Portable igloo cooler kegerator

BBBF said:

I have the kegs, faucets and now the cooler. As for CO2, I have an extra (out of date) 20lb tank that I think can be traded for a smaller tank. Would a 5 or 10lb tank be best? Is a 5lb small enough to fit inside or attach to the outside or would I be better off going with the tank that will last the longest?

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even a 5lb is going to be too big for a 'portable' system. And way overkill. I can carb and serve ~4 kegs on a 5lb fill.

I finally got my 3G corny and am debating using the quick change 12G cartridges or picking up the adapter for a 20oz paintball tank I already have laying around.

IrregularPulse said:

. . . debating using the quick change 12G cartridges or picking up the adapter for a 20oz paintball tank I already have laying around.

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I still bring the small quick change cartridges along for backup, but haven't used one in a long time. The 20oz are small enough to be portable, but big enough that you don't have to worry about running out. The trigger on the quick change are way too tempting for drinking buddies to fiddle with. With a regulator on a 20oz, it's set it and forget it till the keg kicks.

And as a bonus, if you want to purge a carboy, keg or even bottles, the 20oz is much easier to use than hauling the bigger tank out of the basement. The paint ball place fills them for something like $3. Well worth the convience!

I use a 9oz and they make even smaller ones like about 4 or 5oz

Speaking of 20oz cylinders, has anyone found a good spot to snag regulators for these? I know Keg Connection has them for $60, but when I sniff around ebay, I see things like these going for half that: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320496656839

I like the looks of that a lot very compact but the connection to a pb co2 tank doesn't look normal

danger831 said:

I like the looks of that a lot very compact but the connection to a pb co2 tank doesn't look normal

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Yeah - I honestly have no idea, since I've never used one of the wee tanks, I just saw that it was threaded to go on a tank, and the PB ones are the only ones I know of that are threaded (unless it's some wacky proprietary Chinese tank it needs!)

danger831 said:

I use a 9oz and they make even smaller ones like about 4 or 5oz

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How do you use the 9oz tank? With linked adapters?

I never got the 9oz tank to work.

ubermick said:

Speaking of 20oz cylinders, has anyone found a good spot to snag regulators for these? I know Keg Connection has them for $60, but when I sniff around ebay, I see things like these going for half that: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320496656839

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Not sure if this works for you or not, $20

http://www.homebrewstuff.com/servlet/the-298/portable-co2-injector-ball/Detail

Cheers for that, Nate - I actually ended up getting the paintball regulator, now I just need the tank and the cooler, and can get this built.

Why not just go with a smaller "long" cooler? You could still keep things compact, AND fit 2 5 gallon cornies side by side.

danger831 said:

another option with a 5 gallon keg. I like the two keg option what is the diameter of those small kegs? If they are the same as the five gallon I wonder if you could put two five gallon kegs coming through the top like I did with the single I will have to measure.

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SWWEEET ROD HOLDERS mounted to front! had homebrews on the beach in the fish/bait cooler this weekend bottles smelled like bait by end of day LOL!

love the portability of these jockey boxes!

I haven't even started kegging yet and I want to make one of these. How to make it floatable down the river is the question...

I ended up building one that looks exactly like C. Kirk's. I've taken it out twice and it worked great. I also picked up another 3 gallon keg off craigslist for $20, but it is a pin lock and I haven't been able to do anything with it yet.

suffer78 it fits in a tube

Huh..... I thought I had an original idea. Should have known better!


Anyway, here are the pics from the one I built today.

Components:



Trimmed the top to fit a 5gal keg and CO2 bottle:



Finished product:

Might as well post my 3G setup. The lid does close all the way. I used it a whole one time before breaking the quick change co2 adapter. I'll have to pick up a new one this spring. I was a bit wasted and the beer stopped flowing. So I assumed the co2 was empty, I tried real hard to unscrew it and it broke. Turns out it was still under pressure, the keg was just empty

Still need one more keg but I'm ready for baseball season.

.

I got my second keg today and I can't get it in. Does anyone else have this problem? I have the 70 qt cooler and 2 3 gallon kegs. I think the rubber strip around the base is making the kegs too wide. Any suggestions.

I have the same issue with mine. I read somewhere awhile back that there are actually two different versions of the 70 qt cooler. The older one easily fits two kegs and the newer one does not.

I had the same problem with mine, that both tanks wouldnt fit. I just trimmed out the sides. Ill post some pics later( I also did some modifications after a couple of test runs)

Whutever said:

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Is your cooler the 60qt? (I can get the 60 way cheaper than the 70 - reason I'm asking)
I'm looking at getting one and fixen it up to a 3 gal setup. Do you have a pic of the inside and also to originator of the post.... How and what did you use to hold the tank on the back????
I have the same reg set as you from http://stores.kegconnection.com/Detail.bok?no=268 Thanks kegconnection

It's the 70 qt. I'll take some pics tonight. I had to mangle the rubber bases to get both kegs in

Wingnutj said:

Is your cooler the 60qt? (I can get the 60 way cheaper than the 70 - reason I'm asking)
I'm looking at getting one and fixen it up to a 3 gal setup. Do you have a pic of the inside

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Sorry but I don't recall how many quarts it is and the only thing it says is IceCube on the lid. But I can tell you that a 3 gal cornie won't fit without cutting a hole in the lid as others have done. I use my 2.5 gal's in it.

attitude said:

I had the same problem with mine, that both tanks wouldnt fit. I just trimmed out the sides. Ill post some pics later( I also did some modifications after a couple of test runs)

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Attitude,

When you say that you trimmed out the sides, did you mean that you trimmed the cooler sides or the keg sides? I've already purchased all of my parts, but to my dismay I found that my 3g kegs don't fit either.

I have a brand new 70 quart igloo max cold cube and 3g kegs of the variety that do have a skirt, so I'm not sure whether or not my problem is the new cooler size, the rubber skirt at the bottom of the keg, or both.

I've already attempted to trim the sides of the skirt which has gotten me fairly close to being able to fit both kegs inside. However, the second keg gets stuck a good 4-5 inches before it would be in a position where I could seal the cooler.

Do you have any more information about the trimming you did? Has anyone else run into this issue and have some good advice? For now I'm going to continue working over the rubber skirts on these brand new 3g kegs (it makes my soul hurt).

Best,

Blue

You have to trim the lip off the rubber skirt on the bottom of both kegs AND trim a bunch of material out of the skirt of the keg that sits on the hump. This lets it sit down flush into the bottom of the cooler. Without doing both of these I couldn't get my kegs into the cooler. They are still tight but they both fit.

Ouch. Well, that can be done, but my kegs seem to be exactly the wrong kind for this trimming as they have a large dimple in the middle of the base of the keg that almost touches the ground as well. That'll have to be trimmed too or I can deal with kegs that can't sit flat...

I noticed that the raised section at the bottom back (telescoping handle side) of the cooler are actually not the the largest problem; I was able to stick my fingers under it with an inch or two of clearance. Instead, the tiny wheel housing extrusions on the sides are actually what is keeping the second keg floating in back.

I tried putting the back/floating keg in first while working it around the wheel housing so that it sits on the rear raised section. Only then did I add the front keg. I was able to get both kegs in, but to say that things were tight would be a disservice to the word.

I'll have to give the base trimming a shot to make sure I don't damage the kegs by accidentally bending them out of shape.

mine are the same. Only the edge of the skirt needs to be trimmed. just enough to clear the hump.

Ohhh, so notching a leg rather than trimming it. I misunderstood. I'll give that a shot and get back with the result.

Ok, it looks like I have things working now. I completely cut out 1/2 of one of the legs (I lined up the gas and liquid lines appropriately first to make sure I cut the correct legs). The keg now drops fully onto the lip in back. Note, this was not completely to the bottom of the cooler itself, but enough to get ball locks on and close the top which is really all that I need (I hope?).

Thanks for the help and idea Hell-Bent.

My 70qt is on order. Didn't realize you had to mod the kegs to fit. That's unfortunate.

What size shanks did you end up getting, blue?

Ed,

The shanks are still on their way. I ordered 3" shanks which should have a little over 2" of usable length. I'll let you know if they fit or not once they show up and I have time to install them.

Joe

That's odd. They must have reduced the dimensions of the 70qt cube cooler. I did not have to modify the kegs to fit in mine. It is a TIGHT fit, though:

Kirk,

Some of the new 3g kegs coming out have a thin extruded lip on the top of the skirt that adds a little (annoying) bit to the diameter. Enough to frustrate in the first place. The second part is again the actual wheel house intrusion, not the axle intrusion in the back. Even though I know that the handle itself doesn't make a difference, the black rubber keg handles may imply a slightly different manufacturer than mine (plain metal) and a very slight difference in diameter could be all the difference in the world.

Someone else did note that they had heard that the size of the cooler had changed from past to present though (possibly slightly thinner or more narrow with added height would cause this problem).

For curiosity's sake, could you take a picture of the bottom of your cooler without the kegs in it? I'm wondering about that wheelhouse intrusion on your model. I'll try to get pics of mine and my modded kegs (sob) when I get a chance too.

Best,

Blue

Blueskew said:

Kirk,

Some of the new 3g kegs coming out have a thin extruded lip on the top of the skirt that adds a little (annoying) bit to the diameter. Enough to frustrate in the first place. The second part is again the actual wheel house intrusion, not the axle intrusion in the back. Even though I know that the handle itself doesn't make a difference, the black rubber keg handles may imply a slightly different manufacturer than mine (plain metal) and a very slight difference in diameter could be all the difference in the world.

Someone else did note that they had heard that the size of the cooler had changed from past to present though (possibly slightly thinner or more narrow with added height would cause this problem).

For curiosity's sake, could you take a picture of the bottom of your cooler without the kegs in it? I'm wondering about that wheelhouse intrusion on your model. I'll try to get pics of mine and my modded kegs (sob) when I get a chance too.

Best,

Blue

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If you note in the pic above, the right keg is a little higher than the left. It is setting on the "wheelhouse". Yeah, my 3g kegs are the older kind, bought used.

OK, here are some interesting (or are they?) shots.

First, the base of my cooler. Note the difference between intrusion into the cooler for the axle that runs the entire length of the back/bottom of the cooler versus the circular wheel housing intrusions on the left and right sides. Later closeups will be looking at the upper left corner of this image (the bottom/back/left of the cooler) with kegs in place.



Next, the top of the cooler. I'm just including this picture so that people can see the intrusions on the left and right side which, along with the natural curve of the lid, may cause clearance problems for your kegs. Be sure to measure by attaching your ball lock tops to make sure that both clear (aka, the lid should shut completely). Especially on the back/higher/floating keg.



Now, some details on the keg mods I needed to make. First, this picture shows the original keg skirt before removal of the extra protective ring next to a modified keg. This little bit of clearance makes a big difference, so if you can buy kegs w/o this ring you'll save yourself some really annoying cutting and filing. I used a simple work knife/blade with a large rough grain metal hand file.



Next, I show the standard gap between keg legs before modification and post modification. I took out about 1/2 of this particular leg to get the keg to fit and rotate appropriately into position. I was able to do all of this with a normal work knife as well (I recommend you cut the pieces off in 1 inch sections at a time and retest your fit; be sure to make sure you're cutting the appropriately leg so that your in and out ports are in the correct orientation).



Next, I took pictures of the difference between an appropriately seated and inappropriately seated modified keg. Again, note that the problem is NOT the large axle intrusion running the entire length of the back wall. It is the annoyingly tiny wheel housing intrusion that is keeping the keg floating higher than normal. Below are two pictures with the first showing a floating keg and the second showing a seated (modified/notched) keg. The extra 1-2 inches of clearance that you can get by cutting out a portion of the leg to avoid the wheel house (on the immediate left) and get flush with the long axle housing is required to get your lid shut with your ball locks in place.

Bad/Floating - Note that we're hung on the left wall, not the back axle where we still have some clearance.


Good/Flush - Now we're clearing the housing on the left with our modified keg leg and flush with the back axle.


Finally, the end result with the kegs modified and rotated appropriately. The fit is still very tight, but it does work correctly. Can't wait for those shanks to arrive now...

Wow, thanks for taking the time to take those pics and document all that. Its good to know there's a work around.

My kegs look slightly different (I bought them used) so I'm not sure how they'll fit, but I'll let you know once my cooler gets here on Friday.

Well I just got my cooler and everything seemed to fit ok. So I don't think Igloo changed the dimensions of the cooler. It looks like the newer kegs are just a bit bigger, as Blue mentioned.

Here are few pics for comparison. The first pic shows how both kegs fit. The second pic shows that the bottom of the older kegs are definitely narrower than the newer kegs.

Ok, the parts are all in and I hope to start building (and hopefully finish) by tonight. I did have a question about the original post.

10' 3/16" ID tubing
2 - 4 1/2" faucet shanks with 1/4" tail pieces

Note the tube size and the tail piece size. Now that everything is here, the tube appears to be a very tight fit for the tail pieces. Should I be heating the tube to loosen things up and slide it over? Or is there a typo on the size somewhere?

Also, I should mention that it appears that the 3" shanks will work just fine. More to come.

Run hot water over the end of the tube. Should slip right on relatively easy