Emerson 4.6 to Kegerator

Anyone ever mod the Emerson 4.6 cubic foot fridge? It's on sale at Target this week and I was planning on getting one. Can't tell if the freezer part is removable or what and looking for some help with how to go about this. Please let me know your thoughts on this fridge!

http://www.target.com/Emerson-Compa...t_com_brand-bin&searchRank=price&frombrowse=1

So I purchased the fridge but haven't done anything that isnt reversible yet.

I'm trying to figure out the coolant lines- The freezer is divided by a tray that comes out very easily so I assume this means the lines are in the wall and top. Anybody know if coolant lines are in the grooves of the molded plastic on the top? It seems to be a pattern of thin stripes and fat bands on the plastic, and the fatter bands SEEM to sound kind of hollow so I am thinking the thin ones might be lines? They seem like they might be so shallow/ right next to the plastic that I am afraid of cutting through just the plastic to see.... Can anyone help me at all?

I might try the vodka and cornstarch but the top has a plastic coating i don't think will come off....

No ideas on this, but that's a pretty good price.

How are the interior dimensions? Are you going to get two cornies in there side by side if you can get the bottom shelf of the freezer out of the way?

Bottom shelf of the freezer come out no problem- It will be tight to get 2 cornies in- I would have to cut off the ledges on the sides for the shelves, and then I think that they would fit slightly staggered.
I was really hoping to do a tower but looking at the "striping" of the molded plastic on the too of the interior I don't know if it is full of lines!

Any news on your progess with the conversion. I just purchased the same fridge and i am unsure how to fit two cornies in there. I even unscrewed the thermostat and light and have it hanging there. Let me know your progress and if you are having any luck. Any tips would be awesome. I am new to kegging and will start as soon as I have a kegerator. I am not too concerned with putting a tower on, I just want to fit the 2 cornies inside.

I am 90% sure that 2 ball locks will fit once I shave off the ledges for shelves on the sides of the fridge

I have started to cut a bit through the top and havent seen any lines yet!
The door panel comes off very easily with lots of small screws under the rubber gasket. I plan on replaceing it with a whiteboard and looking at it I think I will get a needed 1/4 inch "into the door space". i.e. the keg can hang over the edge of the fridge a little and the door will still seal since the gasket is thick.

THis seems to be coming together and for $100 you cant beat the price for a new fridge!
I'll try to keep you posted with the details, trying to finalize which kit from kegconnection to get

So you do not even need to cut the side panels? What do you mean by whiteboard? Is that just a thin piece of wood to hold the rubber in place? What are you doing about the thermostat and light? Thank you for you updates and help with this project.

sorry by whiteboard I meant Dry erase board. Still deciding between using the board and drilling holes to hold the gasket on, and cutting the door molding out around the gasket and then putting the board in between. I think the latter might support the gasket best? since it was fitted rather customly on the door molding

I am cutting off the shelf ledges from the side panels to make the sides flat , but after that 2 should fit. I'm not sure yet how to seal,/ beautify the sides once i cut off those ledges...

I took off the thermostat piece and disconnected it from the plastic housing (the thermostat dial can be pulled off. The light can also be disconnected, since its pretty useless. right now i have the dial dangling// it would just dangle or sit atop one keg, but i might mount it higher...
hope that helps and let me know your thoughts/ findings too as mine is still a work in progress

Just wanted to know how your progress on the conversion is going. Are you able to put a 5 pound CO2 tank in there with the cornie kegs, or will I need a 2.5 pound tank? How did you seal the sides after you cut off the ledges? Thanks for your help man.

Yeah I was holding off a little b/c my kegs are supposed to be delivered today- but i did start cutting off the side ledges and its going relatively smoothly- It seems to be just like a spray foam insulation into the plastic molding, so is not just hollow plastic you are cutting off, its the plastic filled with insulation. I might try to show some pics if I can figure out how best to upload them (without a premium supporter account.... photobucket?) I actually started after a homebrew or 2 and used an old kitchen paring knife (no dremel available)- incredibly makeshift but surprisingly effective, haha. An exacto knife would probably be a little better, but its definitely not too thick to need machinery if you dont have it. The insulation underneath is a little flaky but pretty sturdy so I'm not worried about it but I plan on covering with white duct tape for cosmetics

But so far I have seen no lines or anything- about to expand the hole in the top but its looking good. Still need to see if I need copper pipe or something to keep the lines cold in the tower

As for the Co2 tank a 5 lb seems to fit well on the ledge- it hangs over a bit but not enough to be unsteady at all and not enough to get in the way of the kegs.

Overall its still looking like a really easy, and cheap project.

trying to see if this picture works...

sorry its dark but here you can see where i put the whole in the top. the left side of the fridge is shown for reference, but it is basically in the dead center, a little bit back, and through one of the thinner, rounder stripes. I plan to enlarge it but probably just enough to be in between 2 of the thicker flatter stripes (in case those are lines or something)

Just wondering if you were able to fit the 5lb Co2 tank and the 2 kegs in. I just want to double check before I order a 5lb tank. Thanks for the pictures. I hope your conversion is going well. Thank you for your help.

sorry for the delay! I wanted to get some more pictures up but no time at the moment

In short, yes, everything fits! but just barely, and I did cut off the shelf ledges on both sides.
No lines hit and it works! As explained earlier i was careful about the top hole especially and still not sure where those lines are. The only other lines I saw were on the right side a little below where the light was- there are like 4 wires of different colors that run more or less vertically down from the thermostat/light hole, so just be sure not to dig in too far there when cutting off the ledges

Pics soon!

PS- best deal i could find on a CO2 tank if you havent ordered yet: $58 shipped
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002KHDFTO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

has anyone else tried this? Also did the corn startch show any lines at all?

corn starch did not show any lines when put on the top of the fridge... but didn't really expect it to work through the relatively thick plastic and such. As i said, I played it safe and only cut through one kind of ridge on the top so as not to test my luck. I will say that this fridge gets warm on its sides, so maybe that is where most of the lines are?

It was a fun project for me and I was able to swing it with very few legit tools so I'd say its very doable- cutting off the shelf ledges was the most tedious part

Do you have any pictures of the final product? I am currently building my own home draft system with this fridge. When I cut through the freezer portion from the inside of the fridge I notice that behind the white plastic there was a very thin layer of what looked like aluminum foil. Could this foil layer be a way to cool the freezer. I assume it has not affected your system.

jdurward- yes I guess I didn't mention the foil-like layer- I was worried at first but it has had no effect and my system is fully operational! It didn't appear to be too functional- just another lining on the freezer compartment I guess
I'll try to get some pictures up of my final product soon.
I still feel pretty lucky that I didn't encounter any lines or anything in the freezer portion and that's partly why I stuck with the smallest hole that seemed reasonably to squeeze 2 lines through.

Just wondering if anyone had any problems when drilling through the top of the freezer compartment?

Also does anyone have a good place to find a double tapper tower?

Anyone have final pictures of their projects?

Thank you in advanced for your help.

I had no problems drilling through the freezer compartment. obviously I was very careful but after i completed i did not see anything i should have been concerned about.

I bought a stainless double tap tower from a company called krome dispense. i got it online and it might have been through ebay. i forget. it came with all hoses as well. it was about $90. i shoped it for a while to find one that cheap.

the most important thing is being careful when cutting the shelf holders off because there is some wiring that you may cut into if your knife cuts too deep.

I am looking at buying the Emerson 4.6 fridge. I am concerned at the inside bottom shelf. will a full barrel fit inside the fridge or will the door ad extra space once closed? I am using this for my barrel and my tapper will go on my bar. Any suggestions on how this can be done will be very helpful. The tapper is in place, I have all my conversion kit peices, just need the fridge but want to make sure this fridge will work.

without actually looking at the fridge i will say with 99.9% certainty no. I have a 4.9 cu sanyo and it wont fit a full barrel (really a half barrel). I spent alot of time looking at mini fridges and to my knowledge there is NO mini fridge that will fit a half barrel. Keep in mind most kegerators are well over 5.0 cu ft and the few that are only 5.0 have curved out doors and the fit in those have zero extra space.

So I should be safe in buying a corney keg? Also, what is easier to do, buy the corney kegs from a local store that sells kegs or buying the container and having it filled when needed? Are they easy to get filled? Or is it easier just to buy it from a store already filled. Are the corney kegs easy to find in local beer stores where they sell kegs or are they hard to find? I am new to this so I am asking a lot of questions. Also, Once i get it all hooked up, is it fairly easy to get it working properly? any special tricks to do that make it easier to set up?

cornys are very hard to find locally. Start hitting up craigslist or ebay for them. Keep in mind corny kegs are really only for home brew and if you have a small brewery by you they may specialty fill them for you. However, if your wanting comercial beer then just buy sixlets (1/6th barrels). They have the same general shape as a corny but you buy them already filled with beer, drink, then bring back to get your depost back. Try googling keg sizes. I dont know if sixlets will work in the emerison (1 probably should, 2 may or may not). If you have more questions try searching the forums for how to's with kegging

Ok, thanks. I did look into it and most places do carry 1/6 kegs but some need to be specially ordered. Thanks for the help.

Thinking about buying this mini fridge. Has anyone else had any luck making this into a kegerator?

I made a two tap kegerator I am pretty proud of on the cheap!

2 ball locks fit in perfectly once the shelf ledges were removed (did that with a kitchen knife and taped over the rough edges with white duct tape, looks pretty decent)

A few pics:

Feel free to ask any other questions, but I'll add that the major other parts of the "build" were just taking off the door shelving (it easily unscrewed around the rubber gasket) and replacing it with white posterboard/foam board, and then drilling the hole through the top! kept it small as I was afraid of any kind of lines but it was about dead center and worked without a hitch!

Only lines of any kind I came across were those running to/from the thermostat and light, so be careful when cutting off the shelf ledges on that side. (Also, I removed this thermostat part and used whit duct tape to put just the knob (minus the plastic shell) further back/up so that it wasnt in the kegs way.)

Thanks for the speedy reply MRT888!

I'm thinking about doing a single tower system with a 5 lb. CO2 tank and 1 pin lock keg. Do you think I will be able to fit this without cutting the shelf ledges, or no? I'd like this to be as easy as possible, since it will be my first kegerator.

my 5 lb CO2 tank fits on the ledge behind the 2 kegs and it's a clunker as far as 5 lb tanks go so I think you'd have plenty of room there or beside the keg- the only issue I'd be worried about is the pin lock keg will be a tighter fit, as they are a bit (1 inch?) bigger in diameter than ball locks I believe. Because you'll have plenty of side to side space, you wont need to cut the shelf ledges, but i'd think you'd still definitely need to remove the plastic shelving on the door. Like I said, this comes off easily from screws around the perimeter of the rubber gasket, but it might leave too much wiggle room between the gasket so I actually cut around the perimeter of that plastic shelving (leaving it screwing in)... let me know if that doesnt make sense, but you can experiment with the door on your own.
I'd measure/look up the dimensions of your pin lock and see if it will fit front to back- might need to cut out a cardboard circle and see...

douglasbarbin said:

Thanks for the speedy reply MRT888!

I'm thinking about doing a single tower system with a 5 lb. CO2 tank and 1 pin lock keg. Do you think I will be able to fit this without cutting the shelf ledges, or no? I'd like this to be as easy as possible, since it will be my first kegerator.

Click to expand...

Got one after reading MRT888 post about it, with out cutting anything one ball lock fits fine you just might have to raise the keg in the front a little because of the lip on the door. The second photo is after I took the door apart with a 5 lb. co2 tank on the shelf. I will have the post the other pics later after i was done. I just changed the door from wood ( shown) to maker board. As far as the foam after cutting the sides I used white silicone and a putty knife to cover them. It will also fit a 5 gal bucket after the door mod. Btw on sale at Target this week for 109.


Moe

PS first post here but have been reading quite a bit!

Sorry just saw you ask about pin lock kegs

I have to catch up in this thread and see if there are any questions I can answer- for now, here is a nugget of info- can't reply to this PM b/c your inbox is full!

bullywee said:

great posting on the emerson fridge! did you drill holes through the top to bolt the tower on?? if so how far from your original hole?

Cheers
Kenneth

Click to expand...

Thanks- hope it's been helpful! I did drill 4 small holes to bolt the tower on- what I did was line up the tower where I wanted it/ over the center hole and then mark with pencil through the outer holes. That let me know where to drill and is probably a safer bet that trying to measure especially if you went from mine since your tower might be a little different. I was careful with these 4 smaller holes to only go just through the outer plastic on the fridge. The screws that came with my tower are very short so they don't go all the way through, they just go through the outer plastic and disappear in the insulation. It has seemed plenty sturdy for me and I figured less holes/ destruction of the fridge was a good thing. Let me know if you have any more questions and how it turns out!

Regarding pin-locks in this fridge: If you take off the plastic molding on the door as I did (replace with poster board or dry erase type board) I think 1 pin lock would fit- the issue is front to back- not positive how much bigger a pin lock is so I'd try to measure- let me know if you need any dimensions

I just picked up one on sale @ Target, when I got it home I realized it was the wrong one - 4.5 cuft model # CR519B! It wont work
as the coolant lines run through the freezer shelf. I need to go back and see if they have 4.6cuft is the CR520B which is the only one on Target.com. I dont know if this is a new model or they have both? will post my findings.

so I took my 4.5 back and the sale sign says 4.6 but all the units on the shelves are 4.5. The sale ended last night so I got a rain check and will hit up another Target nearby for the 4.6.

I'm thinking of picking one of these up this week. Anyone know if a regular 'ale pail' fermenting bucket will fit in one of these if the sides/door are trimmed down?

Might not be deep enough because of the hump. Maybe if you built. A shelf over the hump you would get enough depth but you might run out of height

The reviews on Target's website for whichever model they have on their (cannot find a model number) are terrible. For those of you who bought this, does it run? Seems to be lots of problems with this fridge per the Target website.

Welp I'm gonna be that guy that revives an ancient thread.
I saw this fridge on my local craigslist and wanted to know, has anyone has used it as a fermentation fridge?

If one of you kegerator guys could confirm this for me I'd really appreciate it. At 4.6 I've seen models similar that will fit an ale pail if you build a platform up to the hump.

I'm using the 4.5L to do the same thing. I think that the coolant lines running through the freezer divider is kind of a convenience because all i need to do is unbolt it and move it out of the way. As far as I can tell the "hot" lines are on the sides of the fridge, although I'm still trying to locate a blue print for the thing so I don't have to hold my breath while I drill the holes.
I'm also going to be integrating a 5L mini-keg system I build previously into the back along with 2 pin locks for a total of 3 brews on tap.