Keezer vs Kegerator

So after wanting to build a kegerator from an old mini fridge, I encounter the problem of the freezer part. Now I'm wandering if it would be easier to buy a small chest freezer and convert to a keezer. What are some of the pros and cons of kegerator vs keezer? I primarily want to have one corny keg on tap. I know I would need a temp controller on the keezer and not on the kegerator

I was just pondering the same question. I'll be interested to hear some of the pros vs cons for upright fridges vs chest freezers as well.

Are you really going to be happy with just one keg on tap long term? Build keezer that will hold 3-5 kegs and be happy that you can enjoy multiple brews at the same time. The biggest draw back to the mini fridge is space. My keezer holds 4 or 5 cornys (5 requires a squeeze), my hops and yeast, and a good supply of bottled beer/soda/water. Far more versatile than a kegerator for one or 2 cornys

Gartywood said:

Are you really going to be happy with just one keg on tap long term? Build keezer that will hold 3-5 kegs and be happy that you can enjoy multiple brews at the same time. The biggest draw back to the mini fridge is space. My keezer holds 4 or 5 cornys (5 requires a squeeze), my hops and yeast, and a good supply of bottled beer/soda/water. Far more versatile than a kegerator for one or 2 cornys

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I've seen (on here and other places) refrigerators that can easily hold 3-4 kegs, plus have the extra freezer space on top.

While chest freezers do have more options for larger space and more kegs, not everyone needs more than 4 kegs at a time. And freezers take up more floorspace than an upright fridge will...

I have a two tap kegerator that I built from the Danby. I never really have or want more than two beers available to be on tap, so the two tap works great for me. Also, I prefer my kegerator be inside, which isn't aesthetically pleasing with an upright or a keezer without a huge bar build.

texasbrewer73 said:

I have a two tap kegerator that I built from the Danby. I never really have or want more than two beers available to be on tap, so the two tap works great for me. Also, I prefer my kegerator be inside, which isn't aesthetically pleasing with an upright or a keezer without a huge bar build.

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Came here to say the same thing. I get two regular size cornies in my Danby mini fridge. I have a two-tap tower on the top and it all fits neatly behind my bar, out of the view of anyone that might come into our basement, if I want to hide it.

After much consideration, I decided to go with a chest freezer from CL. The options to customize are endless, plus there is more room for kegs, yeast, bottles etc. Seeing the various builds on here is inspiring.

After much consideration, I decided to go with a chest freezer from CL. The options to customize are endless, plus there is more room for kegs, yeast, bottles etc. Seeing the various builds on here is inspiring.

new2brew1221 said:

After much consideration, I decided to go with a chest freezer from CL. The options to customize are endless, plus there is more room for kegs, yeast, bottles etc. Seeing the various builds on here is inspiring.

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I think that's a good choice. I just went through the same process in my first build and went with the keezer. A fridge I think has less initial hassle/cost, but the keezer provides more room to grow and customize. As for aesthetics, do it right and a Keezer can be really eye-catching.

FWIW, chest freezers are also more efficient.

I have decided to go with a 5 cu ft chest from CL. From the pictures posted here, there are endless ways to customize and personalize a chest keezer. I am looking forward to the build

Hi

Ok, here's something else to consider:

You may want to put commercial keg(s) in your keezer at some point. There are a number of possible reasons. It's also likely that at party time, several different beers will be "usefull". Different people like to drink different stuff.

Below a 7 cubic feet, you will have trouble fitting a standard 1/4 or 1/2 bbl keg in the keezer width wise. Also below that size you likely will have trouble with height on a 1/6 or 1/4 tall once a normal coupler goes on. Of course a collar can help with height.

Finally, do you plan to do stuff like force carb'ing or laggering in the same gizmo? Some do, some don't. If so that's another corny or two taking up space.

Bob

A wine fridge fell in my lap and i converted it to a 2 corny kegerator, but with various family in the mix i need more than 2 beers on tap. My in-laws like the lighter stuff, my brother hates anything with hops, and my buddies and I like it bold and strong. Reminds me of this:



So i'll be converting a fridge for another 6 kegs, that'll be in the garage and i'll have the kegerator inside since it's much more SWMBO approved in the aesthetic dept.

I do plan on force carbing, so a keezer sounds like it is better for that than a fridge.

You really won't do wrong with either. I have a keezer and it is great. However, there are times when I feel a fridge would have been better. I would like a side by side model fridge. I think this is the best. With taps mounted on the door and space in the freezer side for all my brewing ingredients.

My keezer is nice though. I have 2 towers mounted on it. I don't regret it at all. The ease of putting kegs in and taking them out is nice. With a fridge, it's likely you would have to move one keg out of the way to reach the ones in the back.

Pros and Cons to both. Choose which appeals more.

Don't be short sighted.

When I had no kegs, 2-3 sounded like freaking heaven. Now I wish I had 8.

cheezydemon3 said:

Don't be short sighted.

When I had no kegs, 2-3 sounded like freaking heaven. Now I wish I had 8.

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Hi

Indeed.

My three keg keezer lasted through the first party. After that it was obvious that something bigger was needed. The new one will hold eight corny's.

Bob

carlisle_bob said:

Hi

Indeed.

My three keg keezer lasted through the first party. After that it was obvious that something bigger was needed. The new one will hold eight corny's.

Bob

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Hi

I guess you could always just add another small one, but I am CONVINCED that one big one will hold 1 more keg than 2 smaller ones that add up to the same cu ft.

Why? More corners, more dividing walls.

Imagine a wall down the middle of your keezer. Bet you'd lose a keg's worth of space.

cheezydemon3 said:

Hi

I guess you could always just add another small one, but I am CONVINCED that one big one will hold 1 more keg than 2 smaller ones that add up to the same cu ft.

Why? More corners, more dividing walls.

Imagine a wall down the middle of your keezer. Bet you'd lose a keg's worth of space.

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Hi

One big one will use a *lot* less energy than two little ones. Oddly enough the 8.8 cubic foot and the 14.8 both have the same 5 amp compressor in them. It certainly runs a bit more on the big one, but not by much.

Bob

In my case - SWMBO allowed a Kegerator but would not consider a keezer, which is much better than the first set of discussions which looked dim for either .....

Anyway, ended up ordering a Haier dual tap. The machine will be here Friday (YEA!). The specs say that it will hold 3 corny kegs - so, two working and one getting ready. That should work for a while anyway and will be much nicer than the picnic hose in the laundry room fridge ....

I have a large fridge that easily handles 4 kegs but it is a little bit of a PITA to move kegs around. If I could find the space and had to do it over again I'd probably go with a keezer build. Just sounds a lot easier to move kegs in and out and some of the builds here on HBT are incredible.

DavidinTexas said:

In my case - SWMBO allowed a Kegerator but would not consider a keezer, which is much better than the first set of discussions which looked dim for either .....

Anyway, ended up ordering a Haier dual tap. The machine will be here Friday (YEA!). The specs say that it will hold 3 corny kegs - so, two working and one getting ready. That should work for a while anyway and will be much nicer than the picnic hose in the laundry room fridge ....

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Hi

Oddly enough here it was just the reverse. Kegerators were deamed "not acceptable", but keezers were ok.
Part of the adventure was building the first one and getting it in place. That resulted in a "that's not as big as I thought" comment. Roughly 27ns after hearing that, the design process on the 15 cubic foot started.

Bob

Some times it IS hard to understand the thinking process. I think what they don't like is the tap sticking up - yet that what mine agreed to after all. Of course, it still does not get to "live" in any of the "public" areas of the house - it will end up in the laundry room. But the first hurtle is cleared once something is inside the house. Things do have a habit of evolving over time - be gentile and understanding and above all patient..... Sometimes I do have to listen to my own advice ......

Hi

One thing that helped the process was the massive number of pictures of very well done ( = much better than mine) keezers in various threads here. Looking at what others had done sort of got her used to the idea.

Bob

Bumping this thread after searching around on here. Newb to the hobby, first batch is in the fermenter.

I never heard of a keezer until I started looking here and I really like the looks of the different builds. I used to have a True kegerator but sold it many years ago. Now I'm assuming I'm going to end up kegging sooner than later and have started thinking about these keezers. But I didn't understand why are you all using a freezer instead of a fridge, so the search began. Mostly I'm finding build projects until this thread. So I get there's some versatility, room, and efficiency with a chest freezer.

But since it's a freezer, I assume modifying it with a temp controller is necessary right? These build projects are making me watch Craigslist for a deal on a large chest freezer. But I'm still trying to understand why to use a freezer and not a fridge, and then what is really all involved other than the aesthetics part that seem to be a big focus on the builds.

My wife is fine with anything I want, I'm lucky there. I have an entire finished basement to do with as a I please, so I plan, over time, to build a bar.

Glad you asked this question. You and I are very similar in our circumstance - my first batch is currently bottle conditioning, and I've already looked up a bunch of youtubes and read a ton on these forums about kegging and building keezers. I feel like I'll also be kegging sooner rather than later.

I actually have an old full size fridge kegorator that I haven't used in years. I just plugged it in to be sure it still works. I ordered an STC 1000 temp controller to convert it into a fermentation chamber, since here in mid TN it's been incredibly hot and my brewery (closet) has been around 74°. I know you'd need to build a keezer with a temp controller, but I don't know what kind people are using. I wonder if the STC 1000 would work, or if there's something fancier (read: more expensive) than that.

I used my old fridge, with a bottom freezer. After removing the trays/shelves from the door, I can hold 7 kegs and a 20# CO2 tank in there, 8 kegs if I keep the tank outside.

mendesm said:

I used my old fridge, with a bottom freezer. After removing the trays/shelves from the door, I can hold 7 kegs and a 20# CO2 tank in there, 8 kegs if I keep the tank outside.

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...............stacked???!???

It is all in what you have.

Extra fridge? EH...WHY NOT??

MY KEEZER....ahem.....is all 1 level, holds 9 kegs, NO BUILD.

my fridge held 6. lots of wasted space.

Temp controller $70

Being able to pin point temps?

you know the rest.


*EDIT* if you have a fridge that holds 8 kegs on the floor, run with that.

cheezydemon3 said:

...............stacked???!???

It is all in what you have.

Extra fridge? EH...WHY NOT??

MY KEEZER....ahem.....is all 1 level, holds 9 kegs, NO BUILD.

my fridge held 6. lots of wasted space.

Temp controller $70

Being able to pin point temps?

you know the rest.


*EDIT* if you have a fridge that holds 8 kegs on the floor, run with that.

Click to expand...

No, not stacked. 3 in the back, 2 in the middle and 3 in the front. With the shelves still on the door, I could only fit 3 in the back and 3 in the front with some room between them for some odds and ends (that never really got used).

What temp do you keep them at? Maybe that's the answer I'm looking for in why you all go with freezers instead of fridges.

In my case, I just keep the fridge's settings at the coldest possible in the fridge side, and it stays at 37*F.

I started with the fridge, since I had it in the laundry room already and wanted to get a chest freezer. Mainly because it gave me the option of dressing it up with taps and wood panels, etc., make it look great and have the option of moving it in the house.

Eventually I ended up giving up on that idea and decided to keep the fridge in the laundry room. First because it works as intended and I still have the space in the freezer that I can use as needed. 99% of the time, I just keep a tub with brine in it that I use with my immersion chiller. Second, because the laundry room entrance is the only door that people can use to/from the back yard and it would create a real mess if people came all wet from the pool, crossed the lawn, go through the laundry room, kitchen and wherever else just to get to the taps.

I could've put a chest freezer in the laundry room, but again, since it is the laundry room I didn't care how it looked.

Eventually, I'll probably end up getting a smaller chest freezer to keep beer in the house, but the fridge will stay there until I stop procrastinating and move it to the shed outside.

Also, some fridges may not be able to get down to those lower temperatures. Then there's the space issue. My fridge can hold 8 kegs, but others can't. If you want more kegs than you can fit in your fridge or you can't get it to cool down enough, then freezer with a temperature controller (or adjusted thermostat) is a great option.

YMMV.

So the goal is to keep is pretty close to freezing temps regardless of fridge / freezer?

Tadpole said:

So the goal is to keep is pretty close to freezing temps regardless of fridge / freezer?

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In my case, yes. I cold crash and wanted the ability to lager in the same appliance at some point. My old fridge had the space and temperature to do it.

Some people just want to be able to have a corny keg at serving temperature and a mini fridge of the right size will do just that.

Again, YMMV. Start by writing down what you want/need it to be able to do, then acquire one accordingly.

new2brew1221 said:

I have decided to go with a 5 cu ft chest from CL. From the pictures posted here, there are endless ways to customize and personalize a chest keezer. I am looking forward to the build

Click to expand...

good call. I have a dorm fridge that I had to cut and bend the freezer coils for and shave a bit of foam out of the side and it really was quite easy and I have a two keg and a 5lb co2 capacity which is great and I love it!

but I would love to build a nice kezer with around five or more taps. unless you have a mini fridge already than get a chest freezer.