Chest freezer experiment begins.

Just put 25 bottles into a brand new 19 cubic foot freezer that I have converted to wine storage use. Interested in experiences others may have with this approach.

My experience so far is that this is an inexpensive way to store lots of wine. Was looking at 300 bottle upright but cheapest was like $1300. So far I am in for $700 for freezer, $80 for external power control and bill to come from electrician for an extra GFI circuit in garage. I’ll need to add in a donation to Cellertracker for the software to keep track of what is where. Overall, it looks to be a cheap option.

Current worry is how this unit will get affected by humidity. More precisely I worry about affects on labels. We’ll soon see.

KF

What temp is it at?

curious what steady state humidity you will get.

Temp is set 54 -56 as I was worried about sensitivity of control. Worried that it would be jumping on and off. Turns out I can specify a minimum break, but do not think it will be an issue. Will be moving temp to 55 - seems very stable.

Humidity is a worry. I will be buying a meter tomorrow. What happens to humidity in the forced air models? I have one and keep at 55 but never set humidity.

KF

What’s the bottle capacity of your freezer?

Capacity could be large. I’d estimate 400 to 500 bottles depending on stacking. Access will be an issue if one takes it up to the brim.

First temperature observations: The control kicks in at 56. Freezer comes on and says it s 58. Thermostat that is built in the unit must be in the lid or not that accurate - I have a manual double check inside and it is at 56. Motor runs for 5 minutes and clicks off at 55. Then the interior drops to 54 then 53. Momentum I guess.

I will be installing a false floor to keep bottom row away from the floor and walls which is where the cooling units are.

KF

How did you get the freezer to set at 55? Does it just have that range of temperature settings to it?

Any separation between bottles, or are they just stacked one on another? If you have separation, what are you using?

As far as I can see, no matter how you put them in it will be hard to get at those on the bottom. But if you have a lot of duplicates this might not be so bad.

Are you using a Dork Food style power control with a temperature probe?

I’ll be interested to hear your take about trying to find a bottle that was put at the bottom.
I suggest you look at some of your electric bills to see the before and after to get a sense of costs for running the unit.

I hope it works out.

I use this to store a barrel of wine that is aging. Fighting mold is difficult in the summer

I had success this past year with the Evadry

My WAG is it will be too humid as the compressor will run such short times due to the cold coil temp. The compressor will also lead a miserable life operating outside its design condition. Be cautious of the probe location or you will have frozen wine and or short cycling of the compressor. Seems risky to me.

Chris,

The freezer does not have settings as high as 55, so you have to use an external power controller that has a thermostat you insert into the freezer. Someone mentioned Dork Food brand which is same thing. You can see photos at Amazon.com. Just type in Johnson Controls and look for the model A419. The concept comes from Home Brew dudes who need large fridge space.

I do not worry about the compressor any more than any other appliance. I realize it is not optimal, but in winter it may not come on very much at all. Maybe that prolongs its life? Time will tell. I’m kind of surprised no one has made a model like this given the Home Brewers and wine applications. It would be nicer to buy a model with the right condenser and temp settings.

KF

I’m impressed, and I hope it works out well for you. The designated wine fridges generally are awful in terms of repair, lifespan and expense, yet regular refrigerators and freezers seem to work fine for decades (and if they have repair problems, it’s usually ancillary things like the water and ice dispensers, not the regular operations).

Would you please be so kind as to report back down the road as to how it worked out for you? I’m quite interested.

Are there any regular refrigerators that have temp settings going up to the “good” range for wine (50-55)? It’s not so far from normal fridge temps, and they are quite a bit cheaper, and probably more reliable.

I’m wondering if a couple pounds of 60% Heartfelt Beads (used for humidors) would help regulate the Humidity?

http://www.heartfeltindustries.com/products.asp?cat=60%25+Rh+Humidity+Beads

I keep some in my 60 bottle wine fridge and they really help keep the labels dry in the summer when it’s running a lot.

25 bottles isn’t a lot of thermal mass. I would expect the temperature to become more stable as you add more wine. As for humidity, who knows?

I’ve been running the same setup for about a year. I use it for about half beer - 4 cases of Westvleteren XII I picked up in Belgium along with some other ageable goodies - and half wine that I want at cellar temp but accessible (I have a locker for the rest). I’ve currently got about 100 bottles in there with plenty of room for more. You do have to be careful about how you stack things as accessibility is the biggest issue. I added two cheap computer fans to get some airflow and a static (beads) dehumidifier to keep the humidity around 70%.

Emily Litella suggested this music accompaniment:

Thanks for the humidity comments and suggestions - I have a new project for Saturday. Antonio, I am curious if you keep the fans running continuously. I guess I could just hook them into the external control thereby having them come on when the condenser kicks in for cooling.

Ken, killer tune…now how to get that to play when I open the lid…

KF

I keep the fans running continuously. I don’t really see too much downside to having some air circulation and these computer fans are rated for something like 50,000 hours which is somewhere close to 6 years. Or is there another reason for running them infrequently?

I went and checked and I’m using an EvaDry unit as well, like someone mentioned above.