Haier Mini Fridge Conversion

First, I'll start out by saying that I am already well aware of how jury rigged this conversion and setup are. However, I set out to build my kegerator with what I had around me and a little ingenuity and I feel like I've accomplished that. I'm posting this because I've had a few people message me about how I converted the Haier HNSE05VS-01 mini fridge.



So, anyway, about 2 years ago, I hastily picked up a Haier mini fridge (pictured above) from Best Buy with out really considering the difficulty involved in converting it to a kegerator. At 4.6 cubic ft. it would fit two kegs but the problem was that it had a freezer compartment as the cooling unit, like a lot of other mini fridges out there. Also, the temp controller was mounted on the front part of the ceiling of the fridge, creating 0 head room. (Pictured below).


So, after about 2 years of using a picnic tap I decided I didn't have much to lose so I turned off the fridge, let everything inside warm up, and slowly (let me emphasize SLOWLY) bent the freon tube/cooling unit to the back.

You can see it here: (sorry, HBT rotated the image even though it is right side up in photoshop)

Because the temp controller killed the head space, and because it is connected to the freezer unit, I had to move it back, first just by unscrewing it and moving it and then, later, by repulling the wires through the top of the fridge like so:

And that becomes, this:




Once the wiring, temp control and freezer were safely out of the way, I could drill the hole for the tap line (I made it big enough for two).



I followed Biermuncher and Brew-ta-saurus' style of making a tap tower out of PVC. Brew-ta-saurus' here: (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/4-faucet-pvc-draft-tower-102986/)

And then?

Once I had the tower complete I mounted everything on top:


Like Biermuncher, I cemented the base/flange to the tower but left the cap unglued for easy access in the future. The insulation is just some foam I had laying around (the stuff used for film equipment cases).

Once that was mounted I had to deal with the door, which had shelves molded in the foam insulation.


My fix was to tear off the thin plastic convering of the shelves and then cut them off with an old serrated paring knife.

Once I had it so it was flat enough, I cut out a piece of plexi glass to fit and sealed that with silicon sealant to the door.



Currently, that's curing/drying. I'll put that back on tomorrow night and pour my first pint and see what happens.

Pretty cool man.

Thanks.

Anyway to fit 2 kegs in this? I have the same exact fridge and wanted to do a single tower dual tap.

Here it is, bad iphone photo, but its finished. Just put my Belgian Pale Ale with local hops on tap.

idigg said:

Anyway to fit 2 kegs in this? I have the same exact fridge and wanted to do a single tower dual tap.

Click to expand...

If you remove the shelves from the door like I did, then yes there is just enough room for two cornies.

Looks very nice, a really compact solution. Do you think I could fit a 2.5 or 5 pound tank in fridge with 2 cornies???

idigg said:

Looks very nice, a really compact solution. Do you think I could fit a 2.5 or 5 pound tank in fridge with 2 cornies???

Click to expand...

With the freezer component in the back I don't think its possible. When I add the second keg in the next couple of months I am going to have to move the tank to the outside.

*One note I will make about this conversion is that the way I originally had the freezer component attached, flush to the back of the fridge, isn't good enough to keep the fridge cold, so the motor has to run almost constantly.

Because of the way it is designed, it needs to maintain an arch and be as flat as possible to get freon to the entire "shelf". Thus, I had to bend it so it extends out from the wall and it is a little more parallel with the ground, instead of the back wall of the fridge.*

hey man I did the same fridge and am having the opposite problem with temp control. it's almost too cold, and the whole fridge seems more like a freezer than a fridge. Did you find that this happened as well?

Mosebag said:

hey man I did the same fridge and am having the opposite problem with temp control. it's almost too cold, and the whole fridge seems more like a freezer than a fridge. Did you find that this happened as well?

Click to expand...

Since I've reconfigured the freezer part a second time the motor is shutting off much more frequently.

How is yours set up? Do you have a picture?

I'll check mine when I get home and take a temp. reading to see whats been going on more recently.

I have the almost same fridge and I bent the ice box down and back so it was flush with back wall and did not have to crush it, preventing freon from flowing. This setup froze the first two cornies that I had in there side-by-side. Had to turn the temp way down to get it to around 38F. There is no room for the CO2 cyl so I have it on the outside.

I keep mine at 1 all the time and it sits right around 38, since I've fixed my issues.

Hey I have the same fridge and I am about to convert it to a kegerator. Two quick questions.

1.) Did you test to see if there were cooling lines running through the top of the fridge before you drilled the tower hole, or did you just assume that the freezer provided the fridge with it's temperature?

2.) Were you able to add plywood like some other conversions call for or did you just cement the tower in place.

Thanks,
Brad

Hershebh said:

Hey I have the same fridge and I am about to convert it to a kegerator. Two quick questions.

1.) Did you test to see if there were cooling lines running through the top of the fridge before you drilled the tower hole, or did you just assume that the freezer provided the fridge with it's temperature?

2.) Were you able to add plywood like some other conversions call for or did you just cement the tower in place.

Thanks,
Brad

Click to expand...

To answer your first question, if you look at the back of the fridge, the only two coolant lines run inside the fridge to the freezer box, which on my fridge is how it keeps things cool. You can check the back of yours to make sure there are no lines running into the top (I highly doubt that is the case).
Second question, I have this underneath my bar, so I drilled a hole big enough for the lines and my tower is mounted to the actual bar.
Most towers come with 4 mounting bolts that should be long enough to go through the top of the fridge, or you can get some bolts from the hardware store. I don't see any reason why you would need plywood.
Another thing is to be careful not to kink the freezer box or lines when bending it out of the way, as to prevent freon from flowing through. Also, start your temp on the lowest (warmest) setting and gradually work your way up. That thing will freeze two full cornies overnight if set wrong. Good luck!

Sorry OP, didn't mean to hijack your thread. Thought this was one I started a couple months back, but I didn't look back to the beginning.

Is this working good for you guys? I have the same fridge, and I'm going to order my keg system. Does this work good for ball lock kegs? Where do you drill the hole to for the c02 line? Will I be able to run 2 ball lock kegs with this fridge with picnic taps without the freezer modification?? Thanks

Justin

I spent about an hour last night looking for just this info after my fridge froze a corny solid. Thanks, saved me a few bucks in not having to replace the fridge.

I might have spoken too soon. I bent the freezer back to horizontal, and squashed the sides like in the pictures on page 1. The fridge still froze a glass of water overnight on setting #1.

Maybe installing a computer fan to circulate the air inside would help?

have a smiliar, if not identical, fridge that I'll be converting soon. I plan to make it a three tap system. in order to make space, I'm going to build a collar and have the tap tower exit through the collar. My question: Do you think it's possible to leave the freezer compartment in tact?

You said you "slowly" bent the cooling plate (aka freezer part) until I was flat. How did you bend it, by hand? The fridge that I am about to modify has the same freezer plate in a "U" shape but the freon line runs out the back of the fridge (unlike yours that runs straight down the inside wall to the bottom). I'm wondering if I can bend the plate just straight down so the "U" shape sticks out from the back wall. I'm planning on just using this as a fermentation chamber. I'll see if I can get some pics put up.

Awesome that I can upload photos from my phone using the mobile app! But that's off topic. Here are two photos of my fridge. You can see in the second one where the coolant line runs out the back (bottom right side of the freezer plate). I'm really worried about kinking the line when I bend it down since it already makes a 90 degree turn. Any pointers would be appreciated.