DIY beer line chiller

My taps are in my bar and my keezer is on the other side of a wall in a storage closet. I needed to come up with an inexpensive way to keep 12 feet of beer line for 3 taps cold. My design uses a small 12v DC pump recirculating water through a copper coil at the bottom of my keezer, then pipe insulation along with my beer lines. It drops the temp inside the insulation to about 48 degrees.

My parts list is as followed.
1 inch foam pipe insulation without the slit long enough to get from my keezer to my taps.
5 pieces of 3/8 poly line longer then the insulation.
10 feet of 3/8 copper tubing.
1 foot of 1/2 inch vinyl tubing.
2 1/2 inch grommets.
A small plastic jar with a threaded top. I used an old spice jar.
A 12v DC pump i used this one http://cgi.ebay.com/DC-12V-Mini-Electric-Water-Coffee-Pump-24-GPH-P-25A-/250805328521?_trksid=p5197.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%252BDDSIC%26otn%3D10%26pmod%3D110662488786%252B260768908354%252B260382430473%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8619324347390098613#ht_3175wt_1051
7v DC power supply
I used 4 90 degree and 1 coupler 3/8 john guest fittings.

I started by arranging the poly lines so the 2 water lines where in the middle of the beer lines and lightly taped them in a bundle. Then i pushed the bundle through the insulation and routed the insulated bundle from my keezer to my tap tower. I used 2 of the 90 degree fittings to loop the water lines inside the tower. Then inside the keezer i put another 90 to direct the line down and pushed the 3/8 line inside a short piece of 1/2 vinyl line that got inserted into the grommet in the plastic lid. After that i ran another piece of the 1/2 vinyl tubing out of the grommet in the bottom of the plastic jar and clamped it onto the pump. The outlet on the pump is a 1/4 inch barb i used a short piece of 3/8 poly tubing and coupled it onto the 10 foot 3/8 copper coil. I connected the other end of the copper coil to the other poly water line to complete the loop. The final step is to wire the transformer to the pump and prime all the lines.





My third keg was not in for the pic. When the third keg is in it presses the copper coil up against the wall, that helps get the coil nice and cold.

This seems like a great solution to me. What temperature do you keep your keezer? just wondering what the delta is between the keg temp and serving temp. Also, do you have a shot of the pump? can't quite see it in the first picture.

I need a solution for my own towers but don't need to go quite as far. I'm trying to decide whether to go Coffin or cooled lines. Since it's going to be mounted on a bar that's already fairly high I would rather go with cooled lines than add height with a coffin.


Good stuff!
Sláinte

My keezer kicks on at 36 and off at 40, basement temp fluctuates around 60 degrees. That temp is the temp inside the insulation all my beer lines are tightly wraped around the water lines. I imagine the actual temp of the beer in the lines could be a few degrees colder because of the direct contact to the water lines.

What pump did you use...sounds awesome!

This one
http://cgi.ebay.com/DC-12V-Mini-Electric-Water-Coffee-Pump-24-GPH-P-25A-/250805328521?_trksid=p5197.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%252BDDSIC%26otn%3D10%26pmod%3D110662488786%252B260768908354%252B260382430473%26po%3DLVI%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D8619324347390098613#ht_3175wt_1051
for some reason it didnt show in the first post. I originally hooked it up to a 12v transformer but it was pumping the water to fast to get it cold. I changed it to a 7v transformer and that worked alot better.