Something we all need, a one cornie kegger with four taps (upgradeable to six)! The old kegger was dying, so I purchased a 5 cu ft freezer and built a collar. At the same time, I wasn't really happy with the condensation problem in the conditioning cabinet. The Magic Kegger is the result. I opted for rotating the freezer a quarter turn and putting the taps on the side. This lets me load and unload without lifting over the taps & maybe banging them. The indentation in the collar is in the latex spray foam and conforms to the lid. Latex foam is flexible, even when cured.
The conditioning cabinet is connected via three ports: an intake, an outlet and a hose access. You can see the snoots, fans and regulators. The temperature controller (not visible) was rewired to a power bar. Both the freezer and the power supply for the fans are plugged in. This restricts fan operation to those times when the kegger proper needs cooling. I may change that, depending on how the temperatures look. I have a min-max digital thermometer in each unit.
I'm waiting for the cabinet to cool down before connecting the other lines. The kegger has room for three cornies, so I'll be able to lager in it. Right now, there's just the soda water and some grain. I'm hoping for 50F in the cabinet. If necessary, I have an old A/C thermometer that can handle the fan current.
I am experimenting with the location of the controller's probe. Conventional wisdom says to put it in some water to reduce cycling. So far, it looks like I get better stability (within 2F measured by the min-max) by pinning it between the wall and the CO2 tank. Trying it the standard way, the temperature was under-shooting by 4-5F. I'm trying to maintain 35F (offset 2F) right now and I was getting sub-freezing temperatures. Probably due to the extra refrigerant in the lines when the compressor shut off. It doesn't seem to run much either way, so we'll see how it goes.
The conditioning cabinet is connected via three ports: an intake, an outlet and a hose access. You can see the snoots, fans and regulators. The temperature controller (not visible) was rewired to a power bar. Both the freezer and the power supply for the fans are plugged in. This restricts fan operation to those times when the kegger proper needs cooling. I may change that, depending on how the temperatures look. I have a min-max digital thermometer in each unit.
I'm waiting for the cabinet to cool down before connecting the other lines. The kegger has room for three cornies, so I'll be able to lager in it. Right now, there's just the soda water and some grain. I'm hoping for 50F in the cabinet. If necessary, I have an old A/C thermometer that can handle the fan current.
I am experimenting with the location of the controller's probe. Conventional wisdom says to put it in some water to reduce cycling. So far, it looks like I get better stability (within 2F measured by the min-max) by pinning it between the wall and the CO2 tank. Trying it the standard way, the temperature was under-shooting by 4-5F. I'm trying to maintain 35F (offset 2F) right now and I was getting sub-freezing temperatures. Probably due to the extra refrigerant in the lines when the compressor shut off. It doesn't seem to run much either way, so we'll see how it goes.