. After a few beers, I said to him to send it back. The tap had no flow control and the lines to the tap were not cooled.

The plumber I had over also collects brewing stuff and he has a few ceramic fonts. The ONLY way to run a font is to have your beer line taped to glycol lines like they do in any pub. There is NO way that you can pour a good beer from any sort of font unless you have the beer lines chilled. This means pumping glycol up to the head of the font and make sure you have the glycol lines taped to your beer lines and then the normal black foam insulation around that. EVEN WITH THAT, you will alway''s get some foam if the beer has not been poured in a while.

So, my problem with chest freezers is that they require fonts. Apart from that, all should be OK.' Beware of fonts. They look nice but anyone who sells them should advise you of the above. It is pretty basic knowledge.

Fridge/Freezer The problem here is that you get no value out of the freezer section. If you use the fridge section to ferment then the freezer section is too warm. If you use the fridge section to cold-condition (permanently) then the freezer section could store your hops. Occassionally, the fridge/freezer temperature variation can be of an advantage but I have never seen it and you need to brew a lot of beer (lagers and ales) to take advantage of it.

Fridge Never even thought about a stand alone upright fridge as I do not have one. I'm not sure that it would have any negatives or positives compared to the following???

Upright Freezer The great things about single-purpose fridge/freezers is that they only do one job and therefore only require one compressor. You open the door and all you see is space!!!! Personally I think space is what we are after. In my upright freezer fitted with BrissyBrew's temp controller, (as is my fermeting fridge/freezer ) I can have 6 beers on tap in an apartment. If I had my time again and chose cheaper kegs (but why would I ever need more than two!) I could have had 10, possibly 12 beers on tap from this one vehicle.

An upright freezer (or perhaps an upright fridge) have advantages that IMO, crucify any advantage a chest version does. So, Damian, whilst I might not have answered your origianl question fully, hopefully I have narrowed it right down.

Go an upright for whatever you consider using your fridge/freezer for re brewing - I mean they also have a way smaller footprint. Avoid things that require fonts or glycol pumps.

As to whether an upright freezer or fridge is best, I think that for a dispensing fridge, the freezer might be better though I am not sure (my freezer works mint though.) As for use as a fermenting fridge, I am also not sure but suspect that freezer is always going to be the best - better insulated for a start.

Hope you read all this Damian. I'd hate to see you purchase something (like a $1200 kegerator) that has no place in 99.9% of long-term brewers plans. The bad thing about brewing is that we often buy things that seem sensible at the time and it is only after the purchase that we realise, "Duh! I see now!"

A long post for you Damian but hopefully a good one,
Pat

 

[big d]

Sorry Pat you have gone over your post limit and i am going to have to delete it.

Cheers
Big D

 

[PistolPatch]

Bloody hell, I knew that would happen. Spewin'!

 

[big d]

Im onto you mate(PP) and for the record go the chest freezer as they have so many advantages.Im yet to get one but have been looking around for awhile and the kmart deal sounds good.Hedge your bets and have a fridge and a chest freezer.If you can wade back through the posts i remember Doc posting a pic of his set up and it was a ripper.

Cheers
Big D

 

[Damian44]

Awsome post PistolPatch. It definatly answered all my questions i had swirling around in my head, than it asked some more, and answered them too. Thank a ton.

Cheers Damo

 

[NRB]

I'm sorry Pat, but I'm going to have to disagree with your essay on a number of points.

My beers pour well - a lot better than you can get them pouring out of a chest.

How can you qualify that statement? Beers pour very well out of a chest freezer.

So, my problem with chest freezers is that they require fonts.

A false statement. They do not REQUIRE fonts at all. There are many, many people using taps in a setup almost identical to that of an upright with taps through the wall. Admittedly the wall is a wooden collar, but it's still pouring beer (well) without a font.

I could have had 10, possibly 12 beers on tap from this one vehicle.

12 kegs in a single upright freezer? I'd love to see that!

Pat, it's not a personaly attack on you, but I disagree with a lot of the points you've put forward. I'm sure there's numerous blokes on AHB who would also agree with me on the points I've raised.

I'm quite partial to the chest freezer solution. One of the great benefits of the chest is it can be made to look like a piece of furniture or a bar, blending in well without being an eyesore like a lot of dispensing uprights are.

 

[samhighley]

I've installed a FridgeMate (FM) controller into an old upright fridge and freezer combination.

I've set the thermostat in the fridge section to 'lowest temperature' and the thermostat in the freezer section to 'highest temperature'.

This is an attempt to get the unit to concentrate on cooling the fridge section as much as possible.

Unfortunately this doesn't work too well. When I first put the ale into the fridge it was at around 24C and I had the FM set to 19C.

After working away for half a day or so to bring down the temperature of the fridge section to around 19C, the freezer had dropped to minus 5!

I suspect that this fridge works by concentrating on getting the freezer to a frozen state first, and then cooling the fridge as a secondary effect.

I'm wondering whether I can cut a large hole between the two sections to transfer cold air from the freezer to the fridge?

Alternatively i'm looking for a single upright fridge or freezer, and preferably the freezer I think.

Sam

 

[benhobbs]

I've installed a FridgeMate (FM) controller into an old upright fridge and freezer combination.

I've set the thermostat in the fridge section to 'lowest temperature' and the thermostat in the freezer section to 'highest temperature'.

This is an attempt to get the unit to concentrate on cooling the fridge section as much as possible.

Unfortunately this doesn't work too well. When I first put the ale into the fridge it was at around 24C and I had the FM set to 19C.

After working away for half a day or so to bring down the temperature of the fridge section to around 19C, the freezer had dropped to minus 5!

I suspect that this fridge works by concentrating on getting the freezer to a frozen state first, and then cooling the fridge as a secondary effect.

I'm wondering whether I can cut a large hole between the two sections to transfer cold air from the freezer to the fridge?

Alternatively i'm looking for a single upright fridge or freezer, and preferably the freezer I think.

Sam

I had a similar issue with a fridge not quite working properly. The freezer would freeze, but the fridge would only drop a few degrees from ambient.

I too considered cutting a hole between the fridge and freezer sections, but after noticing the condensation lines on the bottom of the freezer, I figured there must be some cooling pipes there.

I cut up from the inside of the fridge, using a gas hot knife to get thru the plastic, without any sharp points or power tools that would cut the cooling lines. Once the plastic was removed, I slowly spooned out the insulation. The freezer cooling coils were right on the bottom of the freezer, and by removing the insulation between them and the fridge, the fridge now worked perfectly.

Go slow and be patient, there is no point rushing it only to cut the cooling lines.

Cheers
Ben