Author Topic: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer  (Read 9700 times)

Offline Cartierusm

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Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« on: February 04, 2009, 12:35:35 AM »
Since I got my freezer from craigslist around new years I've been on the hunt for another to age regular cheeses as i really don't want to use my wine cellar for that. Weird thing is there were a ton around new years and for the past month very few. I got lucky today as a guy was giving away an old upright freezer on craiglist and I got it. I'll post pics of it later and the conversion. I was clean on the inside a few rust spots on the outside. But the outside as filty. An hour and some Easy Off and it looks great.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #1 on: February 04, 2009, 01:28:17 AM »
Pics.

wharris

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #2 on: February 04, 2009, 02:08:45 PM »
That is the kind of freezer i got.  Let me know of you have trouble with too much moisture.

Cheese Head

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #3 on: February 04, 2009, 06:36:00 PM »
Carter & Wayne

As you can see from my Blue Cheese #3 aging in garage on top of table, I have no good Cheese Cave. I tried a small chest freezer but got 100% humidity and eventually puddles of water as no drain hole. Appreciate your advice, any way to correct or should I buy an upright freezer and if so will I not have the same problem?

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #4 on: February 04, 2009, 07:03:28 PM »
Very weird having too much moisture. Cold is humidities enemy. I mean where could the moisture be coming from? What's your normal outdoor humidity? Ours here is 48-50%?

wharris

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2009, 07:59:40 PM »
i think it has more to do with where the coils are in relation to the box.  In this design, the coils are in the box and exposed to the same air as the cheese, and the humidity condenses on the coils and drips, so water collects on the coils, grates and bottom of freezers.  That does dehumidify the air a bit.  But then that condensed water, re-contributes to the humidity, just as if you put a wet towel in there. 

And when you open the door, you let out the drier air, and re-load the freezer with a fresh load of humid air again.

So, I get a very wet 95-100 percent humidify in mine.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #6 on: February 06, 2009, 08:29:20 AM »
Here's the freezer after the conversion. I'm using one of the new temp/humidistats I found. It controls the temp as well as humidity so I'll be able to use a ultrasonic humidifier on the always on setting.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2009, 11:47:15 PM »
After a week or so since I got this and scrubed it with soap it still has a freezer burn smell. Today I sprayed it down with bleach and let it dry. I then hosed it down and closed it up and I'll go smell it soon. Here are pics of the humidifier I bought, isn't it cute. It's ultrasonic, but the warnings on the bottom of the box are very specific.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #8 on: February 13, 2009, 12:25:06 AM »
Here's my cute little guy breathing smoke. So far I really like this humidifier. Its super quiet and you can see the vapor come out right away so you can tell it's working.

Oh, it stays on all the time and the knob just varies how much vapor is coming out. This is good as I'm going to be using the humidistat I installed in the freezer.

Cheese Head

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2009, 12:59:35 AM »
Very cute, the humidifier and the Photoshop'd box bottom, had to laugh! Thanks, I need more of those ;D.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #10 on: February 13, 2009, 01:10:37 AM »
Not photoshop, I just used my label maker, it was quicker.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #11 on: February 13, 2009, 11:41:19 PM »
Although very cute you can't use the ultrasonic as I originally thought. The ultrasonic disperses mist into the air thereby humidifing the air once evaporated. I thought it would work better but what it does is just get everything wet. Sorry to those that took my advice on that. You need the standard cool mist that blows air onto the water. As long as the mist is invisible it'll work. I'll post pics of the new setup soon.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #12 on: February 14, 2009, 11:07:23 PM »
This cheese cave is a bust! Due to the some of the same problems Wayne and John faced I am now facing them. I got this for free although I spent considerable time cleaning it multiple times and sterilizing it. It's not a total waste. It will work for waxed cheese, So I'll keep them in there. Now I have a blue cave, waxed cheese cave, natural rind cave and camembert cave..dam this is going to far  ;).

FOR EVERYONE LOOKING FOR CAVES you can't use the freezers that use coils on the shelves, I'm not sure about the box top loading ones like John uses (he has high humidity trouble too), but I suspect you really need a freezer that is forced air (some sort of fan inside hidden that circulated the air). What happens is all the humidity you introduce into the air condenses on the coil on the shelves and then drips on your cheese, not good. Plus my humidistat reads 73% and keeps the humidity on when my separate hygrometer says 98% and I trust that one. I'll leave it as a waxed cave.

The reason I didn't want my natural cheeses in my wine cellar originally are they would take up too much room, the humidifier in it is ugly and there isn't enough room to hold all the cheese I make. So I decided to get a wire rack unit with wheels and that will be 14" deep x 36" long and 74" high. That way I can store a ton of cheese and the humidifier and it will make everything a little more tidy and pleasing to the eye, plus I can pull the rack out, because it's on wheels, and turn the cheeses or fill the humidifier.
« Last Edit: February 14, 2009, 11:13:54 PM by Cartierusm »

Cheese Head

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #13 on: February 15, 2009, 12:32:24 AM »
Carter, sorry to hear about the excess humidity problem with this style upright freezer, condensed water dripping on to cheeses is not good! I was really hoping you'd found a good solution as I'm still stuck to find one. FYI, an old member here DaggerDoggie also had excess humidity problems with same style chest freezer that I bought.

What is strange is that Bundy reports that even in his Queensland very high humidity environment, her gets good reasonable humidity with his old style fridge. From his pictures it looks like an older style radiant freezer plate style fridge with plastic freezer container removed for more room, or maybe it never had a freezer? I don't know why he has a extrenal thermostat.

wharris

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Re: Carter's Cheese Cave #3 - Second Upright Radient Freezer
« Reply #14 on: February 15, 2009, 12:46:55 AM »
I have resolved to selling my upright freezer.   I will be either buying a used fridge or making a custom one in the basement.