~Building~ a Freezer

Water freezes at 30º but sugar sugar at about 10º lower. And then you get slushie. You need 0º to get sugared items frozen solid. Remember there is sugar in blood, also. If all you're freezing is water, then you're okey doke. If not, back to the drawing board.

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Nina's Grammy

I've often wished I had one to put my bed in.

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Nina's Grammy

I found 4by8freezer panels for $25 a piece. I am planning to build a dry kiln out of them but am considering a butcher house. I would be able to age my meat pretty easy and I have found that aging is the biggest difference between butcher house and farm.

I think Id buy a used REFER truck. Take the bed off and resell what was left of the truck.

@Rambler and Chickenmommy, y'all made some good points about why the temps would need to be dropped to zero, and I better understand that part now. For me, What I've considered, is nearly a foot foam insulation on all sides (anything but fiberglass or cellulose, I was thinking some type of foam board or 2 lb foam). This should provide an R-Value of anywhere from R-60 to R-100 (depends on whether I stuck to exactly a foot of insulation or so). Just as with homes that use spray foam in the walls (where a lower tonnage HVAC unit can be used), I'd think that a smaller freezer unit could be used for a room if the insulation was right. I suppose the tricky part would be the additional load on moisture removal from the air. This would actually be a pretty cool project ~ I think that the actual structure could be done for less than $1000, and at that point the experiment would begin ~ salvaging the cooling unit and other "guts' from a freezer and seeing if this could adequately create a freezer environment. The only difficult part would be finding a refrigerator / freezer guy that was willing to play along and see what happened, but I think it could be interesting! I was thinking of lining the whole thing with vinyl flooring or similar, possibly with a layer of 1/4" plywood on the actual floor. Hrmmm....

As far as a door, I'd probably use a standard foam core door, and if I really wanted to get wild and crazy, I'd put a layer of foam board on the back of that, shaved down along its' edge so it could swing open without difficulty.

Our butcher has a walk in freezer unit it cost $600 a month to run, they switched to a whole bunch of chest and upright freezers workeds way better for them on the energy bill. They use the walk in cooler to hang the meat it's still the best way for cooling.

I was quoted $15k, negotiable, on a 53 footer, with built in diesel genny. I was told you can get freezer cargo boxes with genny for much less.

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Things you will only hear around our place... at 3AM- "Mom! The dog won't let me have my bed back!"

The average "reefer", uses about a gallon of diesel fuel per hour, to operate and that for cooling.

Better be some mighty tasty beef, in there.

I have a walk in freezer and a walk in cooler, and I can see my electrical bill jump when I run them

a cooler many times is with out a floor, the freezer has a insulated floor, my cement floor has foam under it, so it has some insulation, but a freezer needs to be completely tight, needs a defrost heater, many times a a door heater so the gasket does not freeze,
the cooler may or may not have defrost heater,
the freezer will freezer things fairly fast, as it has air movement, in it, and things can be spread out,
I bought mine used and it has a new evaporator, and at the time (the original price used was $1000) and the evaporator was another $1000, they are both three phase,
the cooler I bought for $35, and it worked, after a few years of part time use I did have to replace the compressor on it,

coolers are easer to find than freezers,

years ago I did help build a walk in cooler, we had a in ground room off of a kitchen for a camp, we foamed it and then put some type of panels on the wall, this was in the 80's and I do not remember what the walls were, the door was a used door, and the compressor was bought on an auction,

many AC companies will not work on walk in coolers or freezers, (not that the principals are different, but the controls and charging can be different than the AC, so you may want to find out who works on them and what the charge is for things, unless your capable to doing your own refergeration work,

I see used reffer units from trucks pretty cheep . Not the semitrailers but the smaller10 to 28 foot ones. Ive seen them recently on ebay.
They way to do it is to buy a $5000 truck with one on it and then resell the truck.

I have seen used walk-ins, both refrige and freezer units sold for nearly nothing at auctions.

It is amazing that a $20,000 unit in like-new condition can be bought for $100, providing you get it moved within 48 hours.