kegerator tower cooling power supply

Hi all,

I'm planning on building a Sanyo/Danby kegerator, and I'm wondering about the tower cooling.
Many insist on some sort of air pump from a CPU fan to avoid foaming. How do people power this? Is it easy to tap into the fridge power, or do people drill a secondary hole out the back to hide the extra power cord?

OR
Is there a nice way that avoids the need for a fan?

When I had a small fridge for my kegerator (upgrated to a full side-by-side kegerator to fit 4 kegs/taps and room for my CO2 and another keg for aging/lagering) I used a fan and put it in a speaker box and powered it with a AC adapter and ran the cord through the hole already supplied for the cooling tubes running out the back. Worked great was easy to hide and did just what I needed it to. Good luck and if you need more info/help feel free to message me.

I built a tower cooler using a 40mm computer fan powered by a cheap DC wall-wart. It's in a keezer, there's no accessible power from the inside, so I ran the wire through the back edge of the lid. A fridge unit may well have a power source you can tap into in the temperature control unit.

fwiw, a passive cooling alternative is being discussed in this thread...

Cheers!

PS, if you have the room for a full size fridge I highly recommend you just start with a full fridge and get the fridge off Craigslist(got a side-by-side for $50 and all of it works great!). No tower for your spouts, extra room for lagering or more kegs. Just some advice.

hmmmbeer: Sadly, I'm in a shared college house - starting small until I eventually have a garage to fill with my contraptions.

"the hole already supplied for the cooling tubes running out the back."
Is this standard?

I have a two tap tower and have copper piping that I run the lines through. Just let the copper pipe stay about 2-3 inches into the fridge and it will keep it cool. Then put some sort of insulator in there, I stuffed mine with newspaper. It works great.

smmcdermott said:

I have a two tap tower and have copper piping that I run the lines through. Just let the copper pipe stay about 2-3 inches into the fridge and it will keep it cool. Then put some sort of insulator in there, I stuffed mine with newspaper. It works great.

Click to expand...

That is what I did. Copper pipes. Foam pipe-wrap and blue insulation in the coffin box. Beautiful pours.

B

discoross said:

"the hole already supplied for the cooling tubes running out the back."
Is this standard?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure about "standard" but the one I used and most of the ones I looked at had it. The hole in the back ran the condenser and supplied the copper tubes into the "freezer" section. Warning, the area that you will push the power line through is a tight fit so I had to snip the end that plugs into the fan (make sure you cut it 6" or so so you can strip the wire back reconnect them afer its through the fridge and shrink wrap the wires back to new) It sounds harder than it is but its very simple. Also, the tubing idea is a good option but I never tried it. I would use the foaming type insulation you get in a can rather the newspart). Just a thought.

Put a fan in your kegerator to ensure equal colling in your chamber. If you don't you can experience +/- 7 degrees difference top to bottom of your keg. That will affect your pour. I used a cell phone charger hooked up to a simple fan. Works awesome. Cheap, too.
http://www.sciplus.com/singleItem.cfm/terms/1894



Also, put copper tubes around your lines, and up into your tower. Wrap this with foil tape before you install completely.

This is what I did, and at most, first pour of the day I get half pint foam in a 100F garage, then the rest is good stuff.

http://www.towercooler.com/

I think i may give this a try.

smmcdermott said:

I have a two tap tower and have copper piping that I run the lines through. Just let the copper pipe stay about 2-3 inches into the fridge and it will keep it cool. Then put some sort of insulator in there, I stuffed mine with newspaper. It works great.

Click to expand...

I'm probably going to try this route first (with foam), since it seems easier to start with copper than add it later. Somewhere in that PVC tower cooling thread someone mentions that Sanyo fridge air temps aren't enough to keep the copper cold all the way up since the cold part is at the back at the bottom or something.
This is all assuming I can finally find a freezerless fridge on craigslist

discoross said:

I'm probably going to try this route first (with foam), since it seems easier to start with copper than add it later. Somewhere in that PVC tower cooling thread someone mentions that Sanyo fridge air temps aren't enough to keep the copper cold all the way up since the cold part is at the back at the bottom or something.
This is all assuming I can finally find a freezerless fridge on craigslist

Click to expand...

I ended up bending my freezer tray (don't cut it off, its how the whole fridge is cooled) back and made it flush with the back. I'm not sure what thread it was but if you mix corn starch/baking soda with alcohol (make it a paste like consistancy) and spread it over the top (thin coat) and let it dry a bit and it will show where the cooling lines are on the top. The lines will dry the area faster than the other so just mark it and avoid those areas when you drill.