cheapest way to turn a chest freezer into a temporary fridge?

[Tim Downie]

I've got a number of cases of champagne I need to chill but limited fridge space. I do however have an old chest freeezer in the garage.

What would be the easiest/cheapest way to add a temporary thermostat to the mains supply to turn it into a fridge?

Tim

[chrisj.doran]

Get a thermostat from an old fridge or buy one on eBay for a few pounds.

Or, put the freezer on a timer set to come on for, say, 15 minutes in the hour (you'll have to experiment) so that it never gets really cold

-- use the 24 hour type with push-ins around a ring. But be warned that they have a short lifetime when switching large currents.

Or you could use the freezer to make blocks of ice in a plastic milk "bottles" which you keep with the bubbly in an insulated box. Buit you'll have to remember to keep changing them.

Chris

[geoff]

In message , Tim Downie writes

An hour in a freezer is usually good for a bottle

so a couple of cases ... 3 hours ?

[misterroy]

e I need to chill but limited

I put bottles of warm Stella in the freezer. The first bottle is just drank pre freezer, the second nice and chilled, the third perfect. By the time of opening the fourth bottle if I've not been concentrating, the release in pressure raises the freezing temperature makes rather beautiful ice crystals form in the beer. Its like a gentle upwards flurry of snow. Its followed by the undignified gulping of the stella slushie coming out the top of the bottle.

[Lobster]

need to chill but limited

And by the time it comes to the fifth bottle, you've dozed off and forgotten about it; the bottle cracks under pressure from the expanding freezing contents, and the remaining liquid therein deposits itself over all the contents of the freezer. (And of course the bottles are at the top of the freezer to maximise the contamination effect). BTDTGTTS.

David

[geoff]

Yup lovely if you catch it just right

I was gong to suggest that the OP tried a bottle every hour, but I thought that after the third he might be too far from caring anymore

[geoff]

I thought that was all part of the "methode champagnoise" or whatever its called

[Tim Downie]

That last suggestion sounds simple to impliment. Thanks.

Tim

[The Wanderer]

Not that it really helps you, but a good few years back we were holidaying on the Greek Island of Leros, bit off the main stream tourist radar. Little taverna there kept their beer in an ice cream freezer, turned off at night, turned on and off through the day as they thought of it. It seemed to work......

[Jonathan]

Use the freezer to make blocks of ice in plastic tubs. Fill large tub/ buckets with water, add the ice, add the fizz and it should be chilled nicely in about half an hour. It's what I always do for parties and will be doing this weekend when we celebrate my parents' diamond wedding.

Jonathan