Chuckdaddy
Member
I have a kegerator setup in my basement bar. The distance from the kegs to my tower is about 15 feet. The tower has four taps, so I'm using one of those "python" type lines from the kegerator to the tower that has 4 bev lines and a hot and cold chiller line. It is well insulated. The tower has the connections for coolant, so it is a continuous loop.
For the past few years, I've been using an aquarium pump to push water through the coolant lines. The pump sits in a 5 gal corny keg that is in the same kegerator as my beer. This setup just doesn't keep the beer cold enough all the way to the taps (I don't have temps to give you, but trust me, it's not cold enough),
so I'm wasting a pint or two before the cold beer comes through. I'm tired of it.
So, I've been considering alternate cooling methods to drop the line and tower temperature. At first, I thought about just buying a power pack and hooking it up to my system, but I just can't get excited about dropping $1,100 on that. More recently, I thought about just buying a small chest freezer and using it as a glycol reservoir and just putting my pump in that chest. So, the only purpose that freezer would have would be to act as my line chilling system. Here is the model I was looking at: http://www.hhgregg.com/haier-3-5-cu-ft-chest-freezer-with-removable-basket/item/HNCM035E#tab4. This would be a $150 solution, instead of a $1,100 one.
Would you expect this to work? Would there be any issues with the water/glycol mix corroding the freezer lining? Any other comments appreciated.
For the past few years, I've been using an aquarium pump to push water through the coolant lines. The pump sits in a 5 gal corny keg that is in the same kegerator as my beer. This setup just doesn't keep the beer cold enough all the way to the taps (I don't have temps to give you, but trust me, it's not cold enough),
so I'm wasting a pint or two before the cold beer comes through. I'm tired of it.
So, I've been considering alternate cooling methods to drop the line and tower temperature. At first, I thought about just buying a power pack and hooking it up to my system, but I just can't get excited about dropping $1,100 on that. More recently, I thought about just buying a small chest freezer and using it as a glycol reservoir and just putting my pump in that chest. So, the only purpose that freezer would have would be to act as my line chilling system. Here is the model I was looking at: http://www.hhgregg.com/haier-3-5-cu-ft-chest-freezer-with-removable-basket/item/HNCM035E#tab4. This would be a $150 solution, instead of a $1,100 one.
Would you expect this to work? Would there be any issues with the water/glycol mix corroding the freezer lining? Any other comments appreciated.