Putting a collar on a mini fridge?

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
jmp138

jmp138

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
328
Reaction score
7
Location
Pittsboro, NC
So I've got my old mini fridge from college which I was planning on turning into a kegerator with a dual tap tower. I got my cornys and regulator, but they just won't fit, one fits fine but to get two and the co2 tank I'm going to need a few extra inches off the front. I was thinking that I could basically do a forward facing collar like you see on keezers, just have it come right off the front of the fridge.

Would this be as simple as building a wooden collar the dimensions of the front of the door, reattaching the door to the new wooden collar, and adding some insulation around the newly installed wood. This is my idea so I wouldn't have to buy a new fridge. Anybody got any ideas or helpful tutorials.

Thanks.
 
Look at my gallery.

Here's a pic from there. I converted a 3.6cf Magic Chef. Working on the tower to go through the wooden cuff. Then it will all get stained or painted with a hammer finnish to look like the frigde, not sure which.

Kegerator_side.jpg


That's 2x12 and I put casters inset on the bottom of the cuff so the front will roll.

It will now hold and serve 3 cornies plus CO2. I'm serving from it with picnic taps until the tower is finished. Also have a Johnson analog controller keeping it at a constant temp. Works like a champ, but changing kegs is a bit of a pain. Can't complain for free fridge and leftover lumber.

PS, I stole the idea from 2HeadsBrewing. Must give credit, I promised I would. Here is the thread where it was inititially presented.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/i-stole-twoheadsbrewings-idea-kegerator-92577/
 
I actually just started mine last night. It's not going to be a collar so much as a chamber. I basically built a box out of polystyrene that's 4 ft long by 2 ft wide and as tall as the mini fridge. The box is polystyrene on 5 sides and the 6th side is the mini fridge with the door taken off. The chamber is accessible by removing the top. I just fired it up with a kill-a-watt meter on it last night and a thermometer in it so I'm not sure how it'll run yet. I'll try to go take some pictures later tonight and give an update on what temperature it's running at and how much juice it's pulling.
 
As promised. Here's my ghetto fabulous lagerator:

DSC_0565_13761.JPG


DSC_0564_13751.JPG


DSC_0569_13801.JPG


The duct tape was just to hold everything in place while the adhesive set up. But I may leave it that way to add to the ghetto-fabulosity. I'm also debating adding a little circulator fan in there. There's a temperature gradient from one side to the other. It's about 34 in the actual fridge part and about 40-45 ish on the far end. I may leave it like that though...gives me some flexibility and I can have some at serving temperature and some at lagering temps. We'll see.

Oh and the last picture is the kill-a-watt meter. It's been almost 24 hours and about 1 kWh. I figure around $8 per month to run it.
 
PhlyanPan said:
As promised. Here's my ghetto fabulous lagerator:

DSC_0565_13761.JPG


DSC_0564_13751.JPG


DSC_0569_13801.JPG


The duct tape was just to hold everything in place while the adhesive set up. But I may leave it that way to add to the ghetto-fabulosity. I'm also debating adding a little circulator fan in there. There's a temperature gradient from one side to the other. It's about 34 in the actual fridge part and about 40-45 ish on the far end. I may leave it like that though...gives me some flexibility and I can have some at serving temperature and some at lagering temps. We'll see.

Oh and the last picture is the kill-a-watt meter. It's been almost 24 hours and about 1 kWh. I figure around $8 per month to run it.
Click to expand...

Sweet!

Have you considered another piece of foam, just big enough for your top opening, attached to the bottom of your lid? It would form a "cork" on the top.

How cool can you keep it?
 
Cpt_Kirks said:
Sweet!

Have you considered another piece of foam, just big enough for your top opening, attached to the bottom of your lid? It would form a "cork" on the top.
Click to expand...

Yes I have, I just haven't had a chance to get to the hardware store yet. But it's definitely in the plans. I may even put some weather stripping or something around it too.


Cpt_Kirks said:
How cool can you keep it?
Click to expand...

Well, inside the fridge part it's right around 32-34 ish. At the far end it's up to 40-45. I just propped the little freezer lid thing open last night so I'll check it when I get home today and see if that changes anything. If not, I may have to add a circulating fan or something to get the far end colder.
 
TeufelBrew said:
Look at my gallery.

Here's a pic from there. I converted a 3.6cf Magic Chef. Working on the tower to go through the wooden cuff. Then it will all get stained or painted with a hammer finnish to look like the frigde, not sure which.

Kegerator_side.jpg


That's 2x12 and I put casters inset on the bottom of the cuff so the front will roll.

It will now hold and serve 3 cornies plus CO2. I'm serving from it with picnic taps until the tower is finished. Also have a Johnson analog controller keeping it at a constant temp. Works like a champ, but changing kegs is a bit of a pain. Can't complain for free fridge and leftover lumber.

PS, I stole the idea from 2HeadsBrewing. Must give credit, I promised I would. Here is the thread where it was inititially presented.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/i-stole-twoheadsbrewings-idea-kegerator-92577/
Click to expand...

This might be a dumb suggestion (especially since i don't know the fridge model or have looked at the plans) but could you fit another corney by moving the co2 tank to the outside? It seems to me that you could run the gas line through part of the wooden collar and not have to worry about coolant lines. Maybe on the side where the door is hinged or something. I don't know if it would give you enough room, but it seems like it would be easy enough to do and if it let you fit another one then all the better...

Again, maybe it's dumb and i'm probably wrong, but still
 
PhlyanPan said:
If not, I may have to add a circulating fan or something to get the far end colder.
Click to expand...

I have seen some where they put a little computer "muffin" fan INSIDE the freezer compartment. The freezer is usually just a shell, anyway.

I even saw one where a guy attached some aluminum heatsinks to the freezer compartment, to get more surface area for the fan to blow across.
 
These are really great ideas, especially the ghetto lagerator. I'm a little surprised though, I figured those fridges would be engineered to barely keep the temp down on the original dimensions/design in order to keep prices down but apparently not. :rockin:
 
Cpt_Kirks said:
I have seen some where they put a little computer "muffin" fan INSIDE the freezer compartment. The freezer is usually just a shell, anyway.
Click to expand...

That's basically what I'm considering. Although, it's really not bad the way it is now. I have lagering temps at one end of the chamber, and serving temps at the other. It's kind of a good setup.



MikeG said:
I'm a little surprised though, I figured those fridges would be engineered to barely keep the temp down on the original dimensions/design in order to keep prices down but apparently not. :rockin:
Click to expand...

I was a little worried about that too when I decided to try it. But I figured the worst that could happen was I was out the cost of 3 sheets of polystyrene. I guess it's really a matter of insulation level. If the combined thermal resistance of my box is >/= the thermal resistance of the original door, then I'm good.
 
Quick update on the ghettorator. I propped the little freezer door open and basically it lowered the temperature in the whole thing by about 2 degrees. So we're now right about 30 inside the mini fridge 34-35 right at the edge and 40-42 at the far end. I think it's gonna work out perfect.

Oh, and we're coming up on 48 hours running and we're at about 1.8 kWh. At local rates here that's about 20 cents per day or $6 per month to run. Of course, it's winter and my basement is about 50 degrees at the moment so that'll go up a bit in the summertime. But I can always insulate it more too.
 
Donner said:
This might be a dumb suggestion (especially since i don't know the fridge model or have looked at the plans) but could you fit another corney by moving the co2 tank to the outside? It seems to me that you could run the gas line through part of the wooden collar and not have to worry about coolant lines. Maybe on the side where the door is hinged or something. I don't know if it would give you enough room, but it seems like it would be easy enough to do and if it let you fit another one then all the better...

Again, maybe it's dumb and i'm probably wrong, but still
Click to expand...

Dumb my A$$. Great question that I looked into myself. Not enough room and there is a shelf in the back to hide the compressor so it doesn't stick out the back. Allows for putting fridge back flush against a wall. Once I get tower built, I will run CO2 line and sensor for temp controller through the wooden cuff.
 
I was thinking more about this today. I think you could put a small pipe or something through the wood, which would allow for a 90 degree elbow and a quick disconnect. This would allow you to keep the line up close to the fridge when in use and another quick disconnect on the inside would mean you wouldn't have to worry about the tubing pull on either inside or outside when you go to open the door.

Again, might be dumb, but i think it would make it look prettier .
 

Similar threads

J
Fermentation chamber doubling as keezer?
Replies
7
Views
1K
Geezer-Glide
G
jmstone617
Removing temp control box from mini fridge
Replies
2
Views
517
jmstone617
jmstone617
O
Upgrading a 5cf keezer from 2 taps to 3 taps
Replies
9
Views
1K
Yesfan
Yesfan
P
Keezer wooden lid
Replies
11
Views
1K
Deadalus
Deadalus
sadbuttrue1982
Need help with keezer part list
Replies
18
Views
1K
Yesfan
Yesfan
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top