Home made walk in Cooler?

Gillespiebowhunter · 10-05-2005, 01:50 PM

I have a chest type freezer in my shop I no longer use (still works great). I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to turn this thing into a cooler for hanging deer.

Booney160 · 10-05-2005, 03:24 PM

In your shed build a room with well insulated walls with the freezer compressor built in. I know a guy who built a cooler like this for his bar. Just make sure you insulate and build the walls opposite of the way you would a house wall, think of the freezer as the exterior space. Let the inside (cold side) of the wall breath and the outside (warm side) wrap in plastic. Possible combination would be:
Freezer Space
1/2" plywood
Tyvek
1" styrofoam insulation
2X6 studs with 5 1/2" bat insulation
1" styrofoam insulation
plastic wrap
1/2" plywood
Exterior Space

If you build it with the warm side able to breath, I believe you'll end up with moisture problems, you may either way, but the cooler space should be dryer air so it shouldn't be as great of a problem.

Good Luck, it's just an idea.

Paul

Gillespiebowhunter · 10-06-2005, 07:26 AM

Thanks Paul, what do you think if i built the box on top of the chest freezer with the lid removed. I guess I'm saying by just making the freezer a few feet taller. What do you think.

Booney160 · 10-06-2005, 09:48 AM

I don't see why that wouldn't work. Would just be a matter of having enough reinforcing to support the extra weight of materials and the 200 plus pound bucks you'll be hanging in it. Good luck, let me know how it turns out.

Paul

s. il. hntr · 10-06-2005, 05:49 PM

man that sounds pretty clever.

cayugad · 10-06-2005, 11:27 PM

I know a person that built a cooler off his garage using a large air conditioner. I know, because I helped him build the thing. We build the cooler part with R-30 in the walls and ceiling. Then he mounted a 15,000 BTU air conditioner in one outside wall. On the ceil is a large rail that leads to the main door of the thing. The door was also special built to be extra thick and insulated.

He guides bear hunters in September and it can get a little warm in Wisconsin even then, so he hangs the bear off the ceil rail which you can almost back right up to. They have a scale there also, and a cement floor that he can hose down. He said you put that bear in that room and crank the air conditioner on, and it will cool the room down plenty to keep the animals. I never actually asked him how cold it got in there, but the idea did seem good at the time.

Just in case you have a large air conditioner.

Parrot Head · 10-07-2005, 01:29 PM

IT is not a freezer but my buddy and I put 3 window a/c units in his garage windows. SO we have a place to hang them when its warm.

clayshooter · 10-09-2005, 08:06 PM

I would wonder if the compressor would work on end? Seems that you would have to reset the compressor as well as reinforce the top to hold the weight.

Gillespiebowhunter · 10-10-2005, 08:13 AM

Thanks guys for the input, I got all the material this weekend, I'm going to get started on it this week I'll let you know how it turns out. Good luck to everyone this week. Tom

cabage · 10-10-2005, 10:00 PM

Hi i work in the refrigeration industry and like your idea. It should get you by in a pinch, but i wouldn't trust it for too long. Increasing the volume of the cooled space makes the compressor undersized, so it may very well never get down to its original operating temp, and it may run for all day. But if it gets you by, then thats good enough for me. Also caulk all the seems and i wouldn't recomend tipping the compressor on any side other than what it was origanlly. Good luck.

cabage