old chest freezer to ferment chamber with glycol chiller?

kkroeker · Joined: 08 Sep 2015 Posts: 19 Location: Oklahoma

I have what may be an off the wall question. has anyone used a glycol system to chill a chest freezer for a fermentation chamber? If so, how? Using food grade glycol of course.

I have a keezer I built that bit the dust. Compressor quit. It was second hand when I got it and not worth the money to get repaired. It had served me and many beers well. I am building a new keezer as a replacement.

I am in the middle of building a glycol chiller from an old window AC and ice chest for a conical I have so I can ferment in my garage as opposed to in the house. It worked great in the winter when heat was needed, but now it is warm, I need to cool it down. And it is always fun to build stuff for the "cool" factor.

So trying to justify the glycol chiller more with my wife and not have to dispose of an insulated box, I was hoping to combine the two functions into a fermentation chamber. Where I don't have to hold the temps as cold as a Keezer.

I haven't seen anything in my searching online as to doing this. Or maybe I don't know what to search for. Thoughts were to maybe create/repurpose a copper coil to pump the glycol through and a fan to blow over it. Another thought was to run a bunch of copper pipe all over the inside of the chest freezer. I have questions if that would be enough with a fan on that as opposed to a coil with a fan. I would use a temp controller of some kind hooked to a pump in the glycol chiller to circulate the liquid.

Any thoughts or direction would be much appreciated.

-Karl

wscottcross · Posted: Thu May 18, 2017 11:56 am Post subject:

I think the simplest way to do that would be to use a temp controller (such as an Inkbird ITC308) connected to a submersible pond pump and run the glycol lines into the keezer. Put a small radiator with a fan in the keezer and power the fan from the same temp controller or just keep the fan running all the time.

McGruber · Joined: 12 Aug 2014 Posts: 237 Location: Idaho

Master · Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 3:32 am Post subject:

Not a Keezer, but my glycol system is this:

50' of copper tube zip tied to the rack in my kegerator freezer.
Plastic Tub. Has RV antifreeze in the pic, it's Propylene Glycol now.
Bulkhead fittings through freezer wall, run to cooling coil in the fermentor.

Master · Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 3:34 am Post subject:

With Kegerator set to 37F, Freezer compartment stays 0-10F with an ale at 67F in a 90F garage.

dp Brewing Company · Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 12:02 pm Post subject:

Nice work!

kkroeker · Joined: 08 Sep 2015 Posts: 19 Location: Oklahoma

That is some great stuff!!

I ended up going to a parts store and spoke to the oldest guy there. (They can genrally think without having to have a make and model). He knew exactly what I wanted to do and pulled a couple heater cores options from the back. No idea what they were to. Most are smaller than larger and the bigger more cost and special order. I got one for $12 to try out.

Plan is as above mentioned to pump the glycol from the tank through lines to heater core and back. Have a large computer fan to blow over it. And use an ink bird or other temp controller for the pump.

I pushed chilled water through it last night. Not even a mock up. Just held the core and had a pump hat was too small of flow, but it proved concept. I'm excited. I hope to take pictures as I actually put it together.

I'm going to use food grade glycol only because I had a bad seal on my ss brewtech conical coil extender . Ended messing up a batch of beer and filled it to the top. Found out there was a problem when I noticed the pump was making lots of noise and no water in the container.

-Karl

kkroeker · Joined: 08 Sep 2015 Posts: 19 Location: Oklahoma

Well. If I could figure out how to add pictures from my phone I would. Too large it says. lol

For reference, my set up is in my Shop which is not temperature controlled. Just a metal building setting out in Rural Oklahoma taking the heat and cold as it comes.

Basically I took the Heater Core i got from the Parts store and ran the chilled liquid through it. I just drilled holes in the collar for the metal heater core lines to go through and made the connections outside the chest. I zip tied a computer fan to the back of the Heater Core and have it blowing all the time through it. Finally I have a pump hooked to a Ranco temp controller to pump the chilled liquid through heater core when the temp gets too warm. Both send and return lines are in black pipe insulation. This has resulted in consistent temps. I can chill down to 42 degrees using just water in my DIY Glycol Chiller. I am confident this will work over the summer. As for the winter, I am looking to upgrade the temp controller to one that can do both hot and cold, and will add a light bulb or maybe some kind of hose wrap into the chest to keep the temps up in the colder months.

-Karl