What began as a Keezer and turned into a Kegerator I'm learning to love.

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Stilgar

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A while back I posted asking for help with a proposed keezer build. Very basic. I was falling in love with the possibilities of personal touches and essentially making it my own creation. However thanks to what I had hoped was originally an improbability drive but turned out to be my better half those plans changed and I ended up buying a very retro looking green beast from Westinghouse. I've no idea the year on this model but we'd guess it's around the mid 70's at the least. It survived a heart stopping slip and hard landing from the bed of a truck to the driveway and still powered up perfectly.


I was left between being semi let down I wouldn't be going with my grand design for a keezer, and trying to come up with a good look and unique touch for this beast of a machine.

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So I began buying a few things here and there, all for fairly cheap. With the color of the fridge I thought about one of my favorite places here in Seattle, an Irish pub A Terrible beauty. So with that inspiration and a nice stout I made a trip to Home Depot and...Michaels Craft.

From Michaels I was able to pick up for $7 what I decided would make for a nice base for the taps
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Also from Michaels I found a cheap wood frame ($4) which gave me an idea I saw someone here do but on a much grander scale. My plan was to take the frame and create a box top using molding from Home Depot(which came to about .99 a foot, bought close to 8 feet)
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Filled with a sense of knowing half of what I was doing, where I was going and a bit more homebrew I felt pretty good at the direction this all was heading. the girlfriend decided to help here and there as well.

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Spaced out and drilled the holes using I believe a 7/8ths drill press. Also no I did not drill it on the back of the El Camino.
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Took a week off to help folks move into a vacation house over in Seaside Oregon, when I came back I learned the Perlicks I'd ordered to replace the taps included with my kit were currently out of stock so those will have to wait. But never the less I took my frustrations out on the fridge. Which proved much easier than initially thought.

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To make sure I was actually doing something 'right' given my construction skills peaked with lincoln logs I decided to put the stained wood base up and make sure things lined up correctly which was a big fear. Being the only one home at the time I opted to use a level against the top rim of the fridge door as an even spacer above the base to keep things leveled. Apparently it did work out pretty damn spot on.
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Now I am stuck at a dilemma. I still have two drip trays to put on. The box top I made will either go on the freezer door, or a foot or so under the base of the taps. The GF thinks it would look better with the top beneath the faucets and drip trays sitting above it. The top isn't big enough it could sit both drip trays evenly. If I go this route I will need something on the freezer. I'd thought about a cheap framed small mirror and making a spray on chalkboard, but I think it may look slightly out of place. I'd be open to ideas while my mind conjures a few of its own up.

I also while digging around a garage sale came up with a bottle opener .45 cents, decided to stain a small piece of wood I'll drill and fit the opener to and place maybe on the side of the fridge.
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I just felt like sharing as this whole summer project grew from one grand idea and project into something I'm still fairly proud of and will find a way to add some Star Wars love to it. If I had to ask something of the forum it would be suggestions as mentioned above on the board placement and drip trays. A good adhesive perhaps to mount wood to metal. Also how easy/difficult might it be to replace the door handles? Thanks for the help in advance and hope I did alright overall. If anyone ask this is the keg setup I ordered x2, Deluxe 2 tap system from Midwest Supplies $355 (http://www.midwestsupplies.com/homebrew-deluxe-2-tap-system.html)

As long as it serves cold beer and cider, I'll say it was a success.
 
I like what you've got going so far. Much nicer looking than my kegerator; however, I'm not understanding what the box top "is" or "will do" - just decoration? This makes me wish I had done something like your tap base - I might just have to rework mine :D

Edit: I almost forgot. Keep in mind when opening the freezer door there's a chance of accidentally opening all taps if the tap handles are too long. I intend on using a small, metal L-bracket screwed onto the top margin of the refrigerator door so that if the freezer door gets opened it automatically opens the fridge door with it (as opposed to opening all taps and spill beer everywhere).
 
Thank you! The box top originally was going to be used for the taps but I wanted to make sure there would be enough clearance for the tap handles. I also considered using it for the drip trays. Mounting them behind the board to hide the silver plating and leave the trays out. But obviously with the board I ended up using on the base the spacing would be too far and look a bit off. So now it'll likely just be decorative.

I'm going to head out to the hardware store soon and I contemplated picking up a wider ceder/pine board I could use across the fridge to mount the drip trays too and maybe end up using the box top as either a project on the freezer door to put a brewing label on or leave plain. Sure something will pop up soon.

If photo's aren't working may try reloading or I'll link some direct photos, sorry bout that, even on this side it sometimes won't load up less I reload the page.
 
Talk about luck, made a trip to my lhbs, they had 4 perlicks $24 a piece, so I got that going for me Ha!
 
Quick question here as I'm not sure if this falls under thee rdwhahb catagory or if I may need to take a closer look at the fridge.

As I said this is an older model fridge(still guessing mid 70's) so not finding much about it. The temp controls inside are the numbered dials 1-5, both located in the refrigerator 5 being coldest. I set the freezer to 4 and fridge to coldest around 1am on the 26th. I put a digital thermometer in the fridge and stuck the prod inside a plastic cup of water. Checked it yesturday evening and it was at 67, 6 hours later checked and reading between 66-67. I put 12 bottles of brew in the door, two kegs and the co2 are currently sitting inside.

Feeling the bottles, keg everything inside it's definitely cold just not sure how to get a more accurate temp reading unless that is correct...

As I originally intended to use a freezer I ordered a Johnsons digital A419 therm control. I still have it somewhere if that might help get this temp lower to around 35-40. I just don't know if this fridge would be able to or not given its age.

Is there a better way I can more accurately read the temp inside? Would the A419 do any good? Or should I grab a homebrew.

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I would definitely figure out the temperature issue there as 66-67 won't cut it :D

Try setting both to their coldest and see if it makes any difference. If not, try setting both to their warmest and see if it makes any difference. A temperature controller uses the fridges TOO COLD environment and cycles the condenser to keep it a little bit warmer than TOO COLD. You need to be able to achieve "TOO COLD" before a temperature controller would do any good.
 
So hey funny story, but not really.

I wake up and go check on the fridge and notice the silence in the garage. No fan or motor sounds at all! Open the freezer first and...warm, odder still was that the lip of the freezer when you touch it felt warmer. Open the fridge and...there is light but no cold. Digi temp was reading 86!

Since I shave my head like a cue ball I had no hair to grasp onto and pull out so I calmed down and called the appliance place I bought this from. Living somewhere that's not exactly in the sticks, but also just a hair from town isn't always fun. I'm just literally a tiny spec outside of their service range for them to come and take a look at it. So currently negotiating and doing my best jedi mindtrick to get them out here. Just on tricky ground as I've modified the fridge which may or may not hurt the 90 day contract, and living outside their area. So will see what happens. Hoping for the best, paying regardless lol. Should the kegs be fine left at 20psi? will move them out of the fridge just not sure if they'd be fine or if I should bump it up to 30-35.

In other news the vanilla cream ale I brewed last night is bubbling like mad so least that's something good ha!
 
Sounds like your fridge is dead. Sorry.

Thanks. Someones coming out to look at it tue at the earliest. Sets my plans back but never know, could be something simple or I'll start digging a hole and find a new victim for my brewing needs. We shall see.
 
We had actually. Tested in store, tested when we brought it home. Seemed to work fine. The garage is sort of a tortured guessing game as the original owner played handyman, he installed 5 outlets and only two work. We plugged it into an outlet next to the freezer already in there. Saw that it ran just fine, then had to unplug and move it so it wasn't blocking the door to the freezer and the car. We cleared a place after playing outlet roulette and began working on it then placed and plugged in.


I went back downstairs and using the time tested method of tapping smacking and playing with things found a glimmer of hope. I turned the freezer dial from coldest to off, then back on. Soon as I did everything came back to. I have it running now to see what happens. Not very experienced but it could very well be a problem with the therm inside. could be an issue with the defrost timer as well. Will find out for sure tuesday. But the fact it kicked back on is still a better sign than just sitting pretty.
 
At least you have a good attitude about the whole thing :D

Here's to hoping :mug:
 
Fingers crossed for you, luckily if you are not too picky on color, craigslist should have a replacement pretty cheap.
 
Oh no doubt!

I was kinda ticked with everything but at the same time won't do any good getting upset until we know for sure and I always try to take a mellow approach to things. If the fridge is toast meh I can get a used one somewhere and resume the project.

Kegs are carbing at 30psi in the garage, will leave it there for 2 days then drop it down. I talked to 4 appliance guys and out of them one was pretty upfront and honest about the outcome and more than willing to help out. He believes with everything I said was going on that I need a new thermostat control, and likely defrost timer/timing? All together roughly a $130 fix. He just suspects there's something else in there causing an issue as well. Given its age and what not it probably would be best served to walk away and get another? But I figure I'm already invested this much into the project so I'll see what he says after looking at it and go from there.

cheers :tank:
 
Yeah, I wouldn't be paying $130 for a fridge repair that I wouldn't have paid more that $75 for in the first place. That thing is OLD.
 
You take that chance with an old fridge. My "new" coolerator is an old Whirlpool No Frost which I picked up for $50 off of Craigslist. It has some dents but it is clean and it makes a perfect garage kegerator. However, when it kicks then I certainly won't be making any costly repair payments. I'll go back to Craigslist and find another. Luckly, all the cost of kegging equipment can be easily taken out of one fridge and put in another.

The saddest loss would be all the cool bumper stickers on the door that can be recovered.

Here's the biggest problem with any kegerator. You keep going back to that tap! How much did I drink? Who knows, I just hit that tap a few times:mug:

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Here's the biggest problem with any kegerator. You keep going back to that tap! How much did I drink? Who knows, I just hit that tap a few times:mug:

Solution: use a new glass every time you pour one and only hand wash your beer glasses. That way you keep track of how many you've had and it cuts down on drinking too much, since hand washing beer glasses is a pain.
 
I picked up a mini fridge for free that my neighbor was pitching. Thermostat was dead so the compressor was either on all the time or would never kick on. Replaced it with an STC-1000 and all is good now.

I'm not sure if you could do the same with what you have, given that it's a more complicated system with a defrost timer, but it may be something to look into. A $25 fix is way better than $130.

The fridge should have a schematic on the back.
 
Thing of it is, is this. I checked craigslist like a shark circling for a few weeks before I had the funds to buy one. When I finally did that's when the effect of "Well now that you want it, good luck finding it' came into play. Where I live and what people post on line runs a combination of seasonal and "I watch enough storage wars to know Darrell's pricing is what I should sell my crap for". If you search around the time navy guys are heading out, you can usually find some nice deals, cheapest I saw for a fridge was 75 which if I had the funds I would've jumped on. After however and a month down the road the cheapest I come across are side by sides ranging from $300-$600. I DID get lucky at one point and found a Danby mini for $50 however when I got out there they'd called my cell and told me the guy found a buyer.

So we opted for the used appliance places. I'd told them my intentions with the fridge I would buy, the woman there told me as long as I didn't 'modify' into the cooling lines or body they'd honor the warranty. Fastfoward to where we are now...I called them and explained what was going on. They said sure load it up on a truck we'll take a look at it, however, the owner may say you voided our 90 day warranty. My truck is being used by my folks and I won't have it for another 2 weeks give or take. I asked if they could pick it up. Apparently I'm just a leg hair out of their service area BUT....their boss said he'd pick it up if I was willing to pay 120 bucks. (this place is maybe 20-25min away) And their pickup date would be the 14th of July. So I opted to go the route of repairmen.

I knew what I was getting into with an old fridge and the possibilities of what can and will likely happen, I told myself if the cost of repair is greater than what I paid I won't do it. That'd be a waste. On top of that once I have a chance to talk to the guy after he's looked at it if he says it's not worth it or he can fix it but it'll be living life on life support then I'll pour a beer in its memory and burn it in a field. But if it's a simple fix I can live with that.

Will just wait and see then take it from there.
 
this is a perfect opportunity to install a temperature controller like the stc-1000! I bet you could figure it out!
 
Since I have nothing else to lose really, for giggles I plugged in the A419 to see what would happen, set it to 35 plugged in. Fridge kicked back on, watched the numbers tick down and the control stopped at 45. Didn't mess with any other settings as I was just curious to see what if anything might happen, the probe is against the side of one of the kegs.

Hell even staring thoughtfully at it is a great deal as it's hot as hell, humidity isn't helping and the coolest place is the garage, may not look like anythings getting done but damned if it doesn't feel good.
 
::UPDATE::
Repair guy came out and, not the therm control, not defrost timer. Fan issue. Top fan needs to be replaced. Will hear back if they actually can find one and if they do or the one in their system is a match it'll run maybe $40.
 
So big update. Yes we did finally toss out the old green bastard. Tried and tried to find a fan that'd work for it but nothing came up. Came extremely close with the used appliance place that sold it to me. But that somehow turned into a nightmare conversation and they ended up hanging up on me so that route closed. Thanks to summer deals and someone returning a new fridge because they wanted a larger one I was able to work out a pretty good deal and got a Frigidaire 18.3cu black fridge. So now project Kegerator v2.0 is a go.

Few things this time around though...

*Having an empty still new aluminum 5lb co2 and regulator sitting around I decided to put it to good use. Through someones recommendation here I took the tank and regulator to a welding supply shop and exchanged it minus filling cost for a nitro tank with beer gas and new regulator. Also scored a stout faucet from our local brew club, traded one of my unused perlicks for it. So now I'll be ready to serve stout soon.

*Having two tanks now I need to find a better way to manage them. I could remove one of the top shelves in the door and try using that to hold the tanks, but more likely I'll have to drill through the side or the door and keep the tanks outside. I tried asking one of the delivery guys if he knew where the cooling lines ran in this fridge and he told me they all run through the back, looking at the owners guide I'm left to assume this is true. I just don't know how else to verify this or if anyone else possibly could for my model fridge. I looked at a few other kegerators on here where people drilled for gas line placement and one I ran across that looked pretty ideal to what I think would look best for it(and function pretty well) was someone used a qd on the outside to run the gas through. No idea how i'd do this but any advice or ideas would be welcome as always.

* I may stick with my original faucet plate I made with the stained wood as I'm sure it'd match nice with the black. But after searching Ace hardware and Lowes I'll see if I can track down some silver adhesive strips/paper and possibly look at using this over a thin board to give it a sleek look. Will also be adding some wood to the inside door for the faucet shanks to help give better support.

That's all for now but just happy to say this project is back under way and will hopefully get it done within the next week or two. Things here got pretty hectic so not had a lot of free time. Was having a sprinkler system installed in the backyard, one of the kids doing the job mentioned I may have a 'little' leak coming from the guest house and asked if they should shut the water off, I said sure then went to look at this little leak. If anyone ever pondered what it would look like if a rain cloud got trapped in their garage, I can now answer for them what that would look like. The little leak they talked about turned out to be the upstairs being flooded and draining through down to the garage below. After discussing what little leak and flooding was I took care of it, So now my driveway is full of dirt mounds and grass piles with two work trucks along with two more drying the guest house out and taring carpeting and flooring out. Needless to say this gives me incentive to finish the kegerator as I really need a drink or 5.
 
Still not heard back on this model so still unsure. If needed I can do a tiny bit of drilling from the inside enough to remove some plastic then dig carefully to see if I come across anything, I'd just like to hear from others first before I do for the added piece of mind.

Was busy this weekend and at least got a new faceplate on to try, seemed to really work with the look of the fridge so will continue on over the next week or two hopefully. here's some pics.

Learning from the first fridge, adding extra support to the shanks inside. Kept three taps closer in and the stout spread a bit out from the group partly because I thought it might look better, but mainly there's a butter tray right around it so 4 together wouldn't work less I tore the door lining. Also raised the stout faucet a bit higher than the others.
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Got a hold of some stainless steel adhesive sheeting from Home Depot and did my best with help from the GF to keep it neat and trim around the faceplate. I would've attempted on my own but there's a reason you can tell who wrapped the 'good' presents at christmas.
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Finished off my Sunday evening with a homebrew and faceplate and all in place. Got the fridge chilling so I can slip my butterbeer inside. Still have the drip trays and tanks to take care of, anything else is strictly cosmetic.
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Got my nitrogen regulator in the mail today which lead to some fun discovery. So the 5lb tank from the welding shop with beer gas used to be co2 tank. So regulator wont fit unless I buy an adapter, or they told me a co2 regulator would work. Since it's a 5lb they told me it should be fine, however if I were using a 10 or 20lb then the nitro regulator and adapter would definitely be needed due to the pressure difference otherwise I should be fine.

Hoses and all picked up, found a good idea off here for running the gas lines through. Got a few feet of gas line and a 3-way splitter so hopefully tomorrow will get the gas lines situated and be that much closer to finished.
 
I'd be incline to ask the welding shop to exchange the tank for a true nitro tank, especially since that's what you paid for. Will this tank be a problem when you go to exchange it for another nitro tank when it's empty?
 
When I'd called about the regulator and he told me about it being a co2 tank he told me (running off memory here) all of their 5lb tanks filled with "beverage gas" they commonly use co2, think that's when he brought up the whole...if its 10lb and above then they go nitro tank/nitro regulator, however the smaller 5lb doesn't have an issue. But yeah my bringing it elsewhere to get filled would be a problem for me since like you said I thought i'd paid for nitro tank.

I'm going to wait until next monday when their manager will be there, I'll try to talk to him and if need be and they stay somewhat stubborn about it I'll just tell them I'm that guy that needs piece of mind, I match TV brands to blu rays, so give me nitro for nitro sake to make me happy and sleep better at night. Yeah it does bug me a bit.
 
Today managed to hook up the co2 lines and splitter. Would've set up both that and the nitro but still waiting on a 3" 3/8 pipe, was surprised both Lowes and Home Depot were out but meh, stout won't be ready for a good long while so no rush. Just glad the co2 worked out and passed the leak test.

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