Is kegerator worth the money?

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1stTimer

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Hello everyone. I have just been presented with the oppurtunity to buy this kegerator Danby® 1/2 Barrel Keg Cooler - Sam's Club at less than half the original price. It has only been used a few times and I know it works great. It comes with the CO2 compressor as well. I need to make the switch to kegs anyways. And it actually comes with an empty used half keg which i can convert to a mask tun.

My question is, can I get two 5 gallon sanke kegs in this as far as you can tell?
 
I have the same kegerator and I wouldn't get rid of it for my life. I love it! I can fit three 5 gallon corny kegs and the CO2 tank in mine without a problem. It's also nice because I can fit a 6.5 gallon fermentor in it and lager if I need to.

Well worth the money.
 
I really apprciate it Suthrncomfrt. I can get it for $200 from a friends father. 3 kegs would be perfect. have you altered it at all to get more taps on it? Or do you stick to 1?
 
You should becable to get at least 2 5gal kegs in. More likely 3-4 will fit.
 
Even if its just two that would be great. Now I will have to figure out the pressure thing. I just made the move to 10 gallons and quickyl realized I do not want to bottle 10 gallons.
 
Even if its just two that would be great. Now I will have to figure out the pressure thing. I just made the move to 10 gallons and quickyl realized I do not want to bottle 10 gallons.

Ahahaha! I bottled for years and years, routinely had 20 cases at various life stages, and my pipeline was stepping along averaging 2 weeks between brew days. But I flew too close to the sun, did two double batches in successive days, then had to face the music four weeks later.

On my last day of bottling I capped 20 gallons in one shot. Over 200 bottles. And on the hottest day of 2011, with all the windows closed and A/C off so I didn't dust all those bottles with wild wee beasties.

About half way through I swore I would switch to kegging.

I started buying equipment the next day.

Now running 6 faucets, with 2 more kegs ready and another pair carbing up, and four empties to refill. I've given away a dozen cases of cleaned and sanitized bottles (still have another dozen cases for some reason). If I want to take beer somewhere I fill a growler.

My bench capper hasn't been touched in almost a year...

Cheers!
 
Yeah man, thats what I DONT want to be doing. Filling the bottles is bad enough but I really hate capping. And then priming with dextrose can suck as well. The pumpkin porter I did is driving me nuts. One bottle is flat as can be and another is perfect. This is the first time in 4 years of brewing that its ever happened. I want to use CO2 and be done with it.
 
I bottled for 2 years and after looking back, I don't why I didn't switch to kegging sooner. Well worth the money. One word of advice though, if you have the money, get the biggest CO2 tank that will fit your system. I'm still running a 5 lb tank and I hate it.
 
Thanks for the heads up. I will do that. This one comes with the 5 gallon one. I may have just decided to hold off on this purchase a little longer anyways. Im in the middle of building a single tier system and Im forking out some money for that. So many projects!! I love them all.
 
Same here. I can honestly say that I appreciate the beer so much better now that I keg. Bottling used to be a chore and I hated having yeast deposits in each bottle. Now my first serve from the keg is cloudy and the rest is crystal clear.

Prost!
 
I have the same model. I got it for free because the membrane control panel on the front died. So I went to radio shack and purchased a couple of push buttons and fixed it for around 3 bucks. The previous owner had modded the thermostat so that it will get down a few degrees cooler than stock...

It has been working just fine for me though. The stock faucet on it is a pile of crap. I bought a perlick and it wouldnt fit the stock shank...so I had to buy a new one of those too!
 
I actually bought mine from an appliance store I used to work for. It was returned by a customer, but they never returned the CO2 tank, the tower, or any of the other things needed to hook up a keg. It was basically sold to me as a fridge for $100. This was fine with me though, since it let me customize it with better parts. I spend a few hundred at Micromatic.com and bought a triple faucet tower. I love it.

If you hook up a temp controller to it, you can get it to go much colder (or warmer for fermenting).
 
I bottled for 2 years and after looking back, I don't why I didn't switch to kegging sooner. Well worth the money. One word of advice though, if you have the money, get the biggest CO2 tank that will fit your system. I'm still running a 5 lb tank and I hate it.

I don't have a problem with a 5lb tank and I'm running 6 taps pushing the beer 100' from the cooler blending onsite with N2. I just keep a backup tank handy. :mug:
 
I have a slightly older model of this kegerator (the 4cu ft one), can fit two corny kegs fine though only if they're the slightly taller Pepsi kegs, the more squat Coke kegs (pin lock, I think) wouldn't fit two side by side. One of each works though.

I've modded mine by drilling out a new hole and installing a second tap, rotating the tower 45degrees to align both taps forward, and used the course adjustment screw to knock the temperatures down a few degrees past what it would do before.

The original faucet works great for me, it's not a Perlick or anything but it doesn't stick at all and almost feels like a forward sealing faucet, even though it's not. I have a perlick for the second faucet though.

I store my co2 tank outside the fridge but I could fit it inside on the compressor hump if needbe.

Go for it, you won't be disappointed at that price and it's nice and easy to mod!
 
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