i have a lead on a super cheap chest freezer that i think i'm going to pick up for lagering/keg cooler. it is possible to turn up the temp high enough to not freeze things, right?

thanks.

Typically, people replace the internal thermostat with a custom controller (ex. http://morebeer.com/view_product/16663/). Then build a collar (ex. http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1986/42894/kegerator.htm) between the lid and base and presto ... you have the potential for a bunch of taps at your fingertips.

One of the debates regarding 'super cheap' chest freezers is how efficient they are. If you get some 30 year old energy hog you might be better off in the long run paying more for a new or newer model.

You will have to deal with moisture inside. Freezers don't have a defrost cycle, so the condensation that would normally be a ring of ice around the sides will end up being a puddle at the bottom. How much depends on how often you open it up and the condition of the lid seals. It doesn't seem to be a big problem for those that use them. Good luck.

Jeff,

Its OK to buy the old machines. The controller you buy from the LHBS will have a probe run into the freezer that you tape to your fermenter. The freezer plugs into the controller and only runs when it needs to keep up to the temp set on the dial. It won't run all of the time, thus worrying about the electric bill blasting thru the roof. It does make the compressor turn on and off quite a few times during the day but the compressors are robust enough to handle the cycles.

To answer your question though, I have three freezers, two chest and one upright, and on the highest temp setting they all will freeze the contents.

Get the temp controller from MrC or Siciliano's or NB and you will be set. If you have a hard time fitting kegs in there then you can do as bryguy says and build a collar kit to raise the roof a bit to clear them. Personally I don't like chest freezers for the fact that I have a bad back and lifting full carboys and kegs up and in is a chore.

TimO

You don't have to replace the internal temp controller. I suppose you could if you felt confident as an electrician, but a plug-in temp controller is what I use.

Your local power company probably has some calculator on their website to determine how much it would cost to run certain appliances, including old, less efficient ones. My brew friend did such a calculation and found that for the chet freezer I have, with efficiency set to the minimum allowable value, the cost to run would be $50 per year. The actual cost to use as a fermentation control or for serving should be significantly less, since it is not running as much.

For environmental reasons, I would prefer to use the most efficient thing I can get, but from a purely economic stand point, I don't worry about the chest freezer. From an emperical perspective, I didn't notice any change in my electrical bill when I started using it.