Broken Chest Freezer Ferm Chamber

[Bock_Lesnar]

Morning gents (and potentially gentettes?... gentelles?... uhhh, lady folk)

So I've got a bit of an interesting one that I could do with some advice on.

I recently bought a (very) cheap old chest freezer, and by that I mean I got it for $10 off a local auction site. The auction mentioned that it was all in working order but needed to have a gas refill. Unfortunately it's so old that it uses R12 gas, which is no longer legally refilled in NZ.

So I've got this old freezer which now sits in a tin shed out the back of my house for lack of any other place to put it. Considering I assume it is still pretty well insulated I've considered using this for a fermentation chamber for ales.

It's getting pretty cold here - around the 4*C mark overnight - and I'm wondering what the likelihood is that the freezer would drop dramatically enough to ruin a ferment. Obviously I'm not up at 3am to test the temp, so just wanted some advice.

Also, there is no way to get any electricity to it, so I can't heat it at all. Is there anything I could do to make sure the temp isn't affected by outside temps?

 

[Bock_Lesnar]

Good chat, guys, good chat

 

[bregiz]

I have no real idea, But I don't like your chances if it is outside in a tin shed durring a NZ winter. If you could find somewhere inside however, or were able to get power to it for a heat lamp... That would be a different story.

 

[oldstyle69]

put a bucket of water in it over night and take a temp reading when you roll out of bed.

 

[Aussiez]

my 2cents.

If you can grab a digital thermometer with a memory fuction. Min/Max. It'll store the highest and lowest temp, unless you clear it. Stick one outside the freezer and then one inside the freezer. This will give you workable data to determine what you can brew.

If you can't run a power lead too it, perhaps get a 12v camping heater (looks like a little pump) and run it off a battery with a small solar panel?
Once you get the temp inside right it'll just maintain it overnight, so i can't imagine it would be running all the time and drain the battery.

Just something to thing about I guess.

 

[Bock_Lesnar]

Good suggestions, will give the bucket and the digital thermometer a go, cheers