[Greenbuilding] finding coils inside (new) chest freezer

Doug Kalmer sunart at netease.net
Sun Dec 5 09:46:53 CST 2010


Forget tearing into the walls, most chest freezers have the coils near the outer sheetmetal in front and both sides, you would just make a mess of a new freezer. Doug


Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2010 21:34:11 -0800
From: Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com>
To: Greenbuilding <greenbuilding at lists.bioenergylists.org>,
RefrigeratorAlternatives at yahoogroups.com,
90PercentReduction at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Greenbuilding] finding coils inside (new) chest freezer
walls?
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<AANLkTinG2dAyrUshz-pn=ZuCpN26C0a8SaKgihCdBuXe at mail.gmail.com>
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This is a rather specific question, but since there are so many tinkerers on
these three lists I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. We are going to be
getting a chest freezer--it goes against my better judgment to add a
kWh-sucking appliance to the list, but I didn't get a vote on this one. But
I digress. I've had good luck adding rigid foam insulation panels to the
exterior of our refrigerator--it makes do with about 125-150 kWh/yr--and I
would like to imagine doing something similar to the yet-to-be-purchased
chest freezer. The trouble is, I don't think any current chest freezers, and
I'm looking at ones that are rated to use <300 kWh/yr, have the coils
mounted externally.
Question 1: are any of you aware of a chest freezer I could buy today with
visible/external coils?
Question 2: on the assumption that the answer to question 1 is no, is it
reasonable to assume that (a) I might find the coils by feeling for warm
spots once it is plugged in and running?, and (b) what are the chances that
the coils will be confined to one of the four walls?
Question 3: If in fact I do find the coils and they are confined to one
wall, am I inviting all sorts of trouble if I try to gain access to them
(cut the external sheetmetal which I expect will be fused to the foam.....)
with the intent of gently adjusting things so that I could squeeze some
additional panel of insulation between the now visible coils and the
interior of the freezer?

Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

The freezer is likely to live in our basement. In the long run I expect I'll
try to carve out a dry space for it under our back porch to more fully take
advantage of the cooler outdoor temperatures.


Thanks everyone.

Reuben Deumling
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