
Converting a Chest Freezer to a Fridge [pdf] - andrewwhartion
http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge_1.pdf
======
Animats
Or there's this article about how to change the temperature range of a chest
freezer with one simple screw adjustment.[1] Or this off the shelf external
mechanical thermostat.[2] Designing your own analog electronic thermostat is
not really necessary.

[1]
[http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=249612](http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=249612)
[2] [https://www.amazon.com/Johnson-
Controls-A19AAT-2C-Temperatur...](https://www.amazon.com/Johnson-
Controls-A19AAT-2C-Temperature-Controller/dp/B0002EAL58#customerReviews)

------
rubidium
My goodness people. 12 hours of discussion and people are arguing about if
it's actually more efficient or the best thermostat to use.

The reason no one wants a "chest freezer" style fridge (which the author of
the article advocates) is because it's a pain the back to get stuff in and
out, not to mention organizing your food.

Yes, this is great for home-brewing. But nobody should kid themselves that
regular people would want this to replace their "normal" upright fridges.

~~~
Wile_E_Quixote
I'm not sure the pain-in-the-back argument is necessarily true. Even for many
upright refrigerators, you must still bend over or crouch to get things from
lower shelves and drawers. I've never felt inconvenienced removing things from
my chest freezer. Also, my chest freezer has some sliding racks that make it
great for organizing its contents. It seems possible that the pain-in-the-back
argument is great for marketing, because it sounds like there could be some
truth to it. I would argue that a person that has back trouble would likely
only be able to use the chest level shelves in fridges, but they could just as
easily use the top level racks in a chest freezer.

My guess for why traditional upright fridges could be seen as more convenient
is because they take up less floor space for the amount of volume they
provide. Also, upright fridges would be easier for small/short children to
access. If floor space is less of a concern, and there is no need for small
children to access the fridge, a chest-freezer-style fridge sounds like a
brilliant idea. Next time I need a new fridge, I will seriously consider this
as an option. Perhaps by then some contrarian manufacturers will realize how
much sense this makes and I won't even need to convert a freezer myself.

~~~
dpark
It's not about "back trouble". Digging through a chest freezer regularly is a
pain even if your back is in great shape.

Most of the stuff people use frequently ends up on the top shelves or in the
doors of fridges. Lots of fridges have really deep door shelves to maximize
this utility. Similarly, nicer fridge/freezer combos have mostly moved the
freezer to the bottom to increase the convenience of the fridge.

Most fridges also have quite a few shelves so that you can get out the thing
you want without moving everything. In a chest freezer, the baskets don't hold
most of the food. Most of it is stacked on the bottom. So to get the thing you
want, you inevitably have to move other things off of it. Refrigerators
minimize this hassle.

Plus the condensation is gross and extremely inconvenient to clean when the
fridge is full. I can't imagine leaving the walls of my fridge wet for 2-3
months at a time. You can address that with a chest fridge that operates like
a normal fridge (cooling and therefore dehumidifying the air directly), but I
bet you lose most of the efficiency gains as soon as you do.

------
6502nerdface
Lots of homebrew supply shops sell affordable, hobbyist thermostats to put
between your chest freezer and the electrical outlet, or, with more work, to
replace the freezer's built-in thermostat, in either case converting the
freezer into a fridge. Good for lagering or serving small (~5 gal) kegs.

~~~
keenerd
Usually those are shops don't sell what I'd consider affordable thermostats.
The really affordable ones are meant for aquariums and are easy to pick up on
ebay.

~~~
andrewwhartion
At around $20, something like an STC-1000 digital thermostat I'd consider
pretty affordable for this type of application.

~~~
keenerd
That would be the exact model I am talking about.

------
brian-armstrong
The article mentions that condensation collects on the bottom and has to be
sponged out. It seems like what's missing is a system to deal with
condensation.

~~~
eru
Though, if you only have to deal with this every 2-3 months, like the article
says, it might not be too much of a hassle.

~~~
dpark
I don't believe the claim unless the author lives somewhere with near-zero
humidity all the time. People use these frequently for homebrew ("keezer" a la
"kegerator"). The condensation is a frequent complaint. If you leave the walls
of your fridge wet for months at a time, they will mold. It's cold, but not so
cold that no molds can grow. And sponging out a chest freezer full of food is
a giant pain in the ass because of, you know, all the food.

------
aaron695
As someone who has done it.

TL;DR; How

Have zero knowledge about anything.

Buy part on eBay.

Spend 5 mins double checking what to do. Spend 30 seconds replacing part.

Because this is done by a lot of homebrewers, easy and lots of info out there.

TL;DR; Why, if not for homebrew.

Because a fridge will lose a lot of air when opening. 600 liters of air
weights 600 grams. This ~ needs to be re-chilled on each opening.

------
andrewwhartion
Abstract:

"This article describes a household refrigerator that requires about 0.1 kWh
per day to operate. The refrigerator offers excellent food-preserving
performance, because temperature fluctuations in its interior are naturally
minimized during everyday use. This fridge is 10 to 20 times more energy
efficient than typical household fridges on the market today. It seems that
the biggest obstacles in increasing the energy efficiency and food- preserving
performance of household refrigerators are strange human habits and lack of
understanding of Nature, not technology or cost."

------
monkeycantype
Hang on, how is it we've spent hours arguing over thermostats, and no one has
mentioned this is the work of dr tom chalko inventor of the cancer curing
bioresonant t-shirt:
[https://bioresonant.com/tshirts.html](https://bioresonant.com/tshirts.html)

as seen in the authors head shot at the end of the pdf.

that's no mere dead head tie dye you're seeing folks

------
joezydeco
_" Vertical doors in refrigeration devices are inherently inefficient. As soon
as we open a vertical fridge door – the cold air escapes, simply because it is
heavier than the warmer air in the room."_

Okay, so the author proposes that the thermal losses from the cold air being
replaced with ambient air make up for the hundreds of extra kWh/year consumed
by a vertical fridge.

 _While chest freezers typically have better thermal insulation and larger
evaporators than fridges..._

So shouldn't we be comparing a chest fridge to a vertical fridge with a
comparable insulation system and condenser/evaporator capacity before
declaring that lower air losses are the reason chest fridges work better?

~~~
vanderZwan
> _In 2004 I became really curious just how efficient a “chest fridge” can
> be._

Pretty sure you couldn't easily get a chest fridge back then. I know, I looked
for one a few years later.

~~~
cptskippy
What constitutes a chest fridge to you? A Google image search on the term
yields exactly what I expected and those have been around as long as I can
remember (30+ years).

~~~
vanderZwan
Something I can buy in a store or have delivered to my house and isn't an
order of magnitude more expensive because it's "design"

~~~
cptskippy
So you're saying that "design" chest fridges are a new occurrence? I'm
thoroughly confused as to what you're trying to say.

Chest fridges are not new and have been around for decades. If by "design" you
mean designer, then ok maybe designer chest fridges are a new thing. I
wouldn't know because I've never actually seen one. Most people keep chest
fridges in their basement or garage and wouldn't care if it's designer or not.

~~~
vanderZwan
> Chest fridges are not new and have been around for decades.

I'm saying that they might "have been around", but they weren't in any of the
stores that sold fridges when I went looking for them. The only thing
resembling a chest fridge I have seen in real life in the last decade was some
kind of fancy designer-drawer in an upper-class house.

------
Retric
Just make sure to get a freezer with a drain plug. They are normally used for
defrosting. "Some GE and HP chest freezers have a convenient drain at the
front with hose adaptor. Check Owner's Manual for specific model information.
Download a copy of the Owner's Manual."
[http://products.geappliances.com/appliance/gea-support-
searc...](http://products.geappliances.com/appliance/gea-support-search-
content?contentId=19299)

------
Jaruzel
Non-PDF Google Cache Copy (for people like me, who don't like clicking on
unknown PDFs):

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_wPrLjU...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_wPrLjU4OpEJ:www.mtbest.net/chest_fridge.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk)

Missing the diagrams of the circuits but totally readable.

------
rrauenza
I'm struggling to find the reason for the battery backup / UPS. It has to be
charged occasionally by the system, so doesn't make it's consumption zero
standby... Why not drive the circuit directly from the A/C via a DC
transformer? Is it to keep the memory of the last cycle to not over cycle the
compressor?

------
jasonlingx
An easier way could be to take a fridge and lay it horizontally.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
The compressor has a coil with oil in it. The oil must settle in the right
places or the thing could stop functioning. It can ruin a compressor to store
the unit in the wrong orientation.

~~~
byuu
Yep. There's lots of scary warnings when buying even mini fridges that you
can't operate it for at least 24 hours if the unit was rested on its side
during transport to you.

------
amelius
Why doesn't anybody sell this in shops?

