We are building a house and I have a 6'x8' walk-in cooler installed with 4" double steel-sided insulated panels. We are about to close the walls and need to finalize how I'm running the faucets through the cooler wall and the 2x4 backing stud wall which serves as the bar backsplash. Going to have 3 taps total. The bar backsplash will be sheetrock with tile. A recessed drip tray with glass rinser will be mounted in the countertop below faucets.
Searching if anyone has a setup similar and what they ended up going with. I see three options:
1. have something like this fabricated https://www.pinterest.com/pin/73183562678751278/ and run a single large hole through the cooler wall, insulate around the pipe extending through the stud wall, mount the fabricated unit to wood backer with tile and sheetrock behind. This seems like the best solution, of course most expensive, as it eliminates the concern of securing beer shanks through the walls.
2. The taps would be mounted directly to the tile wall. Run individual 2" PVC pipe thru cooler wall and stud wall with beer shank(s) in the middle, pipe insulation around PVC and insulation around that. My thought is that any condensation would occur around the shank and inside the PVC pipe which would have some air-cooling from the cooler. This is the preferred solution as it provides lowest profile faucets and takes up the least counter space via the drip tray, but the problem is how to attach the beer shank. You can't really screw it down when it's 4-6" inside the pipe. The shank nut would have to be against the wood backer that holds the faucets.
2a. An alternative is to use 4" PVC pipe to allow room to tighten the shank nuts but then it seems you might as well use a shadowbox
3. use a shadowbox but then I am concerned about condensation inside the stud wall as well as resale of the house if Mormons buy the place after us.
I have attached schematic of the cooler/bar plus a sketch of the bar cabinets. The red circle is where the taps will go.
Appreciate any feedback!
Searching if anyone has a setup similar and what they ended up going with. I see three options:
1. have something like this fabricated https://www.pinterest.com/pin/73183562678751278/ and run a single large hole through the cooler wall, insulate around the pipe extending through the stud wall, mount the fabricated unit to wood backer with tile and sheetrock behind. This seems like the best solution, of course most expensive, as it eliminates the concern of securing beer shanks through the walls.
2. The taps would be mounted directly to the tile wall. Run individual 2" PVC pipe thru cooler wall and stud wall with beer shank(s) in the middle, pipe insulation around PVC and insulation around that. My thought is that any condensation would occur around the shank and inside the PVC pipe which would have some air-cooling from the cooler. This is the preferred solution as it provides lowest profile faucets and takes up the least counter space via the drip tray, but the problem is how to attach the beer shank. You can't really screw it down when it's 4-6" inside the pipe. The shank nut would have to be against the wood backer that holds the faucets.
2a. An alternative is to use 4" PVC pipe to allow room to tighten the shank nuts but then it seems you might as well use a shadowbox
3. use a shadowbox but then I am concerned about condensation inside the stud wall as well as resale of the house if Mormons buy the place after us.
I have attached schematic of the cooler/bar plus a sketch of the bar cabinets. The red circle is where the taps will go.
Appreciate any feedback!
