SweetSounds
Well-Known Member
I'm starting a new thread in DIY because I have progress and pictures now... Original discussion thread is here.
Just a quick overview of my bar and towers...
My keezer is a Kenmore 8.8cf with a 2x4 collar. It lives under the bar, about 3' left of where my tap towers are going. I have to be able to slide the keezer out from under the bar for loading because I don't want to hinge the bar top. Because of that, the trunk line must be flexible, and about 11' long. 7' of that line are going to be outside of the keezer, so I needed a way to chill the lines!
I'll state now that it's not complete yet, and I don't know how well it will work, but I like to build stuff! And that alone was worth the effort and $$ so far (About $60).
So...
Here we go. I could buy beer trunk line at MicroMatic, but that would be too easy. I'm building mine out of 4 11' chunks of 3/16 beer line, and 2 7/16 cooling lines. These will be wrapped in stretch wrap, and enclosed in foam rubber insulation. I am concerned that the thick wall 3/16 beer line won't transfer heat as well as the poly lines in trunk line, but I got what I got and I'm gonna give it a try!
The chiller will have a reservoir, heat exchanger, circulation pump, and a fan. I wanted to keep the volume of coolant small, and make the heat exchange in the keezer fast. I think this will work better than a big pool of coolant being passively cooled in a bucket because more surface area is exposed to the cold at any given time. (We'll see if this works!)
I wanted to force cold air through the heat exchanger, so I built a shroud with a place for a fan. This also gives me room to mount the reservoir, pump, and tubing.
The heat exchanger is just an aftermarket transmission cooler. It's fastened to the box with romex staples. (This actually worked out really well! I was wondering how I was going to mount it when this started)
Next is the reservoir. It's built from 3" PVC pipe. The bottom is reduced to pipe thread, with a hose barb attached to feed the pump. The top is a simple cap for filling coolant.
Just a quick overview of my bar and towers...
My keezer is a Kenmore 8.8cf with a 2x4 collar. It lives under the bar, about 3' left of where my tap towers are going. I have to be able to slide the keezer out from under the bar for loading because I don't want to hinge the bar top. Because of that, the trunk line must be flexible, and about 11' long. 7' of that line are going to be outside of the keezer, so I needed a way to chill the lines!
I'll state now that it's not complete yet, and I don't know how well it will work, but I like to build stuff! And that alone was worth the effort and $$ so far (About $60).
So...
Here we go. I could buy beer trunk line at MicroMatic, but that would be too easy. I'm building mine out of 4 11' chunks of 3/16 beer line, and 2 7/16 cooling lines. These will be wrapped in stretch wrap, and enclosed in foam rubber insulation. I am concerned that the thick wall 3/16 beer line won't transfer heat as well as the poly lines in trunk line, but I got what I got and I'm gonna give it a try!
The chiller will have a reservoir, heat exchanger, circulation pump, and a fan. I wanted to keep the volume of coolant small, and make the heat exchange in the keezer fast. I think this will work better than a big pool of coolant being passively cooled in a bucket because more surface area is exposed to the cold at any given time. (We'll see if this works!)
I wanted to force cold air through the heat exchanger, so I built a shroud with a place for a fan. This also gives me room to mount the reservoir, pump, and tubing.
The heat exchanger is just an aftermarket transmission cooler. It's fastened to the box with romex staples. (This actually worked out really well! I was wondering how I was going to mount it when this started)
Next is the reservoir. It's built from 3" PVC pipe. The bottom is reduced to pipe thread, with a hose barb attached to feed the pump. The top is a simple cap for filling coolant.