Easy DIY Root Cellar from an Old Freezer
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2019
- We are excited to announce that a re-purposed chest freezer makes a fantastic root cellar! It requires a few inexpensive parts, along with a bit of sweat equity, and the results are amazing. We have used our little root cellar for a few years now and are quite pleased with this inexpensive solution for storing fresh produce throughout the winter.
Steps create a working root cellar from an old broken freezer:
1. Select a shady location with good drainage
2. Prepare the freezer
3. Dig a hole large just a little bit larger than the freezer
4. Install ventilation pipes
5. Backfill the area around the freezer, use gravel if drainage is a concern
6. Construct a pallet to protect, insulate and disguise the freezer
This is a great way to turn a piece of junk into a valuable asset and to be prepared to live without electricity.
For more information check out:
Chillin in Our DIY Buried Freezer Root Cellar - theprovidentprepper.org/chill...
Inexpensive Root Cellars: 13 Literally Cool Ideas to Chill With - theprovidentprepper.org/inexp... - Навчання та стиль
2 years up date-this thing is great-works better than I could hope for. Did an test and left some beets in it all summer-lost about 5 of the dozen I started with. That is a full year+ !!
Just to confirm, you did not drill holes in the bottom of the freezer but instead opted to use sand?
for the compressor usually you can just crimp the lines nice and tight then bend em over and crimp em a 2nd time it prevents leakage and its fairly basic to do its just like kinking a water hose but you fold it twice to ensure a tight seal
Awesome video full of great information, well done and many thanks!
Most residential chest freezers are built with the heat absorbing coils in the walls and sometimes the floor of the freezing compartment, so safe removal of the refrigerant is strongly recommended before cutting or drilling into the box to prevent a spray of metal chips when your cutting tool penetrates the coil tubing. Some refrigerants are dangerous to handle and some newer equipment uses propane or butane as part or all of their refrigerant charge and improper handling can be dangerous.
Great video and I plan on starting mine with my old chest freezer soon!
Really cool root cellar. Thanks for sharing.
Here in central Virginia, we have been using my son's above ground closet. His room is furthest from the wood stove so it works. We just finished last year's butternut squash yesterday, in late July. Pretty good, but not enough room for more produce. For us, the answer might lie in that old freezer that sits by the back door.
Love this idea. My friends have built a root cellar digging drown a bit and enclosing their deck but that won't work for us so I was really happy to see this idea. A bit too late for us in Canada right now but sure will try it next year. My hubby said that maybe we could try it with a rigid foam insulation top. Maybe a few layers if needed and even form it around the pallet lid so that it cuts down even more air flow over the lid.
Can U send me a dm Instagram for some information if ur friend can help me
Fabulous video
Thanks for this video. I have been looking for it since I saw another and you mentioned this one. I discussed your freezer/root cellar with my husband and I think we might try it. We built onto a pole barn building we already had an additional 30x30. I planned a portion to be gravel floor with 3 over head garage doors for small tractor, ATV ( garden cart) , and rider lawn mower. The rest of gravel area has extra gas cans, extra propane, & garden tools. I even planned a space to have a pallet to stack up charcoal, my husband likes to smoke fresh hams and turkey. The other part of the new barn has concrete floor, where we will have 3 chest freezers. I say will have because we don’t have the other two moved in there yet. The plan is a vegetable/blackberry/apple/plum/peach/grape washing and area. We saved our old kitchen cabinets to hang back up. Our sinks are three of those deep washtub sinks sitting beside each other. We have them in the old part of our garage at the moment in another kitchen set up. When we get them moved we will look for used stainless steel restaurant sink set up. Another corner of the new build has our organic garden sprays, small sprayers, tank sprayer, bird net, drip irrigation stuff, tree saw, clippers, string….everything including the diatomaceous earth and fertilizer in trash cans. Then we have another section with a commercial heavy duty rack we got at an auction. We 55 gallon steel barrels sitting on wood rolling movers ( Harbor Freight) to keep the barrels off of the concrete and so we can move them around to sweep floor.
The heavy loaded barrels go under the rack system. Then another line of lighter weight barrels will be stacked…think freeze dried. All this said, I was thinking where do I put this freezer in a hole!!! So, I came up with the idea of sacrificing the floor space where the charcoal would be on the gravel side of new building. It is also on the north wall. The charcoal will just have to get stored using vertical space. According to what I understand providing I can get a guy to come in and dig this out inside an existing structure with a small enough machine do you think I have a prayer in keeping it cool enough into the summer. It will be + 90 all summer. Has anyone tried this on north wall inside or under a covered structure? Hot summers…? Our other option is to dig a hole on the side of this same wall, but this would not be very conspicuous, or great for “curb appeal “ lol
It is kind of funny since we don’t exactly have great curb speak at the moment anyway.
I was thinking of a way to keep food thanks your ideas is simple and smart
Love you guys channel, some many awesome videos!!!
The same setup is great for gas can storage too. Its not in the house, its contained into case of a leak and the temp doesn't fluctuate as much.
@@TheProvidentPrepper yes
Great idea. Powerful calves you have their sir!
Amazing thank you sooo much!!!
Well it's the next day and I'm done with phase one,it's in the ground and I now have to build a couple of small pallets for the inside and something for the top. I went with the exact system that you have. [don't reinvent the wheel] I forgot to ask you what size pipe you used and as I had some 2" that is what it got. Thanks again-Big Help!
Great idea im gonna try this , how are the rubber seals along the opening holding up being outside ?
One question-after watching a few of these videos there seems to be 2 schools of thought on the air flow -a couple of people drilled a bunch of holes in the bottom for air and your system uses an inlet pipe. I'm interested in your thoughts on this-I have my old freezer and am ready to start this project . Thank You I too am from Michigan as is Andrew G.
What temperature does it probably get up to on the hottest day of the year? (Inside the freezer & outside/above ground)
Hello there Santa surfer!!
How do you pull up the items??
Do you think an old fridge would work as well or is a chest freezer more ideal?
Did you backfill with dirt or gravel?
Is doing any sort of french drainage around the freezer necessary to wick away water?
Thanks so much!!
Could you use this for a root cellar for fermented foods?
Will this work for an old refrigerator with a top freezer?
How cold does it get there
Do you have to use the straw
Wonder if this would work for other prepping supplies... canned food, vacuumed sealed items any thoughts ??? thanks..
thanks I will....
@@TheProvidentPrepper Oxygen is your enemy with respect to rust.
The mormons will sell you o2 removers - but all they are is iron filings.
If you have a grinder with dust collection, just grind down old scrap iron, add some salt as a catalyst and put it in small cloth bags.
(The salt is required for it to work below 65% RH)
No need to get fancy - old clean shop rags bound with a zip tie is fine.
For storage in plastic buckets with very low humidity - like flour of sugar, use packets of ascorbic acid - cheap bought in bulk.
Love this idea, but was that mold on the potatoes 🥔??
Any tips for living in the desert - it's 115(f) degrees today in Coachella, California.
@@TheProvidentPrepper Thanks just the same - I thought you might recommend moving - lol. That is always an option.
I live in Texas and we get HOT as well. 24" down the soil is at about 60deg year round here. Go deeper and you can get to the 50deg mark. This might help -- builditsolar.com/Projects/Cooling/EarthTemperatures.htm
Course I have an advantage, it also gets cold here in winter. We use our root cellar from fall to early spring. Exactly the time we are putting crops by. Ground temps come Dec are just about right. Our biggest issue is drainage.
Well its been a couple years and i was wondering how well it is working out? Also, i was wondering if you ever took a temp of the inside on a hot day. I live in Central Texas and i was thinking about doing this but to hold my home canned meats
Hey Kirby...I have taken some readings during the summer...the temps were in the 70's...fairly warm. I decided the root cellar doesn't do very well past about early May Because it is on the north side of the house, it does really well from about October through April. Then it get too much sun and the warm air heats it up. I am guessing in Texas, you would have even less success...not sure what your temps are, but I am guessing they are substantially warmer than ours. Perhaps if it is in a barn or other building that provides a layer of protection and you throttle down the air flow during warm times, you might get something manageable...it just might take some extra tinkering. You might use more insulation on the top and sides to to resist heat flow. I also echo what Kylene mentioned about moisture issues. You might see if you can find someone in your area who has done something like this and pick their brain about how to make it work. Thanks for being part of the solution!
@@JonathanBJones I appreciate you taking a minute to reply. In the summer we have stretched of 100+ for sometimes weeks at a time so ill have to try and think about how to make this work.. I have a low and shady area on my land that might ease the temps some and with added insulation i might be able to make it work.
Thanks again ,really appreciate it.
@@flywiseman Wow...that is warm. I will be interested to know what you end up doing. Thanks for being part of the solution!
Do you store anything other than potatoes?
Rather than being bound by the arbitrary dimensions of the freezer you have laying around, just get Styrofoam or other insulating panels.
They don't need to be particularly thick. Just sturdy enough to withstand handling and placement.
Dig your hole as your needs indicate, deeper is always better, and the more oversize the hole is, the more room for insulation.
Level off the bottom of the hole with sand, lay your foam sheets on the bottom to make a base, and drop in a box you've constructed from a rot resistant wood like cedar.
Backfill with whatever insulating materials you've collected - I have big limps and chunks from all the electronics I've ordered over the years.
You can also scrounge from companies that would otherwise be disposing of this - think appliance stores, home improvement stores.
Of course, at this point you're close to a real root cellar - might as well go deep enough and big enough and make it a backup storm cellar.
How would this work in Texas, where it doesn't get so cold in the winter but us HOT in the summer? Anyone know?
I can understand the pallet board on the top, but it seems the bails of hay and tarp would interfere with the law of accessibility.
Well....other than digging a purpose built root cellar you've got a good and imaginative set up. God bless
Sorry...I'm not very creative.
@@TheProvidentPrepper I would dig it a couple feet deeper if you keep it below the frost line that should help alot also possibly get some thick insulation styrofoam or something and put it over the door you still have to move something but it wouldnt be nearly as heavy this is a very good idea I will be making one similar in a couple months what does this contraption keep the humidity at in the winter?
For me, if I lived in a snow area, I’d want a roof over it because snow would make me less likely to use it.
What climate zone are you in? We are in the Rockies in southern Canada🙂
What state are you in? Not sure this would work in the Michigan winter
@@TheProvidentPrepper January and Feb average Low is 12-13 degrees, so it looks like I should be fine. thank you!
@@TheProvidentPrepper so you use this also in the summer hot months or just for winter cold storage? I’m in Florida - not sure if I can even dig that deep and not hit water!
Has anybody in zone 3, with winter temps to -30F tried this successfully? Did potatoes freeze?
i don't understand. Won't the potatoes and apples freeze in the winter? Are you ok with that? Does that ruin their texture? Looks like you live in a wintery area with snow.
How is this holding up now?
@@TheProvidentPrepper awesome! I just started using deep freezers and refrigerators as raised beds.
@@TheProvidentPrepper I’ve only got one of them planted so far. I need to finish filling the others up with dirt and potting soil. I’ve saw where other people have been getting good results doing this though. Some people have told me that it wasn’t safe bc it will leach stuff into the dirt. I’m not to worried about that though. I figured that I can get the soil tested in a few years and if something does show up then I can dump the dirt and stop using them.
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