Kegerator Brands

After about a year of brewing, I'm getting tired of bottling, and I'm toying with the idea of getting set up for kegging. The only thing that has stopped me so far has been a shortage of cash, but things have been looking up lately. I was looking at Best Buy at a kegerator that includes a CO2 tank, regulator, draft tower on top, etc. (basically everything except the keg) for $450. Everything looked good at first until I read some online reviews for it, which were pretty much horrible for more reasons than one. However, the reviews may or may not have been posted by homebrewers, so now, I'm trying to get fellow homebrewers' opinions. What I'm looking for is a keg refrigerator that has the space to hold 2 or so 5-gallon cornys, includes the same parts listed above, uses high-quality parts, doesn't freeze up, is easily able to keep the kegs at any temperature from a steady 35 degrees F and up, and is less than $600. If there is such a product out there that you all have been satisfied with, please let me know what it is. I haven't checked yet, but if the rules of this forum prohibit recommending or criticizing certain brands, please private message me.

captaineriv

Interesting possibility for a poll: How many people with keggers built them vs bought? I built a four tapper for about $350.

david_42, did you use an existing full-size fridge, an existing mini-fridge, or buy a mini-fridge, before you bought the kegging equipment? Right now, I have nothing but a fridge, that I do not own, stocked full of food in my apartment, so converting it would not be possible. If I were to build, I don't have anything right now that I could use in the process. If what you did for $350 can be done starting completely from scratch, I'd love to see the plans! Hell, if I can do it for anywhere under $600, I'd prefer something I customized and built, and as opposed to bought.

captaineriv

Can't say I really planned mine. I hauled two empty kegs down to a used appliance shop and purchased a 10 cu.ft. fridge that would hold them with the shelves removed. I removed the shelf panel from the inside of the door and replaced it with a piece of fiber board , then drilled the door for the taps. I have the CO2 tank strapped into one corner inside. After a couple months, I concluded I could jamb two more kegs in, so I added more taps. It's a pain checking the CO2, so I may move it outside. Might even be able to add a fifth keg that way.

I've uploaded two shots to my gallery, don't know how long the processing will take.

It's funny, my grandfather owns a used appliance store, and I could get a used fridge for next to nothing, or even nothing, but in my small apartment, there is no where to put another fridge. On the other hand, where there's a will, there's probably a way .

If anyone wants to post pics of their setup, or of the building process, that would be great.

captaineriv

I'd say haul a couple kegs down there and see what he's got.

I don't have any kegs, but I could go by my LHBS and take some measurements. And speaking of measurements, I took some in my apartment just now. My interior doorways are way too small to be able to fit a fridge in any of the bedrooms/closets, but there is a corner right as you walk in from outside that could hold one. Only thing is, you walk in the door and the first thing you see is a fridge that looks very out of place. Pure heaven for me and the guys, but I'm not so sure what the ladies would think about the "eyesore." I (rather conveniently, it would seem) just broke off a 4 year relationship, so I guess any newcomers will just have to deal with it. The fridge was there first. Like I said before, I'm very open for ideas or cheap places to get the hardware, so keep 'em comin!

captaineriv

My kegger is 27" wide and 27" deep. I've seen refigerators as small as 24" wide. We are not talking the super-size all-american frig here.

Anyone who dates a homebrewer needs to understand certain things ...

I have the Haier kegerator and most definitely not impressed with it. If I had to do it again, I'd just buy a freezer/fridge and convert it.

On the other hand I have a haier kegerator and think it's just jim dandy.

Ha. Go figure. It would seem that there are mixed reviews for just about every product out there. I did some price browsing online, and if (and probably only if) I can get a fridge from the grandfather for free, it looks like I'll be able to convert for about the price david_42 mentioned (actually for less until I decide to buy secondary regulators and more kegs), which is far cheaper than any store-bought kegerator I've found. Obviously, the downsides are that a convert involves more labor and would not be as compact, but then again, there's more space for more kegs inside. This apartment is only a temporary solution till I finish grad school and move into a bigger place with more space, so hopefully a larger fridge wouldn't be an eyesore for much more than another year and a half. It'd be cool to have a dream machine that I can modify to meet my needs as the amount of brews I have on tap grows. Operation Kegerator is still in the early stages and I plan to spend a few more weeks considering all possibilities before I order any parts or buy any kegerators from the store. Thank you all for the input.

captaineriv

I got the haier on craigslist.org for a good price, about what david_42 spend making his. I like the compact size because it fits nicely in the dining room. In addition I go to conventions several times a year and now I can take the kegerator, instead of using a jockey box.

The haier I've got will hold 3 corneys and I've installed a double faucet tower. I can put a full half in it, or 2 quarter barrels if I go with commercial for a party or event. With some quick release adapters, I can switch between corney and sankey keg styles in pretty short order for events. Since the kegerator is on casters it's easy to move around in the house or at a convention. When I have a cookout and can roll it out to the patio.

The compressor is relatively quiet-- about as loud as my 3 year old whirlpool fridge in the kitchen. The temp holds pretty stable, even during the recent fluxuations in temp we've had in Madison. It can get it cold enough to freeze the lines if you run the temp all the way down and make the mistake of pushing the lines to the rear of the fridge.

Now, what I don't have in this fridge is space for storage of ingredients. Fortunately, I get to use one of the drawers in the kitchen fridge for that.

There were numerous finish issues with mine and the tap tower just completely broke at the base. After inspecting the broken tower, it's pretty ridiculous how poorly it was spot welded. There's a pic of the new tower that I had to buy on the website below (and our first Hefe).

Another issue was the evaporator icing up badly. I called the company and they asked if I had any seal leaks (which I didn't). Started looking at it more closely and noticed the drain hole was awfully large. I plugged the drain hole and it doesn't ice up anymore.

All that being said, it's still keeping the beer cold so I'm not completely fed up with it... knock on wood.

Finish is fine on mine. I didn't notice any problems with the original tower either.

I have noticed that the cold plate gets a layer of frost frequently. I'll have to take a look at that drain hole. Never really noticed that and hand't seriously tried to solve the frost problem, especially since it seems to do it far more often when I'm frequently opening and closing the fridge so I wrote it off as a problem I was causing. : )

There are 2 things I think I'll eventually change, neither a huge problem and one is a problem caused by heavy use, not a design flaw.

First, I'm going to replace the casters with something more heavy duty. All the transport of this thing and the pushing aroudn hotels is takign a toll on the casters. They are fine for 'normal' home use where the kegerator is generally moved once a month to clean but this thing gets around.

Next I'll prbably get a larger diameter tower and drill the hole out bigger. That will make it easier to work on the faucet and allow more room to insulate the tower.

All in all I'm very happy with my Haier.

I use a CO2 distributor that also has a 3/8" OD fitting. Then off of that, are 1/4" fittings that I then run to my kegs. This allows me to shut off CO2 (if I desire) to each of my kegs, while just using a single outlet dual guage Micromatic regulator. Actually, this is the one I use:

http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/regulators-pid-642.html

HTH

I did a lot of research on trying to decide what to buy also. I chose a premade kegerator. I wrote up a "blog" for people trying to figure out what to do (since I spent so much time researching I figured it would be helpful). Check it out:

http://bruuhk2.blogspot.com/

Good luck!