Cooling the Kegerator - hot compressor! w/pics

I got myself a kegerator for my 30th birthday. Time to move on from bottling. I got a Haier hbf05ebss-2 two faucet tower model that holds 3 cornys. I placed it in a closet in my TV room (now all I need is a toilet and food in the fridge and I can survive in a single room).

I plugged it in and put a glass of water with an instant read dial thermometer in it and set it on the "normal" thermostat setting. It was rather warm, like 50 degrees. Yes, I let it sit for about 16 hours. I cranked it down near the far coldest setting and I am getting a 40 degree reading. This is acceptable. However, I noticed the compressor in the back is REALLY HOT. Like too hot to touch for long.

There's no cooling fan back there though I do have more than the recommended clearance on the sides and back. I decided to put a small air purifier fan (all I had) aimed behind it and it does keep it much cooler. A few questions:

1) Is it normal for the compressor to run so hot it's too hot to touch almost all the time?

2) Is there a better method for moving air behind the fridge?

Here are some pics:

Looks like to tight of quarters for a free standing (not intended for built in) kegerator. It is not unusual for the comp to run too hot to touch in a refrigeratin application, but; keep the fan. It will prolong the life of the equipment.

I'd leave the fan and perhaps even increase the size of the fan if you intend to have the doors closed on the closet.

Should keep those fermenters nice and warm though!!

man, that looks pretty close on all sides. The heat excange compressor as trouble keeping up and working like it should in a space that tight. I'm sure it is getting kinda hot. I think it should cool to about 35 degrees F though. I'm a HVAC guy not a Kegerator guru. If you could pull it out of that closet and let it run for about 12 hours or so, i bet it would be putting off less heat and operating around 35 degrees at the cold setting. Then you'd know it just wasn't getting enough air flow around it. They're not really made to be closed in that tight.

The front pic may be a bit deceiving. There is about 7-8 inches of space on the right side inside the closet; there is a bit of a kick-out when the door opens. And obviously there is plenty of room on the left. But yes, the doors are usually closed.

With the fan now in place, the compressor is warm, not too hot to touch... so it must be helping. I am concerned about longevity and fire hazard, particularly the latter.

I wouldn't worry about fire, the comp is thermally protected. I'd worry more about a $800 kegerator going Tango Uniform from overheating. Generally one of two things will happen. Either the comp will burn out (internally), or the thermal device (klixon) will fail to reset.

Keeping it cool wil make it last longer.

I have one of these in the garage where ambient regularly hits 100. That thing ran constantly for 2 weeks! (Well, it wasn't constant, but it was a LOT!) and I couldn't get it under 50 degrees inside.

I first chalked it up to just being too hot in the garage. I was wrong.

The evaporator plate had an inch of ice on it! The compressor would run, but it did no good with ice insulating the cold plate from the cooler.

I de-frosted it a couple days ago, and put a fan inside the cooler - WOW what a difference that made! No more ice, and I checked it this morning and found it at 33 degrees! Oops

Now it's well under 1/2 on the thermostat and holding 38 nicely...

Beware the iced over evap! It's a compressor killer