Keezer - Top or Front?

So I am getting set to put together a keezer. I see a lot of people put in a collar and others seem to drill directly into the lid and put their towers there. Why one and not the other? It seem like the top dispensing would be easier to do.

A lot of people do the collar because it isn't hard to build, and of you ever want to convert it back, you don't have a hole in the lid. Also, a three tap tower is like $150 new. You can put as many taps on a collar as you want.

Generally, the collar folks stop with just a collar. The coffin folks usually do a good bit of woodworking and enclose the whole thing in a cabinet and do some tile or whatever on the top. It's personal preference, really, and how much effort you want to put into it. Mine is going to be a coffin style so I'll have a furniture-grade bar to go in the living area of my house. It's the only way I could get SWMBO on board.

Another thing to think about is useable space. Typically the hump is dead space. It is too short to put anything on. A collar adds depth and can allow kegs or CO2 to sit on the hump.

Xtant said:

Another thing to think about is useable space.

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What kind of freezer are you planning on using? How many kegs and taps?

I have three corney kegs and a 5 gallon CO2 tank. I have not really picked a freezer yet, as I am trying get my ducks in row before I start buying stuff. I have aspace that is 50" long that I hope to put the freezer in, but can adapt. Height is not an issue, as i have plenty of room.

I will be building a coffin.
My area is not all that spacious, so a collar style seems like it would be come an obstacle (protruding faucets) that could get knocked into.

I went through the same decision process you are. I got a great deal on a 7.2 cu ft frigidaire featured in so many keezer builds. I wanted to be able have 4-5 kegs in their so that was one thing which drove me to a collar. Mtnrider's build.

Besides the number of kegs, the other consideration that led me to a collar was opening the lid. With a collar I don't need to move it away from the wall when messing inside. I've been in there alot getting things dialed in and with the towers would have needed to move it off the wall each time. That also saved me from having to put casters on the bottom. The one trade off that's a pain is it's a long way to the bottom to clean. So don't get in such a hurry to have that first beer flowing through a tap that you forget to tighten down the beer line onto the tap shank.

Nothing worse than wasted beer other than standing on your head inside a keezer to clean up wasted beer. Enjoy your build.