Temp Control for Elk Meat in freezer

Montucky

Montucky

WKR
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Wondering if anyone has some insight on my situation. We have a large chest freezer that’s going to be used for storing elk quarters during bow season. We’re preferring the meat does Not freeze in the freezer only stay fridge temperature. I remember seeing these Digital Temp Controllers very popular for Home Brewing etc…..Anyone have any experience with altering your freezer’s factory settings using these Devices
 
Off-gridders and van-lifers often repurpose deep freezers into fridges for efficiency reasons, such as when running off solar (no opening a fridge door and dumping out all your cold air...) A popular controller is an Inkbird:

inkbird.com

INKBIRD Temperature Controllers | Automatic, Precise Temp Control

Explore INKBIRD's advanced temperature controllers designed for precise control in home brewing, aquariums, gardening, and industrial applications. Discover reliable, user-friendly solutions to maintain optimal temperature conditions for your projects.
inkbird.com inkbird.com

You drill a hole in the side of the freezer, near the top, run the probe in, and seal the hole with spray foam. You plug the freezer into the controller, the controller into whatever AC source you have, and set it to whatever temp range you want, probably 33-35F or so based on your goal here.
 
I use that exact controller in a side x side fridge that i cut out of the freezer side wall to make an aging fridge. Works perfect and will do exactly what you want to do. I did not drill a hole for probe. I just closed door on probe wire and it sealed just fine.
 
taskswap said:
Off-gridders and van-lifers often repurpose deep freezers into fridges for efficiency reasons, such as when running off solar (no opening a fridge door and dumping out all your cold air...) A popular controller is an Inkbird:

inkbird.com

INKBIRD Temperature Controllers | Automatic, Precise Temp Control

Explore INKBIRD's advanced temperature controllers designed for precise control in home brewing, aquariums, gardening, and industrial applications. Discover reliable, user-friendly solutions to maintain optimal temperature conditions for your projects.
inkbird.com inkbird.com

You drill a hole in the side of the freezer, near the top, run the probe in, and seal the hole with spray foam. You plug the freezer into the controller, the controller into whatever AC source you have, and set it to whatever temp range you want, probably 33-35F or so based on your goal here.
Click to expand...
Perfect, I think I’m gonna give it a try
 
Pn8hall said:
I use that exact controller in a side x side fridge that i cut out of the freezer side wall to make an aging fridge. Works perfect and will do exactly what you want to do. I did not drill a hole for probe. I just closed door on probe wire and it sealed just fine.
Click to expand...
I was picturing doing this exact same thing
 
Back when we were traveling full time in our RV we carried a chest freezer with us everywhere. We got pretty good at keeping it at whatever temp we desired with just an outlet timer from the Dollar store. The kind that you set the ON/OFF times for your lights when you are away traveling. We set it to only run when our solar panels were getting max sunlight. Dependiong on how many hours we let it run per day we could keep is deep freeze cold or fridge cold pretty much without issue (provided someone didnt open the lid every 15 minutes).
Pretty cheap fix for your problem.
 
I have one of the home brew temp controllers for mine but have only used it once. It doesn't look like as nice of a controller as the inkbird.

My neighbor turned me into the idea. I believe he leaves a small fan running in his freezer while using the temperature controller.
 
Fridge service tech here.

Couple cautions.

1. Drill with CAUTION There are very likely pipes running through the shell of that unit. Hit one and you just made a very expensive mistake and bought a new unit. Even someone with skills would have difficulty bringing it back to life. Maybe run it a minute find the hottest areas on the outside and drill between hot spots. An IR thermometer and a sharpie is all you'd need

2 using it outside of its design envelope will cause it to run a little harder and can shorten expected lifespan.

A creative fella would do a parallel control circuit. Run med temp when you want to hold meat for processing and run low temp once its processed... a lot of PLC type controls make this super easy.


I would also recommend, if you’re planning to use this for long term storage outside of the season, to build a temperature alarm and consider adding a door proximity switch to that alarm.
 
Jpsmith1 said:
Fridge service tech here.

Couple cautions.

1. Drill with CAUTION There are very likely pipes running through the shell of that unit. Hit one and you just made a very expensive mistake and bought a new unit. Even someone with skills would have difficulty bringing it back to life. Maybe run it a minute find the hottest areas on the outside and drill between hot spots. An IR thermometer and a sharpie is all you'd need

2 using it outside of its design envelope will cause it to run a little harder and can shorten expected lifespan.

A creative fella would do a parallel control circuit. Run med temp when you want to hold meat for processing and run low temp once its processed... a lot of PLC type controls make this super easy.


I would also recommend, if you’re planning to use this for long term storage outside of the season, to build a temperature alarm and consider adding a door proximity switch to that alarm.
Click to expand...
Think we’re just gonna run probe under freezer lid,….this is not long term storage. Only a few days at 35 degrees to keep meat cooled for butchering. Appreciate your insight
 
Montucky said:
Think we’re just gonna run probe under freezer lid,….this is not long term storage. Only a few days at 35 degrees to keep meat cooled for butchering. Appreciate your insight
Click to expand...
I use the ink bird for my freezer that was bought to keep things about 35. Now it's just a freezer but it works really well even for that as an alarm.

Don't drill a hole, just put the temp probe wire under the lid.

You can chose the amount it warms before kicking in again. If you chose something like 1f it'll shorten the lifespan of the freezer. For your purposes go with something like a 35f set temp and a 5f switch on.

Set up the online account(free) and download the app and sync them. You can watch the temp but also set a temp at wich an alarm will go off and notify your phone that it's above that temp. As long as your phone has internet anywhere in the world.
 
z987k said:
I use the ink bird for my freezer that was bought to keep things about 35. Now it's just a freezer but it works really well even for that as an alarm.

Don't drill a hole, just put the temp probe wire under the lid.

You can chose the amount it warms before kicking in again. If you chose something like 1f it'll shorten the lifespan of the freezer. For your purposes go with something like a 35f set temp and a 5f switch on.

Set up the online account(free) and download the app and sync them. You can watch the temp but also set a temp at wich an alarm will go off and notify your phone that it's above that temp. As long as your phone has internet anywhere in the world.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a sweet setup! We ended up buying the InkBird unit without Wi-Fi cause we don’t have cell service or Wi-Fi where the freezer is gonna be stationed this year. Once StarLink gets installed & we get a booster next year for the building your setup would be Super Awesome to keep tabs on everything going on…..
 
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