Condensation in chest freezer

[PHB2234]

Like others, I have a chest freezer that I use for cold storage of my beer in cornie kegs. I don't have a tower or fancy faucet arrangement. I just use hoses with cobra taps. I use an external temperature controller, set at 39 degrees. My box is plagued with condensation inside, to the point that it has caused rust spots on the walls. I built a dehumidifier to try to dry things out. It's a simple box that holds desiccant beads and has two little 12v PC fans to force air across the desiccant beads. This is only moderately successful. The internal humidity still hovers around 80%. The desiccant beads need changing about every two weeks.

So I have two questions:
1) Do others have condensation problems? If so, how are you dealing with it?
2) Who has dealt with rust spots on the walls of their chest freezer and what did you to do to fix it?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

a DC 12v case fan works

 

[Minbari]

Im assuming the condenser coils are on that wall? my kegerator has condensation as well, it drips down the side and into the drain.

I would venture to say that all fridges that arent "frost free" are gonna collect water in some way.

does the lid fit tightly? the less humidity gets in the less it will have to condense out.

 

[PHB2234]

This is my DIY dehumidifier. It sits inside the box, on the hump over the compressor.

 

[Minbari]

I would be more interested in why there is soo much water in there in the first place.

 

[west1m]

No faucet arrangement and Cobra taps?
Does this mean you open the top every time you filla glass? If so there is probably the trouble.

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

I have two keezers. One I ferment in and one I use as a keg refrigerator. The one that I use for kegs has condensation like yours, but no rust. The fermenter is rusting out. The rust was caused by co2 from the fermentation. I have since stopped venting in the keezer.

Do you have any co2 loss in the keezer? This would explain the rust. As for condensation, I just shut off the keg keezer for 2 hours just to get it warm enough to get the ice off. I keep the temp at 32F, so it forms ice instead of water.

 

[Minbari]

I have two keezers. One I ferment in and one I use as a keg refrigerator. The one that I use for kegs has condensation like yours, but no rust. The fermenter is rusting out. The rust was caused by co2 from the fermentation. I have since stopped venting in the keezer.

Do you have any co2 loss in the keezer? This would explain the rust. As for condensation, I just shut off the keg keezer for 2 hours just to get it warm enough to get the ice off. I keep the temp at 32F, so it forms ice instead of water.

Interesting. I wonder if the the water and the co2 makes an acid compound

 

[PHB2234]

Water and CO2 does make carbonic acid. That might be the cause of the rust.

In my keezer the rust got started when I kept an open 10 gal. container of water to use as a poor man’s “glycol” chiller for use with a Temp Twister for fermentation in an external fermentation chamber. Lesson learned. I don’t do that anymore.

Today I’m drying out the keezer with a box fan and have cleaned the inside with Clorox cleaner. It will be clean and very dry when I put the kegs back in and plug the keezer into the temperature controller. Also going to lower the setting to 32° F.

My second question on the original post was whether anyone has tried repainting the inside walls of their keezer and if so, what did you use?

 

[west1m]

I have not painted but two paints come to mind. The self etching primer made for painting rusty areas .
And the rubbery spray paint ,comes in white or black. I have used on the roof of my motorhome. The stuff is right up there with duct tape and spray foam!

 

[HighVoltageMan!]

I forgot to mention that if you set the temp to 32, you’ll definitely need a fan to circulate the air for consistent temps.

 

[HopMantis Brewing Co]

Like others, I have a chest freezer that I use for cold storage of my beer in cornie kegs. I don't have a tower or fancy faucet arrangement. I just use hoses with cobra taps. I use an external temperature controller, set at 39 degrees. My box is plagued with condensation inside, to the point that it has caused rust spots on the walls. I built a dehumidifier to try to dry things out. It's a simple box that holds desiccant beads and has two little 12v PC fans to force air across the desiccant beads. This is only moderately successful. The internal humidity still hovers around 80%. The desiccant beads need changing about every two weeks.View attachment 29342

So I have two questions:
1) Do others have condensation problems? If so, how are you dealing with it?
2) Who has dealt with rust spots on the walls of their chest freezer and what did you to do to fix it?

So I used to have VERY bad condensation inside mine. My first step was like you - get the dehumidifiers inside but those didnt really do much. They absorbed humidity but I still had condensation actually freezing into walls of ice. I found that installing one of these fans fixed my problem:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BYS75HJ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Its like those PC fans but its AC powered (not DC) AND its water proof. The moisture used to kill every fan Ive installed in the past. This one is so powerful and fast and I now have a completely DRY keezer. You will want to install it by wiring it into your temp controller so that the fan cycles off and on with the condenser.

 

[Craigerrr]

Wel ome to the forum @HopMantis Brewing Co

 

[PHB2234]

So I used to have VERY bad condensation inside mine. My first step was like you - get the dehumidifiers inside but those didnt really do much. They absorbed humidity but I still had condensation actually freezing into walls of ice. I found that installing one of these fans fixed my problem:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BYS75HJ2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Its like those PC fans but its AC powered (not DC) AND its water proof. The moisture used to kill every fan Ive installed in the past. This one is so powerful and fast and I now have a completely DRY keezer. You will want to install it by wiring it into your temp controller so that the fan cycles off and on with the condenser.

Thank you for the link and the suggestion. Please tell us a little more about how you use this fan. Where is it placed? Do you simply use it to circulate air inside? Or are you using it as an exhaust fan? Got a jpg image showing it in action?