Cutting holes in a freezer

[R D S]

I have a need to get chilled water to a machine. Currently I have a tired piece of equipment which is basically a steel cabinet, a compressor with piping to a plastic tub and a pump. I reckon I could get a small freezer for less than I could get this serviced for, and at about 10% of the cost of replacing it.

So my plan is to put a tub in a freezer with a pump in it and drill 2 holes in the freezer cabinet for the feed and return pipes.

I assume I can drill through the sides of a freezer, am I right, or are there considerations I would need to consider?

[Lurch]

On Wed, 1 Aug 2007 22:40:20 +0100, "R D S" mused:

You'll be fine, it's just foam sandwiched between 2 skins basically. I'm sure someone will come along with a 10 page report on why you shouldn't do this.

[jim]

//snip//

You no doubt can but caution: the cooling tubes in some, or all, freezers & fridges run inside these skins.

Suggest you check with a cable/stud detector before making the hole which might be better carefully hand excavated than drilled out.

How are you going to stop the tube freezing? Could a fridge be your better option?

HTH

[Andy Dingley]

Buy a "spot weld cutter" (few quid, most garage tool suppliers). It's a cheap, tiny hole saw. If you try and go through the skinny sheetmetal of a fridge side with most sorts of drill bit, you're likely to jam it up and twist things. With foam insulation glued to the inside, it's hard to tidy that up afterwards. Also works for perforating PC cases.

[Frank Erskine]

That's not 10 pages :-)

[R D S]

I wondered about this and as a last resort could go through the door.

Possibly, I want the tub contents as cold as poss so I thought just below freezing with antifreeze in.

[Grumps]

So does a shotgun

[R D S]

[Yuki]

If it's a chest freezer maybe you get enough clearance for pipes cutting a small section or two from the door seal.

[Mike Harrison]

You should look at what flow rate you need & calculate /measure whether the freezer actually has sufficient cooling capacity to achieve it. Also bear in mind that freezers are designed to cycle on/off to maintain the temperature of a fairly static load - they may not be happy, or at least less than optimally efficient running continuously.

[R D S]

the freezer actually has

the temperature of a fairly

efficient running continuously.

Well the kit I am using now has what looks to me to be the same size of compressor on it, would that indicate I would be OK? I guess a lot would rest on how much water I keep in the freezer also. The output from the pump is about that of a small pond pump and we only run it

9-5.

The kit we have now has no insulation whatsoever which boggles my mind, looks like shit and costs £1100 new! Hence my idea of modding a fridge/freezer.

[Lurch]

On Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:17:04 -0700, jim mused:

Don't think a stud detector will work through a metal skin.

[PM]

Well it would void the warranty for a start...

[Peter Parry]

You might find

some suitable stuff as a beer cooler seems to be suited to your requirement.

[Lurch]

On Fri, 3 Aug 2007 14:07:51 +0100, "PM" mused:

He could buy 5 of these and still be quids in from the other route. Sometimes you just have to improvise. ;)

[Adrian C]

Jdwetherspoon reckons they spent £15 Million developing beer-chilling technology for its 670 pubs across the UK. That's over £22K per pub.

That ebay link looks a lot more sensible (or have I missed something?)

-- Adrian C

[Owain]

I expect JDW used consultants...

Owain