Chest Refrigerator

[considerations]

I've been bumbling around looking for really efficient ways to refrigerate food.  I stumbled across this:

http://mtbest.net/chest_fridge.html

The "inventor" is in Australia, which makes me wonder about the "type" of electricity that he is producing.

I know in some countries it is supplied differently than in the US, so I suppose the parts might be different.

But it is a pretty "cool" idea.   Any feedback?

[wildbil]

thats amazing....

i was going to be getting a propane fridge but if this is as good as the article says I'll be looking into chest fridges.

Thanks for posting this

[MountainDon]

I've seen that before and it is interesting. The big drawback is that a chest refrigerator is a hard sell to most people. It doesn't matter to most people that is could be super efficient, chest types are a PITA for accessing the contents. Even with sliding baskets, and so on I could never sell the idea to my wife. I'm not that hot on the idea either... too much like my big camping cooler I can never find stuff in. Maybe that's just me. 

BTW AU runs 240 VAC 50 Hz so you'd need to modify the circuit/parts to adjust to our 120 VAC 60 Hz.

[MountainDon]

FWIW; power around the world

http://www.kropla.com/electric2.htm

[MountainDon]

One of the reasons the guy in AU designed that controller was it doesn't use any power when the freezer/fridge is not running. A simpler approach would be to buy an off the shelf external thermostat. They're commonly available from home brew suppliers. Here's one.

http://www.hoptech.com/cart/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16419&substring=thermostat

You can use one of those to turn ant freezer into a refrigerator.

[MountainDon]

More controllers

http://www.northernbrewer.com/temp-control.html

[glenn kangiser]

That was a great idea with the outside thermometer.  We have the Conserv freezer - a great efficient unit --- too efficient to be listed on energy star when we bought it.  Got it at Lowe's I think - special order.

[MountainDon]

Of course there is one downside to converting a freezer to a refrigerator. ... 

You no longer have a freezer or a freezer compartment.



The truly "crafty" person could build their own high efficiency refrigerator using a Danfoss 12/24 VDC compressor. They're used in boats a lot as well as some high end RV products. Do some Googling. They are not inexpensive though.

A additional note. Unlike domestic refrigerators freezers usually have their condenser coils embedded just under the metal skin of the sides. I mention this just in case anyone thinks of adding exterior insulation to a freezer.

[glenn kangiser]

I used the infrared non-contact thermometer and determined that the lid on ours did not have condenser coils there but the sides did.

[NELSELGNE]

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/RefrigeratorAlternatives/

http://www.loghomebuilders.org/chest-fridge-revisted

http://thesietch.org/mysietch/greenspree/2007/07/16/chest-fridge-controversy/

http://www.energyconservationinfo.org/chestfridge.htm

http://shtfmilitia.com/viewtopic.php?p=538#538

http://www.ehow.com/PrintArticle.html?id=2239641

http://readymademag.com/projectsblog/project.php?project=ELG9RUYF5LD3PF6

http://www.instructables.com/id/SUAMDDZF5LD3Q1W/

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Convert-a-mini-fridge-to-a-chest-refrigerat/

http://www.thedailygreen.com/green-homes/blogs/diy-hacks/7255

http://peakoilready.com/blog/2007/12/19/super-efficient-chest-fridge-with-pictures/

http://thesietch.org/mysietch/greenspree/2007/06/14/chest-fridge-rack-system/

http://www.boatelectric.com/Nova%20Box%20Building%20Plan%20for%20the%20LT200-F%20Kit.htm

Here are 2 thermostats specifically meant for controlling the temperature of chest freezers, with a different outcome in mind: creating the right temperature for beer and wine. It would serve the same purpose, though, to convert a freezer to refrigerator temperature.

http://ceisites.com/9025.html
http://www.morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=16663

[Jochen]

NELSELGNE,

I especially like the following statement which I found looking through your links. 

Simply put, it'd be too "inconvenient" for most Americans. Having to bend over and reach down for what you want is more trouble than most folks want to tolerate. People want to be inconvenienced as little as possible. People buy 'fridges with ice makers in the door, not because it's energy efficient, but because all they got to do is put their glass there, and the 'fridge does the rest.

Jochen

[MountainDon]

Simply put, it'd be too "inconvenient" for most Americans.

I doubt that this only applies to Americans. A quick Google of European and Japanese appliances brought up nothing but regular looking vertical refrigerators. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[Jochen]

I didn't want to insult anybody. And I agree that the vertical type of fridges is pretty common everywhere. But I can tell you from my own experience living in Europe for more then 30 years that chest freezer are very common in Europe as well.

Jochen

[glenn kangiser]

We don't bend over for a Fridge, but do for our freezers.  2 chest Freezers - 2 Vertical Fridge, but the old one uses only about 1/4 of the power of the modern ones.

This is one I found on Photobucket - 1933 Monitor Top GE-- I think ours is about 1934 - exactly like this one.

Rated at 200 watts runs for about 8 minutes per hour.

[MountainDon]

... that chest freezer are very common in Europe as well.

Jochen, nobody's insulted, at least not me. Not to belabor the point, you stated chest freezer is common in Europe. The question here is chest refrigerator.

We have a chest freezer, and an upright refrigerator. The chest freezer is not that big a deal, every so often we dig through and bring an assortment up to the surface. It's the refrigerator I/we/my wife have a problem with in chest form. They are not convenient to use. Period!

We have a 23 cu ft bottom freezer refrigerator. Yes the "cold" spills out of either section whenever a door is opened. However, it seems to me to be a good compromise, it does have a favorable energy star rating and it's convenient to access.

Having commonly used items such as milk, orange juice, apple juice, soy sauce, salad dressings available in the door trays is very convenient. The shelves with the leftovers in containers, jug of iced tea, carton(s) of eggs, sour cream, cream cheese, butter or buttery spread, the drawers full of apples, oranges, grapefruit, lettuce, parsnips etc. are also more convenient than baskets and loose storage in the bottom of a chest style unit.

We have come a long ways since the days when the average household refrigerator consumed 1400+ KwH of electrical power a year.

My point was also that it is not only "Americans" that find the upright refrigerator most convenient. The upright refrigerator also seems to be most popular in other parts of the world. How many of the nearly 6000 members of this CP forum use chest refrigerators? Chest units may be the most energy efficient form, but they are never going to be the most common format, IMO. Not for a refrigerator, accessed sevral times a day; maybe for a freezer, accessed maybe once a day.

Just my opinion, everyone else may disagree.

As I stated before, a DIY chest refrigerator still leaves one without a freezer. Most folks find a freezer indispensable.

[n74tg]

With electric power costing us an average of roughly 8 cents per kilowatt-hour we can afford to want convenience.  Let's see how important that convenience is when power goes to 80 cents per kWh. 

While I haven't read all the links listed above, it seems that most of what I have read about converting chest type freezers into refrigerators is that it is done when power costs are prohibitive -or- for off-grid applications. 

[harry51]

One way to avoid some of the cold spillage with a bottom freezer vertical reefer is to get the kind with a big freezer drawer that pulls out, providing at least some of the advantage of a chest freezer, plus making the contents more accessible.

One problem with chest type reefers of any substantial size is the footprint they take up in the house. The verticals are more efficient from that perspective.

[wildbil]

I like the chest refridge idea, I was debating not having a freezer at all in my new home. I wonder if a person could get by on canning their own foods.

[MountainDon]

I wonder if a person could get by on canning their own foods.

Absolutely. My Mom and Grandmother used to can all sorts of veggies and fruits way back when, before home freezers were readily availble. We had a pantry in the basement that was lined with Mason and Jewel jars full of home grown and home canned food.

However, when home freezers became more reasonably priced Mom switched to freezing veggies. It was less work, and for my two cents worth, frozen taste much better than canned, even home canned.


I would not like to try to get by without a freezer. One of the things we use it for is to freeze the left over half of a big stew, crock pot dinner, etc. for use a couple or more weeks down the road. Cook once, eat twice or even three times.

[glenn kangiser]

...possible if you can somehow get away from the rat race and incessant interest, taxes, permits, fees and licenses and the need to earn money to pay for them.  The old days were simpler with less demands and more time to can food, etc.  Mortgage free and no interest could help but then -- I haven't totally been there yet.  Just a taste of what it could be like at the underground complex.

[MountainDon]

The old days were simpler with less demands and more time to can food, etc. 

I think the demands were different, but there were lots of them.

My parents had a mortgage. Dad worked 10+ hour days delivering milk; first door to door and later to stores, to pay for it and the other necessities of life. I have memories of their mortgage burning party, and that of my aunts and uncles. Mom worked at home doing all the domestic things. Laundry with a wringer washer and clothes line. No automatic washer and dryer. She cleaned floors with a sweeper and beat rugs with a rug beater. She polished hardwood floors with a polisher that consisted of a handle attached to a cast iron slab with a felt pad under it. Dad had to load the coal burner boiler with coal every other day or so, during the winter. Plus he had to haul the ashes out. Mom cooked all the meals from scratch. In summer it was she who did most of the work weeding the garden. It was also her and grandmother who canned the vegetables, made pickles, sauerkraut, canned fruit, made jams and jellies, head cheese, etc. I can remember plucking chickens, using burning newspaper to singe them clean, cutting and canning them. I remember stirring the pot, making soap, after rendering the pork fat, grinding meats for stuffing sausages, cutting beef with a handsaw... Mom baked great breads and pastries. July and August were very hot months. I recall the difficulty in getting to sleep with the temperature and humidity hovering in the 80's.

My mother loved the electric floor polisher she got after my Dad had to do the housework after my first sister was born. Ditto, the Hoover vacuum. She also loved the modern multi-cycle clothes washer that freed her from having to manually rinse clothes and then run them through the wringer. Ditto the gas clothes dryer in December through March. Manitoba winters are very cold and hanging clothes out to dry when it's 30 degrees below zero and the wind is blowing is not fun. My Mom appreciated the acquisition of the freezer; it saved her hours of time canning and preserving foods. I recall the installation of the natural gas boiler conversion and how much extra space we had in the basement with the stoker and coal bin gone, not to mention the reduced chores. (By then I was hauling ashes). Today I love my 19 SEER air conditioning and the relief it provides from the extreme 90 degree tempratures of the day.

I enjoyed going out every fall / early winter and cutting a year's worth of firewood. Hauling it home, splitting it in January, stacking it neatly for the next year's use, However, I also appreciate being connected to the natural gas system today.

I also remember good times on the farm, having fun driving the tractor, the combine. I was too young to realize it was hard work. I liked to drive the machinery or the '48 Ford two ton truck on trips to haul gain to the grain Co-Op in town. Plinking with the 22 single shot Savage is still a joy. Except the single shot action now is a drag and I do prefer a bolt or semi-automatic action.

So I guess what I'm trying to state is that the "old days" were a lot of hard work. Nothing wrong with that in many ways, but I appreciate modern day conveniences. Life was still good back then, I had a lot of fun with my friends playing cops and robbers, war, cowboys and Indians, all outdoors and without a care in the world.  Digging snow caves and getting buried in their collapse.

I also appreciate having an automobile, or two, or three, today, just as much as my Dad appreciated his first car in 1957. It saved him having to ride a bicycle to and from work 6 miles each way every work day; or having to take a streetcar/bus. I appreciate being able to buy a piece of recreational land in the mountains, something no one in my family ever had the luxury of in the past. I am the first! I appreciate having modern technologies like the internet, and the other labor saving devices that give me the time to spend time on the internet. I appreciate my cordless tools, portable generator, GPS. K loves her computerized sewing machine; my Mom had a treadle operated sewing machine for many years. I was fascinated by the mechanism, but my Mom thought her first motorized Singer was the cat's meow. (Cat's meow - Something considered to be outstanding... Coined by American cartoonist Thomas a. Dorgan (1877-1929) whose work appears in many American newspapers.)

And lastly I appreciate modern day medical services. Without those I would likely have been dead twice, more than likely three times.

It's not all bad today. There are many things to be thankful for. Of course, others opinions may vary. All in all if it was possible to choose another time to be born unto, I don't think I'd make a change.

[Squirl]

Chest refrigerators are very common in sail boats.  I have been talking to many builders and dealers and many are switching over to uprights.  The reason that they give is that in theory and in the lab chest fridges perform better, but in real life applications people spend more time looking and organizing chest fridges and they are less efficiant in practice.

[John_C]

Chest refrigerators are very common in sail boats.  I have been talking to many builders and dealers and many are switching over to uprights.  The reason that they give is that in theory and in the lab chest fridges perform better, but in real life applications people spend more time looking and organizing chest fridges and they are less efficiant in practice.

I seriously doubt that's the reason.  I lived on a boat for about 10 years and built several chest style refrigerators.  They were extremely efficient with 6" of urethane foam and a radiant barrier. Since the cold air didn't fall out the instant the door was opened they lost very little by opening the top. In addition food didn't fall out when you opened the door in rolling seas.

My guess is that people have been wanting ever bigger fridges as they have wanted their boats to be more like home. Many of these boats seldom leave the marina and even more seldom make offshore passages. They spend a lot of time connected to dockside power and have generous onboard generating capacity. For them a fridge from "Sears" is just fine.

My own boat had an ice box. 6" foam & radiant barrier... a block of ice would last 3 weeks in FL, the Bahamas, Virgin Islands, or Puerto Rico.  It wasn't worth the headache of mechanical refrigeration. I have no idea if you could even find block ice today,  bag ice would probably take a week off the fridge's capability.

[muldoon]

my beer fridge is setup nearly the same way as this.  I now am on my second one having rebuilt after the first freezer died. 

I used a process similar to these for the setup, I'll post some pictures of the setup if anyone is interested. 

http://www.oregonbrewcrew.com/freezer/freezer.html
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jkelm2/www/2005-09-23_Kegerator_Construction/
http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1986/42894/kegerator.htm

Inside my collar I added polystyrene foil backed foam board for insulation and sealed everything up with metallic aluminum tape.  There is zero condensation on it so I think it does ok in that department.  Even in the heat of summer in an un-insulated garage with no air conditioning the light comes on at the bottom of the freezer just a few minutes an hour if that.  I like beer set between 38-41 degrees.  I built up a small shelf so aside from the 4 kegs I also can put just regular drinks and water in there. 

I used a Johnson Controls analog temp controller, in fact the first item in the link Don posted is exactly what I have used for years.  I even bought it from that company.  (nb rocks)

[NM_Shooter]

Okay... don't laugh.

I've been thinking about trying to build an icebox for my cabin for awhile.  I think that if I over-insulate, I can use a couple of blocks of ice to keep the thing pretty cold for quite awhile.  Seems to me the trick is to never use them to cool food down, only to keep them cold. 

I even thought of trying to find a way to build it into the floor, but the geometry just would not work.  I think I will end up building it into the counter top, probably right next to the small pantry. 

I had also considered building it outside, put on the north side of the cabin, but access to that would not be easy for my kitchen staff