GE Vintage Kegerator Build - Cracked Heat Exchanger

I have been working on converting a Vintage GE fridge to a kegerator. I've put about a year worth of weekends into this thing. Here is where I started:




And here is where we are now:



I took the whole thing completely apart, now it has fiberglass insulation, its completely repainted, all rust removed, and all new screws and fastening hardware.

Unfortunately, I had to bend the heat exchanger on the inside in order to fit my 5 gallon Kegs. While I was doing that one of the refrigerant lines cracked. I've tried contacting several appliance repair places in my area, and no one has even been willing to come out and look at it.



I'm turning to everyone on this great forum to see if anyone has any ideas on where to go from here. I have some significant time sweat tears and effort into this project, and I think it would be great if I could get it to cool. Is there ANY way to save this project? The the heat exchanger drops in from the top, so I was considering getting a mini fridge, taking the door off and attaching it to the top, with the opening facing down into the fridge. However, I don't know if the compressor on the mini fridge would last in that position.

I'm willing to entertain all ideas, not matter how crazy. This is my first post, but I have learned so much here already. Thanks in advance everyone.

So sad. Great project though.

Hate to state the obvious but have you tried YouTube? It seems like I can learn anything there that I ever want to know.

I bet if you were to transport that fridge to a repair specialist, brought a sixer of something good, and spill your guts out about how dedicated you are to bringing the old girl back to service, you could get it repaired for a couple hundred bucks...

Cheers!

What about checking with AC repair guys being that it was the coolant line that broke?

How about gutting the mini fridge for the condenser and coil assembly and replace the broken one?

I had a similar experience. Though I didn't put as much work into it as you did. So I feel your pain. It keeps you up at nights, doesn't it? I hated that feeling.

I was lucky enough to have a certified HVAC guy from church willing enough to help me out. Mine had a pinhole leak where the copper line goes into the Aluminum evaporator. Since you can't braze aluminum without melting it, he recommended Supco RedEpoxy which is awesome stuff. You can find it at an appliance repair place or on Amazon.

After the repair was done, he came over and put piercing valve in to put a vacuum pump on it to verify that it was sealed and wasn't leaking anywhere else, and he was kind enough to recharge it with R-12 for me.

The repair itself is pretty simple and you can easily do that yourself. The vacuum pump you could theoretically do yourself, but it will be an investment in a heavy duty pump and proper hoses and gauges. The recharging with R-12 is not going to be possible to do yourself because the EPA has such strict controls on it and it's super expensive anymore.

So it's possible, you just need to find a licensed HVAC guy who's willing to check your repair.

Your other option is to tear out the guts of a mini-fridge and install those. It's the same principle and you might free up some overhead space there, but it likely won't be nearly as efficient. Though it looks like yours might not have the access on the back to slip the entire sealed system like mine did. Mine was essentially the same model as Kerber's build, though mine is bigger.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've thought about the mini fridge option, but I don't really know how I would fit the parts. Its winter now ... and its just sitting in my garage. Guess I'll keep thinking on it.