Kegerator Build Igloo 4.6 FR465, Haier HNSE05, Kenmore 183.94679 and possibly others

Show us your...
Magic Chef MCBR460S (same as Igloo FR946)
Igloo FR465
Igloo FR946 (same as 465 except has diamond plate door and castors)
Haier HNSE05
Kenmore 183.94679
General Electric WMR04GAZBB
MicroLux ML1280WH
Sunbeam sr4505q3b

And let me know if you have a fridge that looks the same as these model, because it probably is.


I bought a Igloo 4.6 stainless steel fridge to make as a kegerator, while i couldnt find any information on this particular fridge I did realize that this is a very generic fridge that shares many names.
Through searching pictures i was able to find a few fridges which matched mine appearance wise. and found some builds on those, they are here.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/haier-hnse05-kegerator-conversion-progress-217718/

and here

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/haier-mini-fridge-conversion-224439/

So far i moved the freezer to the back of the fridge successfully and i will post pictures as i move along. I also hope to get together a more complete list of fridges that match these ones as i believe there are more still. I have found a lot of posts throughout these forums of people with similar fridges who gave up because no-one els had done a similar build, i hope to get various threads about these various fridges the do's and dont's into one place so people can find the info they need on these cheap fridges.

Looks good. Does the CO2 tank and regulator fit inside?

Looks like the same one I have, is the door dimond plate stainless?.

Im not sure about a co2 tank, i have a 20lb tank so it wont fit inside with 2 cornies. But if you have the size of a 5lb tank i can see if it will fit, i would imagine there is room in the back shelf.
As for the door, its ust regular stainless, except magnetic so not really stainless.

vetbrewer said:

Looks like the same one I have, is the door dimond plate stainless?.

Click to expand...

I think i found yours, is it a magic chef mcbr460s? Of so it looks the same and i will add it to the list, anything to watch out for while drilling through the top? Or just the power wires for the thermostat?

Cleaned my kegs and removed the door innards, it looks like if you took a wee bit of plastic off the sides you could fit them side by side. Not sure what to do about a tower yet. I am cutting a piece of black granite for the top.

Mines an Igloo model #FR946. I bought it at Home Depot some years ago but didn't start using it until recently. Haven't done anything to it yet as I dont keg, only bottle so far but thinking about getting into kegging, maby with a 3gal. system and bottle the rest.

Yup the fr496 is the same as mine except it has removable wheels and diamond plate door. It looks the exact same as the magic chef one, someone on here has that fridge in their shop, i saw it on the "show us your kegerator" thread.

Will this model fit a 6.5 gallon carboy on the bottom; is there room and will the door close? Lagering fridge?

Yes it will, i just tried 3 different carboys the 6.5 is the skinniest, it also fits my wider 6 and my really wide plastic 5 gallon. There is about 12" maybe a little more from hump to door foam

Here's mine.

I don't think I'll be able to fit a corny and a commercial log but by the looks of it, 2 Corny's fit fine.



I'll have to take a pic of it inside.

Thanks! I have been looking all around. Made a mistake of buying a beverage fridge that was mistakenly sold on Living Direct/Compact Appliance as a kegerator (Edgestar Slim is a cheap Danby hole drilled drink holder) that said it would hold a brewing bucket which was said to be 13" wide and more than enough height and width for a 6.5 G carboy. When received it only had 9" total of ground clearance and no way to fit such a general carboy for lagering. I was furious. Major bummer experienced heavily and had to send it back.
My main reason for getting it to begin with was that it was a low profile next to my Beermeister (or so I thought) and it had the advantage of clear glass door so I could see the yeast at work.
Moral as it stands now: Awaiting a refund from that fiasco; beware of actual interior dimensions and false claims.
With all of the ideas about getting a freezer/ keezer setup and having to go through the most cost effective route of a temp controller and the prices of scratch and dent models/pairing up a sight unseen solution and the versatility/having to construct openings (getting what I paid for), not finding a great useable (mostly broken fridges/overpriced used kegerators that claimed to be refurbished) on Craigslist or eBay, I finally had to make a big wallet decision.
So, I bought another Beermeister. It had the temperature down to 32 degrees and has room for a carboy and a corny keg at the same time (or up to three corny kegs on its own). It worked great out of the box and I don't have to add the tap if I don't want to do so (yet). I admitted impatient defeat by $150 more (ouch, but didn't have to selll my blood) than the setups I was seeing/pricing out there.
Unfortunately, no company seems to be innovative enough to be going after marketing lagering fridges specifically for homebrewers at this time; there is obviously a market. It would be nice to remove the hump from these dorm fridges to give us all a more cost effective chance.
Alas, this is the only way I could fathom to get a tried and true temperature and fit: buying another Beermeister. Thanks for the advices and pictures.

Did you have any issues cutting or drilling the top to install the tower?

I havnt done that yet. I did drill a hole in the back for my co2 line. I will post more pics when i get my tower. As far as i know the power wires for the thermostat run through the top so be careful.

Here's the inside of mine. I'm ordering the commercial to homebrew conversion so I can have SN celebration on tap between home brews

did you have any issues cutting the whole in the top for the tower?

mpcondo said:

did you have any issues cutting the whole in the top for the tower?

Click to expand...

Not at all. The lines are in the side. I just drilled a 1/2" hole and ran the line through. Works fine for me. I will need to expand if I want 2 lines.

Genuine said:

Not at all. The lines are in the side. I just drilled a 1/2" hole and ran the line through. Works fine for me. I will need to expand if I want 2 lines.

Click to expand...

Great thanks for the update, I am getting ready to take on this project with the same fridge.

Awesome job guys, glad I stumbled upon this thread as I just ordered the Igloo FR465. From what I understand it's identical to the FR464 but stainless.

my recent build

I finally got my tower in and cut a 3" hole in tge top of the fridge. I cut the hole 11 1/4" from the front not including the door

There were no lines to be found but always cut an exploratory hole from underneath and dig out the foam using a flat head screwdriver or a tool that wont puncture wires. Im sure there is a wire for the thermostat in there but probably closer to the front of the fridge. I also cut a 3/4" hole in the back for my co2 line. No cable to be seen.
Now for the hard part, wrapping the tower back up and putting it back under the xmas tree till xmas.

snowtires said:

I finally got my tower in and cut a 3" hole in tge top of the fridge. I cut the hole 11 1/4" from the front not including the door

Click to expand...

I have the same mini fridge, and i can't quite get the door closed with two ball lock corny kegs. I have removed the plastic from the door, have you had an issue with this? Did you have to do any internal modification to make them fit?

I also noticed that while using it to lager a 5gal carboy, the liquid only gets down to 47 degrees. have you had any issue getting the temperature low enough?

No problem fitting the kegs. You may have converted pin lock kegs? Also no problems getting temps low. Had my keg freeze and had to turn it down to 3.

snowtires said:

No problem fitting the kegs. You may have converted pin lock kegs? Also no problems getting temps low. Had my keg freeze and had to turn it down to 3.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I have mine turned up almost all the way and I'm getting an ambient temp inside of 43-44 degrees. I suppose this is ok, although I would like to see it under 40. There are some ice crystals forming on the back upper wall, perhaps I need to circulate the air a little, but that seems like overkill for such a smallspace.

Snowtires,
Do you have the measurements where you put the gas line in (distance from top, sides/centered)? I have the Kenmore version and used yours for installing my tower which worked great.

Also, I see you have the temperature probe in with the freezer shelf, I had mine to the side and froze a test water jug (on the medium setting) so I'm going to try that next. I had the sides of the shelf sticking out so I may try your setup on that too.

Cheers,
Hatch

Hatch said:

Snowtires,
Do you have the measurements where you put the gas line in (distance from top, sides/centered)? I have the Kenmore version and used yours for installing my tower which worked great.

Also, I see you have the temperature probe in with the freezer shelf, I had mine to the side and froze a test water jug (on the medium setting) so I'm going to try that next. I had the sides of the shelf sticking out so I may try your setup on that too.

Cheers,
Hatch

Click to expand...

4 5/8" from the top outside of the fridge and centered. 3/4" hole
I have moved my probe to the opposite side of the freezer, no reason just made more sense for looks/not tangling with co2 lines

mpcondo said:

Thanks for the reply. I have mine turned up almost all the way and I'm getting an ambient temp inside of 43-44 degrees. I suppose this is ok, although I would like to see it under 40. There are some ice crystals forming on the back upper wall, perhaps I need to circulate the air a little, but that seems like overkill for such a smallspace.

Click to expand...

Where do you have your temperature probe installed? The higher up on the freezer tray the warmer. You could try removing the probe for a little while to see if the fridge gets colder. If it does, just fiddle with where you put it. If this doesn't help there may be a problem with the coolant lines.

WATCH OUT GUYS

I was drilling the bolt holes for the kegerator today and even tho the 3" hole was clear of any cables i decided to dig out a bit of foam around the hole for bolt clearance. As soon as i started digging i discovered this.






Wow, i just skimmed the paint off this metal cable with the 3" drill bit, this goes on a 45 degree angle across the back left of the hole which is centered on the measurments previously given, this could possibly be in a slightly different location depending on the fridge so be careful. Always do and exploratory hole from underneath before drilling ANY holes.

Now, i scuffed up the surface with some sandpaper and laid glass tiles directly to the sheet metal top using epoxy mortar and grout.

That looks great and thanks for the head's up on the bolts! My tower has three and I guess I got lucky with mine as I didn't hit the wire.

I was in a bit of a hurry to get mine up and running for a holiday party and it all came together, now it's down to making it nicer. I still need to run the back CO2 line (thanks again for the measurements) and think about the top. A friend has a nice (well protected) wood top and rails so that's an option since I'm a clutz and worry about breaking glasses but yours has me thinking...

Cheers,
Hatch

Thanks for all the info on this thread. I've just ordered an Igloo FR465 as well and plan on getting 2 corny kegs to put into it. It seems to be by far the cheapest route of getting a kegerator.

Here is the kegerator all finished. It works great.

Anything special i should know about relocating the freezer part of this unit? Picking one up this weekend, and looking to get started asap.
thanks in advance!

Just do it when the fridge is warm. I did mine kind of backwards because I didn't need the extra room back there and it seemed to require less bending. I think there are 2 pipes inside the main pipe so be super careful and bend slowly and gradually. The pipe is very soft so it will bend easier then you may think. Dont kink the pile. Drink a homebrew after you do this step not before

Great thread. I really like the top finishes you guys put on as well. I am making the transition to kegging and this seems to be a good fridge for both price and economy. I have two quick questions I was hoping to get answered before running out and purchasing the fridge:

1. Has anyone done this conversion, or taken a measurement, to see if this would fit a 5 lb co2 tank on the hump with a dual gage regulator?
2. I noticed on some of the other fridge conversions people have needed a piece of plywood to mount the tower to. Is this necessary for this fridge, or is it more a "if you want it use it if not forget it" issue?

Thanks guys.

OutOfSpaceBrewingCo said:

Great thread. I really like the top finishes you guys put on as well. I am making the transition to kegging and this seems to be a good fridge for both price and economy. I have two quick questions I was hoping to get answered before running out and purchasing the fridge:

1. Has anyone done this conversion, or taken a measurement, to see if this would fit a 5 lb co2 tank on the hump with a dual gage regulator?
2. I noticed on some of the other fridge conversions people have needed a piece of plywood to mount the tower to. Is this necessary for this fridge, or is it more a "if you want it use it if not forget it" issue?

Thanks guys.

Click to expand...

I just got my Igloo 4.6 FR464 and two ball locks plus a C02 fit pefectly without much modification. Though, my fridge did NOT have a freezer panel to bend down. It's build into the fridge walls, so that step isn't necessarily. It's a pretty awesome fridge for a cheap kegerator project.

ikoniak said:

I just got my Igloo 4.6 FR464 and two ball locks plus a C02 fit pefectly without much modification. Though, my fridge did NOT have a freezer panel to bend down. It's build into the fridge walls, so that step isn't necessarily. It's a pretty awesome fridge for a cheap kegerator project.

Click to expand...

Thanks ikoniak. Probably pick up this fridge next weekend. Already got the kegs and tower ready to go.

So when drilling the back gas line is it bad when it goes "Psssssssssssssssst"? I wish I could put a smiley on it but I just bricked my kegerator. The tower was all installed and functional but I couldn't get my kegs in there with the CO2 bottle so I did the centered and 4 5/8" down from the outside, drilled a 1/4" hole and got the dreaded sound. I guess I should have tried to dig it out from the plastic side first.

If anybody need a door with the liner removed I have one just North of Seattle.

The worst part is I have two cornies ready to go with an IPA and a porter. To Craigslist I go...

Oh thats not good. Maybe i got lucky there was no line there when i did it. Im sorry to hear about your fridge i wonder what line it was. It must be one of the ones that disperses heat. I hate to say it but just a reminder to anyone reading this thread to cut out the plastic inside the fridge with a knife or something dig the foam where you are planning to drill or cut.

Just an update on mine, its working great and it looks so good that SWMBO let me put it in the kitchen