Chest Freezer Kegerator

For this Kegerator, I used a Black Frigidaire 7.2 cu. ft. Chest Freezer that I picked up on sale at HHGregg for $240.  I wanted to use a chest freezer because it seemed like the simplest, most energy efficient and most self-contained kegerator that I could build.

The first thing that I did was detach the door from the freezer.  Each hinge is attached to the freezer with 4 screws and to the door with two screws.  Since I was planning on building a collar onto the door, all I needed to do was remove the screws attached to the door and leave the hinges attached to the freezer.

The door consisted of 3 basic parts:

1.  The rubber gasket that runs along the bottom of the door to provide a seal to the rest of the freezer when it's closed.

2.  The white plastic lining which forms the inside part of the door.

3.  The outside part of the door which contains insulation.

All of these parts were held together by 4 screws and several small plastic push-in clips that are easy to pull out with a claw hammer and could easily be used to put the door back together in its original state.

(I apologize for not having more detailed pictures of this but I didn't start taking pictures until the door was already off and taken apart.)

Step 1 Installing The Temperature Controller

Because this is a freezer it needs to have a temperature controller installed in order to keep the freezer from freezing the beer.  It works by shutting off power to the freezer once a certain temperature is reached within the freezer.  (This is another reason why this kegerator design is so energy efficient.)  The electrical plug for the freezer just plugs into the temperature controller which plugs into the electrical outlet.

The temperature controller that I used was a Johnson Controls Manual Thermostat Control Unit.

The temperature controller needs to be in the freezer so that it can measure the air temperature.  This means that it shouldn't be touching the side of the freezer where it might give a false reading due to the side being cold from the running of the freezer.

In order to make sure that I didn't drill through one of the cooling coils in the freezer when I installed the temperature controller, I turned the freezer on and just watched for where condensation was forming along the inside of the freezer.  It was pretty easy to see where the coils were and where it would be safe to drill through the shelf of the freezer.

Comments

[Rocksterr]

Good job Scott! I like that your design keeps the hoses and faucets out of the way when loading and unloading the chest with kegs. Also, I didn't know about the humidity issue but you came up with a good solution to that. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise.
Rocky

[woofron]

If you make the collar taller; (mine is 15 inches in height), You will be able to put more kegs on the compressor shelf, and also out a drip dray under the taps. Great instructable, and I think my initial idea was from you!

[scottbre]

That's true. However my goal with the collar was really only to give myself enough space to be able to house the faucets and have enough extra height for the CO2 tank on the shelf. I was a little concerned about how much the door hinges could support if I added too much weight to the top via the added collar. (The biggest issue I've seen is the compression of the rubber seal by the weight of the door and collar, which would be worse the bigger the collar the collar is.)

I've toyed with getting a magnetic drip tray, but it's not worth the price for me when a square bucket under the taps works just as well and is way easier to clean. :)

[jeffeb3]

Woodworking stores (rockler, woodcraft, etc) sell very large hinges for things like solid wood lids (picture a large chest with a flip lid). Some have some spring to them, so they counterbalance the weight of the door. The trick there is finding somewhere on the base that's solid enough to attach hinges that add 50lbs of force each.

[BigCommieNat]

BEAUTIFUL!!!

How many cornies can you fit in there @ once?

[scottbre]

This will fit 3 cornelius kegs in the area of the freezer next to the compressor shelf.  (Technically, if you wanted to get a 2.5 or 3 gallon corny keg to set on the shelf next to the Co2 tank, you could have 4, but then that would mean installing a 4th faucet and all of the requisite tubing.)