{"id":3260,"date":"2011-02-28T23:48:02","date_gmt":"2011-03-01T04:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/?p=3260"},"modified":"2011-03-01T00:23:03","modified_gmt":"2011-03-01T05:23:03","slug":"chest-freezer-first-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2011\/02\/28\/chest-freezer-first-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"Chest Freezer First Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><\/p>\n<table cellpadding=1>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"black\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/gallery\/v\/stuffivemade\/kegged_beer_cooler\/IMG_5907.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/gallery\/d\/96446-2\/IMG_5907.jpg\" height=427 width=640 border=0 title=\"Low quality test connections while running the freezer to try and determine where the coils are located.\"><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Now that I&#8217;m brewing beer again and kegging it (<a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2010\/12\/28\/carbonating-kegging-supplies\/\">1<\/a> &middot; <a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2011\/02\/14\/y-fitting\/\">2<\/a> &middot; <a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2011\/01\/17\/rebuilt-keg-force-carbonation-test\/\">3<\/a> &middot; <a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2011\/01\/09\/area-51-ipa-kit\/\">4<\/a>), the approach of warm weather means that I have to find a way to keep the kegs cool so that I may serve them. To do this I purchased a chest freezer and am in the process of adapting it to use a more precise temperature control system so that I may try and keep the kegs at a consistant 40\u00b0F.<\/p>\n<p>After receiving a <a href=\"http:\/\/cgproducts.johnsoncontrols.com\/MET_PDF\/125188.PDF\">Johnson Controls A419ABC-1C<\/a> temperature control I opened up the 7.0 ft<sup>3<\/sup> Holiday-brand chest freezer acquired from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lowes.com\">Lowes<\/a> (item number 0073849) and set to understanding it&#8217;s temperature control system. It turns out that this chest freezer just has a basic on\/off control that <a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/gallery\/v\/stuffivemade\/kegged_beer_cooler\/IMG_5900.jpg.html\">switches mains on and off for the compressor<\/a> based on <a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/gallery\/v\/stuffivemade\/kegged_beer_cooler\/IMG_5903.jpg.html\">a temperature probe fed into the wall of the freezer<\/a>. This should make it very easy to replace the controller with the A419.<\/p>\n<p>Part of converting a chest freezer to beer keg holding requires one to drill holes for both CO<sub>2<\/sub> and the temperature control, which is a very risky task because hitting the refrigerant lines will vent the freezer&#8217;s cooling system rendering it useless. To try and understand where the coils are I started the freezer, let it run for a bit, then placed 1L of boiling water in it with the lid closed. The result was <a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/gallery\/v\/stuffivemade\/kegged_beer_cooler\/IMG_5908.jpg.html\">this<\/a>, a nicely frosted freezer showing that almost all of the bottom part contains coils. Knowing this I&#8217;m going to attempt to drill the gas\/probe holes by first carefully removing some of the lining metal then picking away at the foam to be sure that I&#8217;m not going to hit a line when widening the hole. I will start in the corner in the upper right of this picture, as this will allow for both easy gas and temperature probe access once everything is assembled. Hopefully that&#8217;ll go well.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re interested, my first photos from this project can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/gallery\/v\/stuffivemade\/kegged_beer_cooler\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now that I&#8217;m brewing beer again and kegging it (1 &middot; 2 &middot; 3 &middot; 4), the approach of warm weather means that I have&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/2011\/02\/28\/chest-freezer-first-steps\/\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Chest Freezer First Steps<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,13,14,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-around-the-house","category-computers","category-food","category-making-things","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3260"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3265,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3260\/revisions\/3265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nuxx.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}