Returning Kegerator to Costco's!!

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jhook

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Newbie to the forum,

I bought this kegerator Oct.2011 from Costco's, (Danby #DKC146SLDB) Now I'm having issues with the temp. With thermostat at maximum I'm only getting 48 - 50 degrees. I have two corny kegs with twin tower, stays in my dinning room, plenty of room around kegerator. Also getting a lot of foam, I do have the 10 ft. tubing and operating 8-10psi co2. It must be from the warmness of the keg? I also unplugged, and restarted, no help. Any suggestions before I take this kegerator back to costco's, kind of a pain to get everything back together to its original product. Thanks
John
 
If you don't mind unscrewing a few things, the thermostat should be in the roof if it's the same as mine (mine is a few years old though). In the box where you adjust the temp. You can unscrew that box, pop the knob off, and you'll see a tiny screw beside the flange the knob was stuck onto. That's the coarse adjustment screw, you can turn that out or in to adjust where your fridge sits, temperature wise.

I can't remember which way to turn exactly, but if you do it with the fridge on, once you turn it one way for a while it'll either shut off the compressor or turn it on, ie: the fridge will hit the new set point. That'll tell you which way 'makes it colder'.

Don't do this adjustment with kegs in there though, get a plastic jug filled 3/4 way with water, nothing huge. Measure temps in there manually to see where you get things to. This sort of adjustment can cause you fridge to turn into a freezer if you go too far, and kegs won't taste good after freezing solid (friend has done this, he regretted...).
 
Newbie to the forum,

I bought this kegerator Oct.2011 from Costco's, (Danby #DKC146SLDB) Now I'm having issues with the temp. With thermostat at maximum I'm only getting 48 - 50 degrees. I have two corny kegs with twin tower, stays in my dinning room, plenty of room around kegerator. Also getting a lot of foam, I do have the 10 ft. tubing and operating 8-10psi co2. It must be from the warmness of the keg? I also unplugged, and restarted, no help. Any suggestions before I take this kegerator back to costco's, kind of a pain to get everything back together to its original product. Thanks
John
Is it running all the time? If it is then there is a problem with the compressor and you need to return the kegerator for replacement. If it's not running all the time then it's a thermostat problem.
 
Thanks for the info,

Psych: I think I will call Danby service depart. tomorrow before I make that adjustment. Just in case they might ship me a free thermostat. I bought it Oct.2011.

Thargrav: The compressor is turning off & on, so I guess its the thermostat not adjusted correctly for two corny kegs and twin tower, or its just bad.

Thanks,
John
 
...With thermostat at maximum I'm only getting 48 - 50 degrees....

Ok don't take this the wrong way because sometimes it happens (yes I did exactly what I am going to say):
Are you sure you are turning it the right way, once (when I wasn't thinking ofcoarse) I could not get my fridge to cool down no matter what I did. I just kept turning the know but it would not cool, it was siting at about 50°F all the time. I had it turned right down low damn it!
The I noticed the little themoeter symbols and my brain clicked, turned it all the way back and a couple of hours latter I had a nice cold fridge.
The lowest setting (1) was not the coldest, (5) was the coldest but the highest setting. Bloody backward thinking fridge makers!
So just saying because it is possible!
 
Thanks for the info.

Costco's does return anything, I just didn't want to go through the hassle and put the kegerator back together as original. If it goes that way then I don't have a choice, but no big deal. I will get my money return through costco's, there good at that.

I called Danby co., they will extend my warranty for and extra month and call a service man in my area if I could show prove of purchase, well! I don't keep my reciepts after a year,oh well.

So I took the thermostat box assy. apart and started to adj. the thermostat coarse adj. screw CCW, and its starting to drop in temp. So I think I might of got this thing figured out. I'm only adj. 1/4 turn at a time.

Thanks,
John
 
Thanks for the info.

Costco's does return anything, I just didn't want to go through the hassle and put the kegerator back together as original. If it goes that way then I don't have a choice, but no big deal. I will get my money return through costco's, there good at that.

I called Danby co., they will extend my warranty for and extra month and call a service man in my area if I could show prove of purchase, well! I don't keep my reciepts after a year,oh well.

So I took the thermostat box assy. apart and started to adj. the thermostat coarse adj. screw CCW, and its starting to drop in temp. So I think I might of got this thing figured out. I'm only adj. 1/4 turn at a time.

Thanks,
John

Yeah good call, slow and steady. I heard a lot of folks complain (on some other forums) about the Danby kegerators not holding temps cold enough.

One thing I'll say though, I thought I had mine holding at 34f or so perfectly and then it'd swing just a bit colder when chilling and I wound up hitting below freezing a bit. Shoot for no lower than 36 or so at the cold end and you'll be as cold as you could want. I keep mine around 40 now.

The beauty of the coarse adjust screw is you still have the find control (the big knob), to tweak things once you're close :)
 
yeah I got to cold. This morning the keg reading at 39, but my cup of water was 33 degrees and some ice. Beer to cold, not flowing from spout. Adj. coarse screw back to CW and trying to find a happy spot. Dump the water and poured beer in cup. Now on I'm going to check beer temp instead of keg temp.
Thanks,
John
 
Had the same problem with a danby. Had a auto defrosting feature that would freeze my beer. Sucked up and bought a Beverage Air and never had a problem, It has a cooling tower so every beer is cold and it holds temp at plus or minus 2 degrees. But it takes a bit out of your wallet at $1600 for a single tap model that holds 4 kornies. But its all stainless interior and easy to clean. Made in USA with a 5 year warranty. Good luck !
 
I have a Danby as well. I'll post a link below to a very helpful site with all the details regarding what I'm going to say.

First, the Danby is worth what you paid for it. Of the inexpensive kegerators it is the one I prefer. I have two and the Danby is superior.

Having said that though, I have done several modifications which I recommend to you.

The biggest one is the temperature controller is notoriously bad. I replaced mine with a Johnson digital.

Next, a lot of the beer foam issue is because the beer in the tower is warmer than the beer in the keg, consequently the co2 comes out of solution too rapidly. I bought a unit off of ebay (but you can make one) that is simply a box fan with a hose which takes the cold air from the bottom of the kegerator and circulates it up into the tower, keeping the beer in the tower the same temp as the beer in the keg,

Next, I got a Minkota digital fishing thermometer, ran the wire into the Danby and into a large beer can filled with distilled water. This way I am measuring liquid temperature not air temperature - they are sometimes wildly different. And BTW, pay no attention to the temp. reading on the front of the Danby.

Finally, get (if you don't already have one) a good, quick reading digital thermometer that is used for cooking. Calibrate it by putting it in ice water to check if it is accurate. If it shows 32* it is accurate. If it doesn't, note how much it is off and figure that into any future measurements. I say this because it is ultimately BEER temperature that is important.

Oh and one more thing. If you are not already using a chart like this one: http://www.kegerators.com/articles/carbonation-table-pressure-chart.php Use it to set the psi on your regulator. The pressure of the co2 must be set in relation to the temperature of the beer.

No One MORE thing. Check the length of your beer lines. frequently they are way too short. 5 to 10 feet is good. What happens is the beer comes out too fast if the beer line is too short, resulting in a glass of foam. In my Danby I have a 5' beer line and a 10'.

Here is the link I mentioned above:
http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-...587-danby-kegerator-improvements-part-ii.html

Good luck. I have pictures if they would help.
Steve
 
I had foaming issues with my Danby as well, sure we all do.

I resolved mine by adjusting the temp to where I needed via the coarse adjustment screw, and then running a half inch wide copper pipe from the top of my tower down into the kegerator. I run my two tap lines through this (one is super thin 3/16th silicon, ice maker line basically, so they JUST fit) and this brings the cold temps up the lines fine. The tap itself still is a 'hot' point, but it's not enough to concern me, just a whisp of foam now.

I run 20 and 25 foot 3/16th lines for my taps, and it's slow pouring on my ice maker line, I should trim that one down to 15 or so. The other line is a smoother interior I think so the 20foot gives it good flow and little foam.

But the copper pipe was a huge improvement, just ensure enough sticks down into the fridge to bring cold up, like a foot or so would be ideal. But note that the manufacturer hole in the top does not allow for 2 half inch copper tubes, you could do a single 1 inch tube I bet, or a 3/4 inch, but not two half inchers.
 
I just ordered one of these from Costco. Good info. Now I'll just need to convert it from Sanke to two ball-lock cornies. Oh... and add a second faucet. Suggestions welcome.
 
The easiest way to convert from one to two faucets is to replace the tower. 2 tap towers are not that expensive and you can sell your old one on-line. And converting from Sankey ro ball-lock involves cutting off the fittings that attach to the Sankey coupler & attaching ball-lock disconnects.
 
I bought my wife a countertop wine refrigerator for Christmas last year, and I was going nuts trying to get it to chill the bottles. I cranked the thermostat all the way up to "Maximum," but the wine was only slighly cool.

Out of desperation, I dialed the thermostat back to "Minimum," and voila! Cold wine. Turns out "Maximum" referred to the temperature, not the chilling power. I was inadvertently setting the fridge to the "Maximum" temperature in its range, when instead I wanted the "Minimum" (coldest) setting.
 
One Last Thing.

I installed a digital thermometer on the outside of my kegerator. It has two probes, one for the internal temp. of kegerator, and the other I put inside a plastic drinking bottle full of distilled water. My keg. is reading on the avg. of 45 degrees, and water 36 degrees.

My question is what should the distilled water temp. should be kept? I want to adj. thermostat to the water temp. not the kegerator temp.

John
 
I just ordered one of these from Costco. Good info. Now I'll just need to convert it from Sanke to two ball-lock cornies. Oh... and add a second faucet. Suggestions welcome.

I finally set this up. Converted it to two taps with ball lock connections; works like a charm so far. Mine came with a dual regulator. No problems with maintaining temps.

Sadly, it only fits two of my ball lock corny kegs. I was hoping for three, but no go. The drip tray is hokey and too small for two taps; it will be replaced.

Overall, I'm quite happy with it. In retrospect, if I were to do it again, I'd probably go with something bigger to fit 3-4 corny kegs.
 
I finally set this up. Converted it to two taps with ball lock connections; works like a charm so far. Mine came with a dual regulator. No problems with maintaining temps.

Sadly, it only fits two of my ball lock corny kegs. I was hoping for three, but no go. The drip tray is hokey and too small for two taps; it will be replaced.

Overall, I'm quite happy with it. In retrospect, if I were to do it again, I'd probably go with something bigger to fit 3-4 corny kegs.

Most full size refrigerators will hold 6 at a time.
 
Hi. I have this same Kegerator and I am not able to find this adjustment screw. I have the danby that has the turning knob.

I took the thermostat off the top and I popped the knob off but I dont see a screw. I do see a screw on the right of the thermostat on the side but, its a little difficult to get to.

Am I looking in the right place? not sure?
 
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