Okay Im new at kegging after 12 years of bottling…have two corny kegs…got one in the family fridge in the basement and its time to get it out (or get divorced, per se). I’ve hunted all around for a fridge that is not too costly, box stores and social media outlets. We live in a relatively rural area so Facebook Marketplace, etc. is not too helpful. I’ve landed on an upright freezer that is cost efficient. Does anyone have experience/recommendations with converting an upright freezer to a fridge for our beloved kegged brewskis? Any advice here would be so appreciated. Thank you!
Look into these controllers.I have used for years on both fermentors and my keezer. If you go this route, place the temp probe into a mason jar of water that is placed into the freezer.
When using a freezer you will need an inkbird or similar controller. Plug the freezer into the inkbird and the inkbird into the wall. You can now set the inkbird to maintain your desired set temperature.
Sometimes the cooling for upright freezers is in the shelves, meaning you can’t remove them to make room for kegs. Make sure yours isn’t like that.
For some reason, I thought I’d heard that the probe isn’t supposed to remain submerged in liquid. If it’s OK to just keep a jar of water in there with the probe in it, that’ll make my life a little easier.
I’ve done it that way from the start. Lid on, probe thru the lid. I believe the water is going to be the best method for reading a constant temp.
I agree with getting a better reading that way. I don’t recall where I thought I’d heard about not keeping it submerged, but if it’s been working for you, I’ll give it a shot. Thanks for sharing your experience!
This is the standard in things like medical fridges. Our probes are submerged in a small tube of glycol. The liquid is less sensitive to rapid temperature fluctuations from things like opening the door.
You are correct. The probe should be attached to the fermenter
converted a chest freezer to a keezer, used the inkbird thermostat control, put my probe in a mason jar of water and now my temps are way off. The inkbirds are inexpensive and I bought a new one. This time Im thinking of running the probe thru some drilled vinyl tubing and maybe that will help. Hope this ifo helps some and if any one has any ideas on the probe being inserted in to some vinyl tubing pleas jump in
The other thing I did to get a more consistent temp, is not to put my probe in a mason jar of water but I attached a small computer fan to run all the time. They draw so little power and will run for 3.5- 6 years and cheap. If you dont want to run it all the time you can use the INKBIRD for that if you’ld like