Use an old chest freezer to hold sap?

[VTNewbie]

Has anyone tried to use a chest freezer to hold concentrated sap for storage? An 18 cubic foot freezer could hold over 100 gallons of concentrate. Was just curious if anyone has tried this. Maybe put a liner in the freezer and set the temperature to just above freezing?

[ecolbeck]

Interesting idea. I suspect that the tiny little compressors on those things wouldn’t make much headway on chilling the large volume of sap they would hold.

[Chickenman]

Many bait shops have done this for minnow thanks kept at about 58* F. Have to use a bilge pump or something like it to keep it circulating for maximum cooling.

[bill m]

You would need to set the temperature to below freezing. I think the ideal temperature is between 25 and 28 degrees for holding concentrate.

[Chickenman]

I did not mention that also would have to bypass the freezers thermostat and use a bulb type t-stat like for a commercial walk-in freezer. Not difficult to do.