New Keg Freezer

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Aces High

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Hi all,

I picked up this on the weekend as my new project. Its a 340L commercial chest freezer. Your standard milk bar icecream chest freezer (still has the prices written in texta on the top)

It can fit 7 kegs plus gas bottle easily and its on wheels, so its got lots going for it. Having glass convex sliding doors and being angled from front to back means that it does have some extra challenges that a standard domestic unit doesn't have, so i was just wondering if anyone else has converted one of these.
Where did you put the taps, and did you build a new top for it (this is what i was contempleting). I would prefer not to have a font if I can avoid it.

I did some google seaching, but couldn't find any builds of this style of chesty

IMG_20120701_00006.jpg

IMG_20120701_00009.jpg

IMG_20120701_00008.jpg
 
7 kegs... nice!

I guess you could screw around and mod some form off top/collar for it...

I have always dug Punkins rig, although you would need to be a little more cautions if drilling through the walls of that unit I would imagine.

Just a thought..



edit: to speak more gooder
 
Expanding on Cocko's link to Punkins rig,

If you didn't want to drill into it you could add something like aluminium bent and fit it a bit like those doggy doors you can fix in for sliding doors and run you gas and beer lines in and would also give a spot to mount a manifold. The lid could then but up to this and seal like normal.

IMG_20120701_00006edit.jpg

Will be interesting to see how it all works out and will happily nip down the road to test it out in case you think the beer tastes funny from an odd design :p
 
Expanding on Cocko's link to Punkins rig,

If you didn't want to drill into it you could add something like aluminium bent and fit it a bit like those doggy doors you can fix in for sliding doors and run you gas and beer lines in and would also give a spot to mount a manifold. The lid could then but up to this and seal like normal.

View attachment 55547

Will be interesting to see how it all works out and will happily nip down the road to test it out in case you think the beer tastes funny from an odd design :p

I would be happier if you nip down the road with a head full of ideas and discuss this over a couple of beers B)

I did consider something like what you're suggesting, and even building a timber box over one end and mount the taps in it. I figured a computer fan could suck cold air up into the box to keep the taps cool. But this would mean i would be serving beer from the end not the front.

I spent way too much of last weekend staring at this thing and laying bits of timber all over it in an attempt to come up with the best solution. The slope from back to front means that a lid would slope forward, which might not be a a problem, but where do the taps go. I could build the front up to the same height as the back with timber (my current favourite solution) and mount taps in the front timber plate, which means the top would be flat (there is about 70mm difference front to back)

I dont think i can get a 4 port font past the minister of finance as she's already ok'd 4 perlick taps, plus they seem like they're hard to keep cool (i could be wrong here), where as my current keggerator with collar taps is cold and pouring a perfect beer all the time. Which is swaying me towards the collar style
 
How efficient is the perspex top?
 
How about you put grommets in the clear top and run out beer line like that.

Mount the taps on steel brackets or timber faceboard attached to the front of the freezer.

Some insulation on the lines and you'll be laughing. With flow controllers, even the first pour shouldn't be too bad. Else just chuck the first little bit and call it the cool a tap offering to the beer gods.
 
Hi all,

I picked up this on the weekend as my new project. Its a 340L commercial chest freezer. Your standard milk bar icecream chest freezer (still has the prices written in texta on the top)

It can fit 7 kegs plus gas bottle easily and its on wheels, so its got lots going for it. Having glass convex sliding doors and being angled from front to back means that it does have some extra challenges that a standard domestic unit doesn't have, so i was just wondering if anyone else has converted one of these.
Where did you put the taps, and did you build a new top for it (this is what i was contempleting). I would prefer not to have a font if I can avoid it.

I did some google seaching, but couldn't find any builds of this style of chesty
You could try building a collar that levels the top up & still use the glass for full access. Taps would fit easily along the front, gas & temperature lines through the side or back of the timber. A router would make the job a breeze. Rough pic below.
I wouldn't rush into any idea that has you drilling into the freezer no matter how impatient or excited you get.
Collar.jpg
 
I got my font by going down to the industrial airconditioner/fridge mobs and asking about old beer stuff they may have pulled out. Once you find the guys that do the local pub fitouts (first place you go will usually tell you) they have boxes of old stuff, taps, fonts etc.
I got that 4 tap font for $80 and the bloke got the right snaplocks for my imported perlicks and supplied all my beer and gas line too.

As far as warm beer goes, there's very little in the lines between font and fridge, maybe 1/4 of a glass, so while your first beer on a scorching summers day may not be icy, the bulk of the time it's just perfect and after the first pour you don't notice it.

If you find it a drama you can always turn the fridge down a degree.


I'd be making a collar and lid for that thing whichever way you go with the taps, or looking at the tip with a tape measure, you may find a lid that already fits for nothing.

The biggest benefits to me with the cupboard idea are that i don't have taps on the front in easy reach of children or fools, i don't have to slide the fridge in and out in order to open the lid fully or worry about drip trays spilling, and my gas bottle, dual regs and lines etc are all hidden.
Added benefits is that i've split the HP side of inside the cupboard so my extra line for charging her soda water bottles is outside the fridge (and if i ever feel the need to force carb a keg) and that it gives somewhere to mount the fridgemate and store all my bits like extra tap handles cpbf etc.

She likes it cause it looks neat and tidy :D



BigPlusForGainingLoungeRoomPermissionPunkin
 
You could try building a collar that levels the top up & still use the glass for full access. Taps would fit easily along the front, gas & temperature lines through the side or back of the timber. A router would make the job a breeze. Rough pic below.
I wouldn't rush into any idea that has you drilling into the freezer no matter how impatient or excited you get.
View attachment 55548

Thanks for drawing that up real beer, this is what I had in mind as well, although I think i might put a lid on it and get rid of the glass doors. I dont think it will look very neat inside, so its better to hide everything. well lets just say that of the 7 different designs i had in my head this one was currently leading the way
 
I dont think it will look very neat inside, so its better to hide everything. well lets just say that of the 7 different designs i had in my head this one was currently leading the way

Having drooled my way through the kegging setups thread, with a bit of effort a glass top would work, depends how 'speccy' you do your lines and such. May as well see where all the $$ went :D
 
Thanks for drawing that up real beer, this is what I had in mind as well, although I think i might put a lid on it and get rid of the glass doors. I dont think it will look very neat inside, so its better to hide everything. well lets just say that of the 7 different designs i had in my head this one was currently leading the way
The problem with making a new lid if it's a hinged one, is that you'd need a hefty piece of timber on the back to take the weight. This might increase the height more than you'd like lifting the kegs in & out. You could always paint the glass on the inside to hide the contents, apart from not being able to sit a beer on the curved top I reckon the sliding top would be great. And you don't have to worry about a lid slamming shut on your head or hands when your poking about inside :angry:

I'd wait at least a week or two & get lots of input, there could be someone out there who's converted one of these & they usually pop up the day after you rip into a project you can't backstep on.

Cheers
 
Hi all,

I picked up this on the weekend as my new project. Its a 340L commercial chest freezer. Your standard milk bar icecream chest freezer (still has the prices written in texta on the top)

It can fit 7 kegs plus gas bottle easily and its on wheels, so its got lots going for it. Having glass convex sliding doors and being angled from front to back means that it does have some extra challenges that a standard domestic unit doesn't have, so i was just wondering if anyone else has converted one of these.
Where did you put the taps, and did you build a new top for it (this is what i was contempleting). I would prefer not to have a font if I can avoid it.

I did some google seaching, but couldn't find any builds of this style of chesty

There is one thing you may need to be aware of when using that type of freezer.

In a past life my wife and I had a shop where we sold ice creams from freezers like that and I found that some of them have a fan running inside them all the time to compensate for little "Snot Monsters" leaving the lid open after they had got there icicle stick or standing there with the lid open for what seems like hours while they make up there mind.

Anyway with this fan running it makes them use electricity like Pacman so to save some running costs you might want to have a look at that aspect and rewire it so that fan only works with the compressor running or it may not need to run at all.

Of course you may be lucky and it may not be the fan type.

BTW it looks like a good project so good luck and have fun.

Cheers
 
I dont think it had a fan. I have only run it for a short amount of time and didn't hear one, but I will check on that thanks Dicko. It also states 155W which is pretty good, even better considering it may only run for 10 minutes an hour or less outside of summer. At 10 minutes an hour it would be 620W per day which is about 12c per day, not quite as cheap as ABC, but not bad :p
 
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