Mini Fridge Kegerator Conversion/A little different

[Adeering]

So started my conversion the other day and ordered most the parts, still working on finding some cheap kegs and CO2 tank but have some time before my next batch is ready for kegging (its a lager i did last friday so has awhile).

Im using a Sunbeam BC-130D (which is kinda funny cause i fly C-130s for a living and laughed a little when i saw the model number) that I got off craigslist with magic chef minifridge, both for $50, good deal. Heres a pic off the internet pre modification. Ill post more as progress progresses.

The Plan: Kits cost too much so decided to save about $50 and piece everything together myself and build a tower on my own. Just ordered all the lines, fittings, faucets, connectors, etc today.

As you can see in the pic the temp control and light are dead center right where i wanted to drill the hole for the tower, so I took it off and removed the light, makes a perfect cavity to drill a hole and leave the controller where it is. Drilled a small hole from the inside out cause the top was a ***** to get off at a really slow pace to check for lines, dont think there are any in the lid so pretty sure im safe.

For the tower planning to take some PVC 3" pipe and create a simple tower painted black to match the fridge. Might do something crazy later but right now that will do.

Total Cost of all the parts minus the kegs, regulator and CO2 as I havent purchased those yet:

$100.06 + cost of PVC and paint, picking that up today but should be around $10-$15 bucks max. With a regulator around $40 that saves me $50 bucks and I just have to drill some holes in pvc and paint it, otherwise no harder than a kit.

Next Problem is making 2 pin lock kegs fit, its 18" across without the rails so going to be tight but i should be able to make it work

 

[Tinga]

are you going to put the air outside the fridge?

 

[Adeering]

Im going to try and put the CO2 inside, but well see once I get all the equipment if I need to put it outside

 

[Adeering]

So should get the parts for everything tomorrow, finally found some kegs on ebay that were worth buying at $33/keg shipped which isnt bad. The last item Im trying to get is a regulator and then it will be ready. Luckily the only brew I have right now is a lager that still needs 5 weeks in the fermenter so no rush. Which is good cause I have a research paper due sunday, girlfriends birthday sunday, superbowl sunday so this weekend Im probably not going to get to working on it

 

[Adeering]

Update today, I got my kegs and tap handles in this week

so went ahead and made it so the kegs could fit, I went with pin lock kegs so had to do some modification. I trimed off the shelving ledge

it still wasnt quite enough so then i cut a small section out of the hump in the back so i could slide it in.

Both kegs fit, now just have to wait for the CO2 tank and regulator to come next week.

 

[Adeering]

Got some work done on the kegerator, drilled the full size hole, at 2-1/4", just big enough for the lines we are going to run to chill it. And got the tap handle holes drilled in the PVC pipe for the tower

 

[fishanhunt]

That's looking good. Good idea on the PVC.

 

[Adeering]

The next step is we are waiting for two tubes to come in so we can make the lines cooled, heres a quick paint of the idea.

What is going to happen is we have a couple tubes inside each other and a fan on the inside of the fridge, the fan will blow cold air from the fridge through the inner most tube which has the beer lines in it, at the top of that tube will be open and there will be an outer tube for the warm air to get pushed out of and back down into the cold refrigerator to get cooled. then surrounded with insulation inbetween the tube and pvc pipe.

 

[Adeering]

Update, got the tower painted, painted in the tap labels

The label spots are white epoxy, the plan is to use either permanent (can be erased by writing over it with dry erase and then wiping off) or dry erase markers to write the current brew on tap

Got a project box with a fan installed and wired inside the fridge, will post pictures later when we get it together

 

[AnchorBock]

Looking good. Im about to attempt a similar project and will need to trim quite a bit from each side wall, did you just use a utility knife?

 

[Adeering]

I started with a dremel tool but that was taking awhile and i broke to disc, so i then switched to a utility knife, worked pretty good. The only thing I would recommend is to have a spare blade, by the end the tip of mine was really dull and made it pretty hard to do the last few rails.

 

[Adeering]

Finally finished the kegerator and just in time cause have a beer to keg tomorrow.

So first we got the fan installed and it blows cold air from the fridge up through the black tubing, which has the beer lines in it and and it gets returned down the outside back into the fridge to get cooled again. Heres the pic of the fridge and tower with the lines:

and the tower:

kinda hard to see, but there are two tubes in there an inner one which holds the beer lines and an outer one that the air flows back down into the fridge

now with everything in it:

and one last picture

The white squares ended up being some whiteboard stickers i found online, so I can write whats on tap for each handle.

 

[geepmaley]

How old does is get? I have one and was thinking of making the conversion, but from what I remember when I used it as a wine fridge, it didn't get below 45 or so? Did you by pass the internal thermostat with an external to get it to go colder?

 

[Adeering]

Mine easily get down to around 35F on around 5 setting. Im using a temp controller but not bypassing the thermostat. I have it set at 41 and have no problem holding that temp

 

[geepmaley]

Cool. Mine has been sitting in the garage collecting dust for sometime now and my frigidaire FRC445 has decided it doesn't want to cool anymore, so this could be the fix for my recent kegerator woes

 

[Adeering]

Read my thread, if you are trying to fit two kegs in there it will need some modification. Ball locks might fit, but im using pin locks

 

[geepmaley]

I dry fitted two ball locks. Don't seem to be a problem. Main concern is cooling low enough and getting the tower on without messing up anything in the top.

Couldn't tell from the build, but what did you do with the light/thermo/switch setup when you drilled through the top?

 

[Adeering]

I took out the light part of the thermostat and drilled where it was, so my hole is right in front of the thermostat.

There are some wires that run through the top, but I couldnt tell if there was any cooling lines, did the water test to see if it got hot and didnt seem like there was any

 

[geepmaley]

I took out the light part of the thermostat and drilled where it was, so my hole is right in front of the thermostat.

There are some wires that run through the top, but I couldnt tell if there was any cooling lines, did the water test to see if it got hot and didnt seem like there was any

What water test?

Also, what did you do with the light? Just cut it off? Trying to visualize

 

[Adeering]

Water test: spray some water on the top, turn it on and wait, see if parts evaporate quicker then others, because the lines are hot if there are any the water above them will evaporate quicker.

I took the thermostat/light piece off from the top and unhooked the light, pretty easy the connections just pull off (later I used the connections for a fan but thats extra stuff)

 

[geepmaley]

Water test: spray some water on the top, turn it on and wait, see if parts evaporate quicker then others, because the lines are hot if there are any the water above them will evaporate quicker.

I took the thermostat/light piece off from the top and unhooked the light, pretty easy the connections just pull off (later I used the connections for a fan but thats extra stuff)

Gotcha. Kind of like the cornstarch and vodka test. Didn't think that would work on plastic as much. Did you remove the plastic top? Didnt remember a pic of that.

Do you have a pic of the inside of the fridge showing your feedthrough for the tower a little better?

How did you mount the concentric pipes for cooling? so that they dont drop into the fridge? Also, what material are they?

 

[Adeering]

They are just some flexible pvc, but truthfully I would go with something else if I did it again, they are too stiff, didnt need to mount them as the are kinda tacky and stick to the sides, they dont slide easy.

The wider of the two is the length of the tower and goes just to the opening into the fridge, the inner one goes from the fan up to the top of the tower

 

[Beertime]

I was just gifted this same fridge and was wondering how yours is holding up? Is it worth converting ?