Mini Fridge to Kegerator Conversion

Hi All,

I'm in the middle of a project where I'm taking an old, working mini-fridge and am converting it into a kegerator. However, I've hit a bit of a snag. When I was drilling a hole in the top of the fridge to place my draft tower, I nicked two copper lines that appear to be connected to the compressor of the mini-fridge. I'm guessing it's from the compressor because as soon as I hit the lines, air came shooting out of the holes in the lines.

I shut off the fridge and patched up the holes using some plumber's epoxy. I thought this solved it - I couldn't hear air coming out of the lines anymore. However, although I can hear the fridge running with no air leakage, it's not getting cold at all.

Did I ruin a perfectly good mini-fridge, or is there a way to fix this? I'm wondering if when I patched up the holes in the lines if I used too much epoxy and am blocking the airflow necessary to cool down the unit. I don't really know much about how a fridge or a compressor or a cooling unit in a fridge work, so any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

my guess is that you vented the coolant (freon) when you broke the line. if that's the case, you're pretty much SOL. it *can* be recharged/repaired, but the cost is going to be on par with (if not more than) buying a new fridge.