Fridge too short, keg too tall?

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ObiDon

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Hey there good people of HBT!

I just loaded my kegerator up with a 50 liter keg of Früh and the German slider tap/coupler is just a wee bit too tall once connected to the keg and I end up with a severely kinked beer line.

IMG_2671.JPG


I've considered cutting out a little hole in the ceiling of the kegerator to allow for a more gentle curve in the beer line. I've also looked online for a low profile slider coupler but have yet to find one.

So, help me out. How would you solve this problem?

Cheers,

Don

PS: The beer does pour even with the kink in the line. It's foamy, but I just brought the keg home so that's not very telling.
 
ObiDon

What is the fan in that picture connected to? Do you have flexible ducting connected to bring air from the bottom of your refrigerator, or does the fan just blow air around?
 
That fan just blows air around the inside of the kegerator. I threw it in after seeing the panel in the back ice up pretty good. I also noticed that there was almost a ten degree difference between the temps at the top and bottom of the keg. I haven't cooled the tower just yet. I'm getting pretty good pours now but may try the copper pipe into the tower trick when I get some time to muck with it. :D

Cheers!
 
what is the keg sitting on? I found that the glass shelf that came with my keg fridge added 3-4 inches on top of the compressor hump in the back of the fridge. Took that out and replaced with a plywood floor allowed me to get keg in/out much more easily.
 
ObiDon,

I'm glad I found your post! I am suffering from the same problem. I haven't actually purchased the Keg yet, as the sales guy warned me the German 50L kegs are 3" taller than their European cousins.

I was curious which keggerator you own and what its internal dimensions are?
I purchased the EdgeStar BC2000 which allows 28-1/2" internal height. I am dying to get my first keg of Spatten Oktoberfest but I am afraid it won't fit. I would love some info on your keg and its dimensions to confirm that I can make mine work with the Line Elbow.

Thanks!
-ST
 
Resurrecting this thread as I'm in a similar situation. I still have a really dirty fridge as "fridge 2" and it came free, but some would know, I really have to clean the hell out of it to see if it's workable. In the meantime, I bought a fridge for a decent price and it works fine, but lo and behold, using a standard keg, there's almost no headspace. I simply spaced confirming its inside height. "Full size. We're good." A dumb brain fart.

I currently have a keg in there with TC/ball lock posts, my serving vessel, and I can barely snap the disconnects in place. I intended on using this for both a primary and secondary conditioning ferm chamber, and will use a blowoff instead of an airlock, but I was wondering what is likely another ridiculous question - are there guts on the cooler ceiling/freezer floor, or can I simply cut that away, making the whole thing something like a freezerless chamber?

Edit: I should add: It's just a glass top on the drawers, so removing that and replacing with a riser doesn't do anything. I may be able to remove the drawers and still have enough on the floor, if I cut away the door panels, but then the keg would be sticking out as I open the door. So I don't think this is feasible.
 
Usually the space immediately above the food compartment on a top-freezer fridge is dead space - except for the cold air plenum that usually runs down the inside of the back wall. Unfortunately modern fridges often extend the fridge end of the plenum and bring it across the top of the food compartment and add lights and controls to it. I have three brewery fridges, two 17cf and a 23cf, all top freezer models, and all of them have a lot of ancillary plastic cruft in the way of simply cutting out the freezer floor that would somehow have to be relocated or removed.

Otoh, if the fridge in question is not similarly adorned, it should be possible to cut out the freezer floor, as in this example found on HBT.

2523-foam-all-sanded-down-very-rough-opening.jpg


Of course you'd be well served to find out as much as possible about the specific unit first to eliminate some outlier design detail (like, door heaters). When I was getting ready to covert each of my fridges I went to the major on-line appliance parts vendors and found diagrams for each that showed how to avoid disaster....

Cheers!
 
Usually the space immediately above the food compartment on a top-freezer fridge is dead space - except for the cold air plenum that usually runs down the inside of the back wall. Unfortunately modern fridges often extend the fridge end of the plenum and bring it across the top of the food compartment and add lights and controls to it. I have three brewery fridges, two 17cf and a 23cf, all top freezer models, and all of them have a lot of ancillary plastic cruft in the way of simply cutting out the freezer floor that would somehow have to be relocated or removed.

Otoh, if the fridge in question is not similarly adorned, it should be possible to cut out the freezer floor, as in this example found on HBT.

2523-foam-all-sanded-down-very-rough-opening.jpg


Of course you'd be well served to find out as much as possible about the specific unit first to eliminate some outlier design detail (like, door heaters). When I was getting ready to covert each of my fridges I went to the major on-line appliance parts vendors and found diagrams for each that showed how to avoid disaster....

Cheers!
OK trippr, thanks, really helpful. Still thinking whether I should reserve this for another use (e.g., an open fermentor chamber, for my "Yorkshire Square" attempts, or cut it to get some space. But good to know the info you've provided regardless. Thanks buddy.
 
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