Best Brands for reasonably priced Ultra Low Freezers?

@cyclopath uses beer kegs.

If you’re going to be maintaining -80C I’d recommend a stainless steel container for sure. N.B. Oler and Delta Separations both sell very nice stainless kegs. If you’re sticking around -40C to -55C I’ve found any of the plastic food grade containers from restaurant supply stores work well, these stores also offer a huge variety in size/shape of container. Many are actually rated to -60F

I responded to an earlier thread about this topic. Precision Mechanical here in WA sells used and working ultra low freezers. I believe he ships/delivers them too.

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We have a guy out here in mass that buys used lab equip and sells 100% no doa tested freezers for 650.00 doesnt matter size. I will he picking up a thermo revco ult2586 soon.

Will this freezer be ok operating in 85 or so degrees ambient?

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I think it would be happier at 75. Above 90 I suspect it will have a limited lifespan, and would recommend turning it off above 95f.

If it’s a newer one, it might start bitching at you about ambient above 90

It would only be powered on for a few days at a time every 1-2 months. I’m still thinking it may be overkill for my needs (10-20lbs of trim and larf extraction every month or two) but it may be nice if i expand this show a little more. Temps in the basement don’t go beyond 85 that’s typically the summer max.

The price is an absolute steal.

I paid $2k each for mine and was happy. Until the first one died.

You might find it raises the temp in the basement…

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Ya i figured it would. I have a standard -10f chest freezer down there now that raises temp 1 degree. I figured this big boy would run 5 degrees up or so. Basement hangs around 75-79 without a freezer running. I’ll soon be bringing another 4500w of lights online down there too so I will be adding exhaust and ventilation to keep temps below 85 down there during summer.

I got a used Brunswick freezer on eBay UK for £1000. It still gets down to -86c. I would say it is worth getting a used one, especially a quality brand. They can be serviced by a refrigeration engineer if something goes wrong. The price you save by buying a used one would allow for this. Btw an utra low freezer is a real beast, noisy, very heavy, expensive on electricity, and generate a lot of heat. You wouldn’t want to run it continuously at home.

Hi Square Root,
Can you send me his number, or website, We also will be needing an ultra low freezer

So how did that -80 fare in your basement in the summer?

I used the Panasonic vip eco line and they have worked great I have 3 of the big boys and haven’t had any issues they have a robust design they are definitely bulky and heavy but as far as build quality it seems top notch. It came with a 5 year parts and labor warranty as well.

I never did it. I hesitated since I didn’t really have a way to move the freezer into my basement myself and you can’t trust anyone up here to help you do anything or they will rob you LOL so I can’t even have contractors come out to the house. I have to do everything myself

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We bought 2 used units from university auctions (one in Indiana another in Virginia). We got pretty lucky because one unit powered up and has been running no problem the other had a couple wires that had shaken loose that we fixed pretty easy. It is definitely a gamble but we paid $50 for one of them and $1,750 for the other.

I think it was these guys

Clear Light Enterprises, Inc [CLE], Box 315, 48 E. River Street, Orange, Ma 01364

Plant: 978-350-3863

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Thank you for the share, in your experience have you had any problems with the freezers you bought from them?

I never bought one I was about to but decided I couldn’t move it myself into my basement LOL.

Hell they may not even have anymore

ok, well i will try them.

Why do you have everything in the basement, isnt better if it was in the garage or in a shed?

I operate an extremely small scale medical caregiver set up 90% of my extra space is dedicated to growing only 10% 4 extraction and distillation

I wonder if the manufacturers publish Mean Time Between Failure metrics. In the tech industry we always had MTBF numbers for mission critical stuff.