Kegerator keg emptyness meter?

[mysteryberto]

I've been looking online trying to find some way to measure the amount of beer left in the kegs in my kegerator. The closest thing I could find was the draft beer measuring system.
http://www.kegworks.com/product.php?productid=21393&cat=772&page=1

However at $80 it's expensive and only measures one keg. What's more it only is accurate plus or minus ten beers and can fail to read right if serving pressure is too low.

So I was thinking that the weight of a full corney is about 50lbs. Why not instead have scales under each corny connected to a digital controller and displayed outside the kegerator? I'm lost as far as what electronics and scales I would need to do this. Or if it's even feasible.

 

[Jamo99]

If you pull the keg out of the kegerator for a minute, the condensation will only form as high as the beer level inside the keg. That should give you the same, if not better, estimate than +/- 10 beers. You could also get a tare weight of your empty keg and just put it on a bathroom scale. Figure out your beer's weight per volume and you could measure down to the fluid ounce depending on your scale.

Definately can think of more than a few things that I woul rather spend 80 bucks on than that gizmo.

 

[BrewBeemer]

Just lift the keg up an inch and compare the weight difference vs an empty keg, a simple fast and free test.

 

[Bobby_M]

I like the digital scale idea but only because it's highly over engineered and expensive for what it does for you.

 

[denimglen]

If you pull the keg out of the kegerator for a minute, the condensation will only form as high as the beer level inside the keg...

There's a product the MoreBeer sell that works on this principle.

It is like a reuseable stick on fermenter thermometer - stick it to the side of the keg, wipe with a warm, damp cloth, and it shows the level of beer in the keg.

The only problem with the above is that you need to have your kegs at around 4 - 5C to get a reading, most of the time my kegerator is set at 10C so it doesn't really work that well.

 

[popeiam]

you could try one of these when they get them in stock

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdBySubCat.aspx?SubCat=11075

 

[jimmypager]

I've bought a couple digital bathroom scales at the thrift store for a couple of bucks a piece for this exact purpose.

I haven't had a chance to play around with them though...I suspect their may be issues with them power cycling or re-zeroing (?) but it may be as simple as extending the lcd display out to where it is visible.

It certainly wouldn't be expensive but you'd only have probably +/- .5 lbs resolution but that would be better than +/- 10 beers.