Draft Tower Cooling Mod

So, I finally got my hands on a kegerator... Haier HBF05EABB to be specific.
Great.
Single tap had to go. Bought myself a Three-Tap Tower. While waiting the 2+ weeks Beverage Factory took to get it to me (slackers), I was contemplating cooling.

For ease of installation, versatility, accessibility, and sheer genius... I decided on a PVC Pipe sleeve the length of the tower + some Fluted Copper Pipes the diameter of the seemingly not 5ft. stock hoses, and filling the gap with some polyurethane spray foam.

Assembled and ready to go - I decided to snap some shots before I installed.
For your enjoyment...








I made it so the copper tubing will sit approximately 1/2" inside the refrigerated chamber - obviously the PVC sleeve there isn't fully installed.

After I removed my weak-ass single tap tower and put this on, I realized I made the PVC a little too long. I need to notch out about a 1/2" on the side where it meets the center, lower draft shank. No worries, the diameter of the PVC I used sits perfectly on the existing hole on the kegerator, and with that spray foam insulation, it's probably doing its job better than the weak single draft empty tower.

I'll post some more shots once I fully install it properly. I expect the copper to keep these lines nicey nice.

looks nice, let us know how this works out. I'm still in my tower planning phase.

I guess it looks that way, but no... There's three. The tird is behind the two you see - set in the middle.

Didn't even notice that... should have grabbed a better shot.

sorry, I counted the lines and then edited my post to not look like a moron...too late.

Meh - you're right - you can barely see the other line. No worries.

This should work great... and cheap as well. Using the pipes int he PVC casing.. allows for a change of lines if need be down the line... I think it;s a great design - hope it works well in service.

I have the same kegerator as you, but instead of replacing the tower, I added 2 more taps to the single.

Yea I was thinking of doing that but after cost analysis and such... I just went with the new tower. Im sure yours will work just as well as mine...

Interesting. I have a similar situation with my 2 tap tower, but I did not use copper lines. I have a ducted fan blowing air from the kegerator up the tower, but it still does not cool those lines enough to keep the foam down. Do you believe the copper pipes will keep those lines cold enough all the way to your tower without additional cooling ?? I also used spray foam insulation inside of 2" PVC up through the bar top into the tower.

Well - the lines are tight enough int he copper Ithink they will be insulated properly. No question the copper conducts cold... so in theory it should work... right... right?

Won't know til I get a chance to fix the size issue I ran into - should be able to do it soon. Once it's fully operational I'll definitely keep this thread informed on temps.

How far up the tower does that PVC sleeve run ??

Very nice.
I use a similar set up, but I fit my 3 bev lines inside of one copper tube, instead of 3 separate. It was a tight squeeze, but it managed.
Yours should be fine, and it looks good!

hefeluver said:

How far up the tower does that PVC sleeve run ??

Click to expand...

PVC Sleeve butts up against the bottom shank on the center draft on the tower. I'm working on crafting a top mount piece for insulation ontop with just foam.

GlenF said:

Very nice.
I use a similar set up, but I fit my 3 bev lines inside of one copper tube, instead of 3 separate. It was a tight squeeze, but it managed.
Yours should be fine, and it looks good!

Click to expand...

Thanks man. My thought is ... more copper = more colder.

yea dude...yours should get cold


That's a photo of what I have.

BillyVegas said:

PVC Sleeve butts up against the bottom shank on the center draft on the tower. I'm working on crafting a top mount piece for insulation ontop with just foam.

Click to expand...

so you have bare copper with the lines inside, roughly 8" or so up to the faucet ?? you could fill that tower cavity with the liquid foam.mine is done that way, only with a piece of 1' flexible house (duct) which leads back to the fan in the kegererator . i think I like the idea with the copper tubeing better providing there is very little temp drop from the keg to the top of the tower

Picture 3 shows my foam... I filled that sucka up!

Question,
I just picked up 2 used single tap towers that have stainless beer lines on them that extend about 4 inches below the the tower bottom and are threaded for changing out beer lines.
Do you think the stainless lines by them selfs will keep the beerlines cold enough or should I insulat the tower as you have and add an additional cooper shroud?

I haven't had enough hands on experience with towers - as soon as I got mine before I even used the single tap one I replaced it with my mod. Still haven't hooked it up.

I'd think insulation is always better than non-insulation... but I dont know about the stainless. I'd also think you'd want at least 5-6 ft. on those draft lines to get a good balance going...

I'm no expert, but I read these forums too much... That's all I got.

Yep I'm going to add a run of about 8ft draft line per tower to them to balance the system.

I think this tower has about 6 feet of draft line... much different than my 10-12 cobra tap my "rig" was calibrated for.

Foam city. Still working on a better balance... 8psi?

BillyVegas said:

I think this tower has about 6 feet of draft line... much different than my 10-12 cobra tap my "rig" was calibrated for.

Foam city. Still working on a better balance... 8psi?

Click to expand...

From what i have read, the foam is caused by the beer tempeture changing before it leaves the tap. That is why they use blowers to blow cold air from the kegerator up the tower and directed right at where the lines attach to the faucet.in theory it reduces foaming by keeping the beer at the same temp as the kegerator. This is what I was attempting to do, but I still get heavy foaming, so i was going to try your design with the copper pipe. try measuring your beer temp in the glass as it exits the tap, and let us know what the difference is in temp.

Yea - quick search and calibration brought my beer coming out at 40deg F. I dropped the temp and aiming for 38. Dropping PSI to 8 gives me a 90% respectable pour, btw. Still have some bubbles in the line however, hoping they subside overnight.

Final modified pipe with insulation.



Insulation



Three Tap Kegerator! Finally!

Looking good.

BillyVegas said:

Yea - quick search and calibration brought my beer coming out at 40deg F. I dropped the temp and aiming for 38. Dropping PSI to 8 gives me a 90% respectable pour, btw. Still have some bubbles in the line however, hoping they subside overnight.

Click to expand...

I like my beer cold and carbby. I ended up with 15' of beer line @ 13 PSI on each tap to get a decent pour. I live in CO which doesnt help, but still.

I just spliced some extra line length in. It makes a HUGE difference and really is the only right way to go.

Good stuff on the insulation. I'm doing my bar project right now and actually will be doing something very similar to insulate the beer lines to where they are getting served from. Nice work.

So is it the consensus that the copper tubing does the job to keep the lines cold? i want to do something similar with my ceramic tower.

So far so good. Have two beers running icy cold through the lines. Had a regulator mishap last night - still undetermined reason - but the beer is cold, for sure.