dawgmatic

Recipes 

Thanks to our recent black Friday sales I'm pleased to announce that I will no longer be bending over for 2 hours at a time dealing with bottles and bottles and more bottles. I already have the fridge that I'm going to convert and I'm going to be installing the faucets soon. But I'm not sure as to whether or not I should drill a hole for a line from the CO2 tank. I remembered reading something about this awhile ago, but I can't remember for sure.

So my question is...
Does the temperature of your CO2 tank impact the life of the contents inside?
does a cold tank empty out faster, or vice versa. Or is the temperature of your tank completely irrelevant?

I greatly appreciate your input

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy People's brains are interesting....and tasty too. (See what I did tthere? ;))

Feel free to correct me whenever I am wrong... I won't take it personal

day_trippr

Recipes 

I vote "completely irrelevant".

That said, I prefer keeping my regulators out of cold damp places, so my tanks and regs are outside of the keezer and fridges...

Cheers!

gnef

Recipes 

I definitely prefer keeping the tank and regulator outside. This frees up space, and you also don't need to open up the refrigerator (or walk-in in my case) to check the pressure or change out the tank.

Also, I have had issues in the past with moisture getting into the low pressure gauges, and causing them to rust and stop showing the correct pressure.

If you go through the wall of the fridge, I would use some sort of bulkhead, and not just push tubing through a hole that you make. This will be a better seal and should be more energy efficient.

__________________
Walk-In Serving(14): Oatmeal Stout, Hard Cider, Belgian Tripel, Liquid Stupid, Belgian Dark Strong, Red Bull, Rye IPA, Double IPA, Imperial Stout, Irish Red, Scottish 70/-, Belgian Wit, Nut Brown, Traditional Mead
Walk-In Cold Storage(~50): Cysers, Braggot, Melomels, Ciders, Traditional Meads, Persimmon wines, Dry Stout, barleywine, cream ale, sodas, Chocolate stout, milk stout, and others I can't recall.
Fermenters (0): Nothing current.

boogyman

Recipes 

This debate comes up every so often, so i'll recap the bullet points for you.

inside kegerator:
pros

• "cleaner" look

cons

• takes up space that could potentially fit another keg
• some people say that the tank could potentially "rust" from condensation in the frigde.. but with the newer stainless tanks, that's not really an issue

outside kegerator:
pros

• tank pressure gauge (if you have one) will be more accurate
• leaves room for more kegs in kegerator

cons

• not as clean look (extra lines running to kegerator)
• have to drill extra hole into kegerator

If you keep the tank in the kegerator, the pressure gauges will probably read low -- the pressure coming out is still the same, but due to pvnrt the gauges won't read accurately

All that said, i keep my tank outside the kegerator.

Weizenwerks

Recipes 

I built an enclosure around my kegerator that conceals the tank, so it's a clean look. Also have an insulated cubby built in that uses the cool air in the kegerator to keep serving glasses cool.

dawgmatic

Recipes 

Thanks for the responses. The pros of putting it outside definitely seem to outweigh those of putting it inside, I'm not that superficial when it come to the looks of my brew setup anyway

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy People's brains are interesting....and tasty too. (See what I did tthere? ;))

Feel free to correct me whenever I am wrong... I won't take it personal

GTO_Guy

Recipes 

I just moved mine outside since i will be adding Nitrogen and the 2 tanks would not both fit inside. I really liked having mine inside as long as I did but now i have 4 kegs and it was just too tight.

turkeyjerky214

Recipes 

Right now, my 5# tank is inside, but when I add a 6th (and possibly 7th) tap next year, I'll need the extra space. Luckily, my keezer is right next to a wall that separates the finished and unfinished parts of my basement which means a small hole at the floor in the corner and I can keep the CO2 tank on the unfinished side.

__________________
-Brian

Tap 1: English Dark Mild Tap 2: ??? Tap 3: Amber Ale Tap 4: Oatmeal Stout Tap 5: 80/-

Fermenting: Märzen
Kegged: Barrel-Aged Barleywine, Dry Stout, Barleywine, RIS, English Dark Mild, Session IPA

Lagering: Doppelbock, Wee Heavy, Helles

Barrel Aging until 7/13: Flanders Brown

BrewThruYou

Recipes 

The newer co2 tanks are aluminum and not steel and they do not rust. In my searches, I haven't seen a new stainless co2 tank.

I would add that you need extra parts if you want to seal off that hole you drilled. Or if you want it to look like crap, you could spray foam it or something. You just don't want cold air escaping through the hole.

Also, if you leaving in next to the kegerator, I would invest in some kind of strap/bracket to keep it upright. Think about where the thing is - if you have kids or intoxicated people milling about, they could knock it over and potentially destroy your regulator.

I think drilling the kegerator is the biggest con for me. The sides are pretty much wrapped in coils and I super carefully drilled the top for a two-tap tower after pulling out all the insulation foam. Since I don't mess with the psi settings inside my two tap kegerator, there's no advantage for me to keep it outside for adjustment purposes.

dawgmatic

Recipes 

This one was assumed in the first place

Too young to have children in my house, also my roommates leave my brew room alone for the most part. They're scared that I'll murder them if they do.

I was actually able to find the schematics for my old fridge online and there won't be any problems with drilling through the side that I'm planning on.

__________________

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy People's brains are interesting....and tasty too. (See what I did tthere? ;))

Feel free to correct me whenever I am wrong... I won't take it personal