Binding Cooling Lines

[Agnebrew]

Ok BN Army, I know someone has done this before. I just got my keg system, and I was able to obtain an upright freezer from my father-in-law. It was free, but unfortunately the shelves are made up of the coolant line. Now, I know a lot of you will say "Use it as a freezer and get a fridge. You can find them free everywhere." Free fridges are not abundant, and I really don't want to go through the hassle of moving another one down in my basement. I know there is a way to safely bend the tubing, but how? Is there a tool out there I could use? I only need to bend one shelve, thank god. What's the best way to go about it?

My thought was to bend down in each of the corners.

[Lars]

It is possible, but it is also possible that you will crack the lines when bending them. Once the lines are cracked all you have is a big trash closet. The tubing benders I know of for that size line are the slip on type... you'd have to cut the line to use them.

Good luck!

[troybinso]

I got a similar freezer for free. I ripped the shelving off of the tubing, then used my hands to carefully push the tubing to the back of the freezer. I had to do about half the shelves to fit my kegs in there. One thing I have noticed is that the bottom of the freezer is about 8 degrees cooler than the top. I have my ranco probe in a glass of water at about midway in the fridge. Generally it works really well.

[Agnebrew]

thank you for the advice. the grand experiment has failed. While I was taking the shelving off, one of them took a piece of the coolant line off. Is it even worth it to patch the hole and get the freezer recharged? Can this even be done? It was free after all, but it was a big pain the ass to move.

[Mylo]

WOW.... Useful to a very large paperweight in less than two hours...

Looks like you will have another pain in your ass, now.


Mylo

[Agnebrew]

Indeed Mylo and I don't even live anywhere near JP.

[Stewbacca]

since you have already lost all of the coolant it might be worth a shot to just cut the tubing for the shelves that you dont want, seal them off and see how much a re-charge would cost.. Doesnt hurt to ask right?

just my $.02

[Frankenhop]

Lesson learned here: Drain the refrigeration coolant before attempting such a move myself. Thanks Agnebrew, I learned something today.

But, since you've already lost the coolant, you could probably braze or just replace the shelves with a wall-flush copper refrigeration tubing rig or something similar. It's ultimately up to you whether it's "worth it" or not, but if it were me I'd much rather bend some pipe than move a stand-up display freezer...