decision on commercial upright 2 glass door fridge for kegerator

[RRL]

So I got a line up on a new fridge I'm thinking to convert to a keg fridge.


Its one of those commercial double sliding glass door fridges. it's fairly new.


I currently use a bev air under counter 3 door fridge with a tower I Put in however it's constantly getting condensation all around the doors (replaced gaskets and still no help) long story short it would need to be re insulated and it's an older fridge. id keep it if I would put it in my garage and just let it go it's course but no room in there.

I'm not sure on a few things...

Electricity cost. any worse or better than the bev air 3 door fridge i got.

should I just pass and find a proper keg fridge with a built in tower and not ruin this one by putting holes in the side wall.


If I do end up using it. do I have to worry about any cooling or electrical wires / lines on the sidewall I would put the taps.

Heck I'm half tempted to rig up a tap system inside the fridge so I don't have to put any holes in it so if I do end up wanting to go a different route it's not ruined to other potential buyers... not sure if that would be an ideal route if I kept opening the doors on heavy use days/nights


I'm looking for your opinions on this one as I'm on the fence on what to do

I should add I usually have a max off 2 50l kegs tapped at a time. I don't usually buy corneys

 

[RRL]

This is the current fridge I got which is starting to have condensation build up around it

This is the fridge I can get basically given to me. its a 2 sliding glass door. fairly new

 

[JohnSand]

Before I converted my keg fridge, I just used picnic taps and opened the door for a fill. That works great for one drinker, at a party it might cause condensation and warming. Could you open one door and fill in the space with an insulated panel that holds the taps?

 

[mongoose33]

How were you planning on using the new refrigerator? Looks like you might just get two kegs in there, as opposed to the current three.

Now, one advantage might be in having two kegs in the bottom of the fridge and leaving shelves for bottles and cans and whatnot above.

A question: what do you mean by "condensation is starting to form"? Where? Around the doors? Might be worth running that one down.

 

[RRL]

@JohnSand - I looked at a few pictures of people mounting their taps inside the fridge using some wood to make up a stand. Looked good but as you mentioned warming the fridge up can cause some issues there too. I think my solution to that would be just filling a team pitcher that has that ice tube in the middle or just a regular sized pitcher to prevent opening the fridge constantly. But even then... I'm still on the fence as I dont like the idea needing to constantly open it. Im not sure how the fridge would operate if I did separate the halves.

@mongoose33 - I'd be using the new one for mainly just beer wine pop juice ect... I never really keep 3 kegs on hand anymore. Im lucky enough to even get 1 now and then as it is mainly due to the upfront cost of beer / kegs. $226-250 per keg.

The bev air I got now is getting condensation built up around the doors. Mostly in the summer... I tested a new gasket on the middle door and it didnt make any difference. I'm also getting condensation around the floor (outside of the fridge) my solution was to just run it and put a rubber mat under it to catch any water dripping to prevent floor damage. But at this point, I wouldn't mind downsizing to something that can only hold 2 50L kegs. The extra space to store drinks / beer is always a bonus for sure though.

The new fridge im looking at has wheels, its an upright (more storage room) newer and I dont think I will have to worry about any condensation. (its more so going to get given to me) I'd just be loosing on the look of a fridge with a tower (which I will surely miss)

Heck Im even considering just getting 2 separate mini fridges (permitting they each fit a 50L keg. Would be at the cost of no room to store any other beer though.

Heck I just put this one back in commission for a single keg I got as I didnt get the rubber mat for the bev air unit yet and dont want to damage my laminate flooring I just installed with the condensation dripping from the fridge

 

[North_of_60]

You may be able to mount the taps on the side. It looks like there is room for three taps. My kegerator has three taps over a 10 inch drip tray similar to RRL’s

 

[RRL]

@North_of_60 Ideally I dont overly want to tap holes in the new fridge im looking at getting. for re sale purposes down the road mainly as their not really a common fridge to make a kegerator out of.


Guess I kind of made up my mind to just build a internal tap bracket... if it doesnt work or causes too much heat ect.. i could just sell it.

 

[North_of_60]

Ya, once you cut holes for the taps it’s a dedicated kegerator. We used to own a coffee shop and I priced that type of refrigerator. I don’t remember how much they sold for but I do remember they were a lot higher than I was willing to pay. If it doesn’t work out as is, you could probably sell it for enough to build a nice kegerator.

 

[RRL]

Yeap! pretty well what i'm thinking!



Thanks for all your ideas / help.... guess ill just have to find out myself on how its going to act getting the door opened ect...

 

[RRL]

Well got around to cleaning it up. just need to rig up my internal tap mount made of wood and I'll transfer my keg over.

I'll also be adding a piece of plywood or something on the floor so I don't ding it up

 

[Calfj60]

Know this an old thread but what did you end up deciding to do? I’m looking at options now. I do like the looks of the commercial glass door “cooler” style

 

[Gonefishin]

I got a good deal on this one. It lives in our garage. We have a big family and the extra fridge space comes in handy a lot. My alternative would have been a beer fridge and a second household fridge. It works great for us. I just need to keep more kegs in it.

 

[Calfj60]

Very cool, I would have been worried about drilling into that though.

 

[RRL]

Know this an old thread but what did you end up deciding to do? I’m looking at options now. I do like the looks of the commercial glass door “cooler” style

I ended up not wanting to drill any holes in it. I don't stock more then 1 keg anymore usually (the big 50L kegs) so I kept my through door single tap fridge for kegs when I do have one. If I did end up with a 2nd keg i'd rig it up in my glass door fridge on a picnic tap or run a tap through a small wood fixture to hold it in place.


Its a nice beer fridge with the added space for extra room for any food and what not esp when you have visit down.

 

[kh54s10]

I would put up some form of insulated wall on the keg side, to attach faucets to, so that when the door was opened to pour a beer all the cold air didn't come pouring out.

 

[RRL]

I would put up some form of insulated wall on the keg side, to attach faucets to, so that when the door was opened to pour a beer all the cold air didn't come pouring out.

These fridges are pretty efficient at getting back to proper temps quickly. I could maybe see a potential issue if you had a group of people constantly opening up the door one after the other and holding it open to pour a glass but even then...

if it came to the point with the door always being opened and it wasnt getting back to temp before being opened again i'd just pour the beer into a party pitcher (has a tube in the middle for ice to keep it cold) for people to serve themselves from and just refill that. Otherwise its no different then opening the door to grab a bottled beer. I use that party pitcher fairly often in the summer months when I have a fire so im not running back and forth to the fridge for a refill

 

[kh54s10]

These fridges are pretty efficient at getting back to proper temps quickly. I could maybe see a potential issue if you had a group of people constantly opening up the door one after the other and holding it open to pour a glass but even then...

if it came to the point with the door always being opened and it wasnt getting back to temp before being opened again i'd just pour the beer into a party pitcher (has a tube in the middle for ice to keep it cold) for people to serve themselves from and just refill that. Otherwise its no different then opening the door to grab a bottled beer. I use that party pitcher fairly often in the summer months when I have a fire so im not running back and forth to the fridge for a refill

Probably OK that way. But you still dump a lot of cold air. It takes power to cool it back down. It also takes quite a bit longer to pour a beer than to grab a bottle. If you are mostly using it alone it might not be worth the time to construct an insulated barrier. But it would give you something to mount taps to.

 

[RRL]

yea if you wanted something more permanent and to keep it more efficient it would probably be worthwhile rigging it up as you mention (if you didnt want to put holes through it for taps)

I know this fridge is much more efficent then my bev air 3 door underbar fridge but its also much newer which helps.

 

[Gonefishin]

Very cool, I would have been worried about drilling into that though.

The sides are insulated panels. All of the refrigeration is above and below the cooler box. The only drawback may be that the fan runs all the time to circulate the air inside. Mine lives in the garage so I don't hear it. That might be a concern for others.

 

[RRL]

yeap mine has a full time running fan as well no different then the bev air bar fridge I had.

They can be somewhat noisy. but its not that bad. mines in my basement that has a unfinished ceiling. I can hear it upstairs if I listen for it. once i get a floating ceiling in, it should fully muffle it though