I just picked up a 25ft chest freezer from work. I plugged it in and the inside gets cold but the compressor get pretty hot. What should I look at first to get this to run cooler? I plan on using this as a fermentation box so I will not be pushing it to get down to freezing temps. Should I be concerned or just run a separate fan off of the temp controller as well and have that blow on the compressor as it runs. Thanks
Help, compressor on freezer gets hot!!
- Thread starter kmcace
- Start date
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I ran it for about an hour and the inside walls were getting frosty. I did not leave it on long enough to shut its self off. Ventilation is not a problem, I had it sitting in the middle of the garage with nothing around it.
I would try it again (when you are home, just to be safe). Our freezers at work get pretty darned hot when they are first turned on. I think that's normal.
The compressors and skin get hot the inside gets cold that's how they work. The more thermal mass you have inside the less it will run and the lower temp fluctuations you will have.
I was looking for a 25 cu ft and settled for the 19.7 holds 14 five gallon kegs(no collar) and 2 three gallon kegs on the hump. Loaded up mine runs about 2 hours total a day for a bout five minute run time and the compressor only gets warm.
Nice unit enjoy
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I was looking for a 25 cu ft and settled for the 19.7 holds 14 five gallon kegs(no collar) and 2 three gallon kegs on the hump. Loaded up mine runs about 2 hours total a day for a bout five minute run time and the compressor only gets warm.
Nice unit enjoy
View attachment 120467
Attachments
Damn that's a lot of beer on tap!!! The guys at my work were going to toss this thing away because they said that the compressor was getting hot. I don't believe that they had much in it. I think I will run it again this weekend and see how hot the compressor gets. Would it be better to put buckets of water in it to add some thermal mass? Thanks
mikescooling
Well-Known Member
My SWAG is it's got a refer leak or the condenser coil is plugged or the condenser fan is shot. see my user name
Uhm, MOST chest freezer that are not commercial grade, Don't have fans or need them. And the coils are sealed within the walls of the unit. (refrigeration tech)
I'd throw in a few bags of ice, to cool down 25 cu ft even to the warmest setting will take a couple of hours which is a hard thing for these small compressors. On start up I had 6 bags of ice and 6 cold kegs, I removed the ice once the compressor was cycling for about 5 minutes every 1/2 hour or so
mikescooling
Well-Known Member
Uhm, MOST chest freezer that are not commercial grade, Don't have fans or need them. And the coils are sealed within the walls of the unit. (refrigeration tech)
Wow tuff room, the guy said he got it from work, AKA commercial grade. I was posting to help the OP, you posted just to mock me.
Perfectly normal. When you compress a gas adiabatically it gets hot. If you have an air compressor in your garage you will notice the same thing. In a refrigeration system cold refrigerant vapor gets compressed by the compressor which gets hot and produces hot gas. That hot gas goes through a radiator (which in a chest freezer is just tubing wrapped around the thing just under the skin but outside the insulation). The heat (which is energy from the compressor motor plus heat from the interior of the box) is radiated away and the hot gas condenses to liquid. You should be able to feel warm spots on the outside of the freezer where the condensor tubing lies. This tells you where not to drill if you are running lines into/out of the freezer box.
The condensed liquid gets sprayed into a another heat exchanger within the cold box where it boils picking up heat from the interior of the box. The cold vapor goes back to the compressor where its pressure and temperature are increased again and the cycle repeats.
When you first plug in a freezer it is going to run for a long time. It will come closer to equilibrium (the highest temperature it reaches under a given set of conditions) on a long initial run than on short, temperature maintenance runs once the box and its contents are cooled down.
The condensed liquid gets sprayed into a another heat exchanger within the cold box where it boils picking up heat from the interior of the box. The cold vapor goes back to the compressor where its pressure and temperature are increased again and the cycle repeats.
When you first plug in a freezer it is going to run for a long time. It will come closer to equilibrium (the highest temperature it reaches under a given set of conditions) on a long initial run than on short, temperature maintenance runs once the box and its contents are cooled down.
In OP's post he mentioned adding a fan to cool compressor. Not a bashing or berating just trying to point OP in the right direction. That's why I added the
I try to inform many on here to keep a 3 N 1 around for emergencies, as you know
KPaul
Well-Known Member
I picked up a 13 cu ft upright freezer from Craigslist last week and thought something was wrong when I first got it going...it got super hot on the sides and top. Once the temp got down to the setting on the external control it mellowed right out and is cool to the touch. Now that it's full of beer it doesn't run much unless I've had the door open.
Thanks KPaul that makes me feel better. I will try it again this weekend with my external temp control.
