I Stole TwoHeadsBrewing's Idea for kegerator!!!

Actually I did ask him questions first and said I'd credit him with the original idea, so...

Thanks!

I received a free 3.6cf Magic Chef fridge. Couldn't figure out how to make it work right for kegger. Had the heigth, just not deep enough to hold much. Wandering through some threads and see a vertical collar of plywood on a small fridge like mine. Hmmmm...







It's working now and has Mamawants Marzen force carbing. First lager and it was damned good! I'll get the other two racked to kegs and force carbed this weekend for TAP beer over Xmas!

Planning to sand the collar and caulk the joint between collar and fridge unit. I'll seal then paint with hammer look black paint. Inside will be sealed with marine varnish and another caulk seam inside. Eventually put 3 faucet tower coming out of the wood so I don't have to look for condesor lines in frige walls.

Love the McGuyver aspect of brewing!

haha genius!!! i can't beieve no one ever thoug of this. A bit odd looking but a little black paint will do you good. Looks great/ How does it keep to temperature?

oh dont forget to add some insulation to that colar. if you made it 17" deep you could fit 3 corneys or a corney and a carboy for laggering cold crashing. didnt think about putting the door back on mine. i ned to still build the wood portion of mine then ill use the door. ;-)

scinerd3000 said:

haha genius!!! i can't beieve no one ever thoug of this. A bit odd looking but a little black paint will do you good. Looks great/ How does it keep to temperature?

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I did this about 2 months ago actually. Done almost exactly the same way. I used a Sanyo fridge and poplar wood. I was able to use the stock mounting holes for the door to attach the wood.

This is not my kegerator though, this is my fermentation fridge. If you try to run something like this at fridge temps for long periods of time, you are going to burn it out. I do use it to cold crash but, I tape the temperature sensor to the side of the keg so this causes the fridge to cycle much less. It takes a lot less effort to keep a carboy of beer cool than it does to maintain a constant ambient air temp inside.

noremorse1 said:

If you try to run something like this at fridge temps for long periods of time, you are going to burn it out.

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Actually no. Cycles slowly and keeps around 45F quite easily now. I have the temp controller coming and it will help keeping compressor cycling to a minimum.

The 2x12 does a good job insulating and I mounted the 3 way manifold on the side and can get the CO2 on back shelf and three full cornies with lines attached in. Looking to put dry erase board on inside of door. Will help with the seal and provide nice place to hold picnic taps and label what they are.

I had always thought that wood is not the best insulator. I built a box around my fridge using 3" think insulating foam sheets. I would suggest that if you do run into troubles holding temp, try lining the inside with 1/2" thick foam sheets.

celtic_dude said:

I had always thought that wood is not the best insulator. I built a box around my fridge using 3" think insulating foam sheets. I would suggest that if you do run into troubles holding temp, try lining the inside with 1/2" thick foam sheets.

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If I do that, I have to change the base of the collar to a thinner material. It was measured and cut to create a smooth transition from fridge to collar with no change in heigth. Makes getting cornies in and out easier if there is nothing to catch on.

If I have problems on down the road, I will look into a different base and insulation. Have some sheet steel I could cover the insulation with and have one continuous surface for kegs to rest/slide on.

YES! Nice work...but dammit your setup is nicer than mine! Actually, my kegerator duties have been moved to my stand-up freezer. My mini fridge will be taking over fermentation chamber duty as soon as I finish the enclosure. Anyhoo, great job...post some more pics of the finished product, and of course send me some homebrew for using my idea!!! JK, you don't have to (but you should)...JK, unless you want to send me some? Just chat up BigKahuna he'll tell you I'll send some nice brew back at ya!

Temp controller is here, but I'm puzzled on the best way to get the probe to the inside wtihout kinking the tubbing. Open to any and all thoughts/suggestions on how best to get the probe inside and where to place it.

TeufelBrew said:

Actually no. Cycles slowly and keeps around 45F quite easily now. I have the temp controller coming and it will help keeping compressor cycling to a minimum.

The 2x12 does a good job insulating and I mounted the 3 way manifold on the side and can get the CO2 on back shelf and three full cornies with lines attached in. Looking to put dry erase board on inside of door. Will help with the seal and provide nice place to hold picnic taps and label what they are.

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Yeah... I believe I mentioned that a temperature controller will help above, it is what I use.

I guess you lucked out that it is not cycling that much. I have never run mine without a temperature controller. Also, I did not go with 2x12s, I used 2x8s. Surprised that you maintain that type of efficiency. How often does it cycle?

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but I had a few questions for the OP and his PM box was full. . .Hopefully he will see this.

How did you get the collar to attach to the fridge? How did you seal it? Can it be removed?

How did you get the height just right to fit so the floors were even?

I'm not the OP, but I can see the answer to two of those questions in the pic I think... On the top of the fridge there's a strip of metal that appears to be bolted to the fridge side and the 2x12 side. I imagine there are four of those metal strips, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom. As for sealing, that yellow stuff is expanding spray foam. One brand name for it is "The Right Stuff" I think. Careful with that stuff, it's really sticky and will ruin clothing/floors/etc when it's wet, and it expands A LOT. They sell different versions that expand different amounts. Hope that helps.

Frodo said:

I'm not the OP, but I can see the answer to two of those questions in the pic I think... On the top of the fridge there's a strip of metal that appears to be bolted to the fridge side and the 2x12 side. I imagine there are four of those metal strips, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom. As for sealing, that yellow stuff is expanding spray foam. One brand name for it is "The Right Stuff" I think. Careful with that stuff, it's really sticky and will ruin clothing/floors/etc when it's wet, and it expands A LOT. They sell different versions that expand different amounts. Hope that helps.

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Yeah, I saw the metal strips, and I guess those would work on mine as well, given that there is a door mount screwhole in each of the four corners of the fridge.

As for sealing, I'm thinking maybe putting some type of stripping in would be more effective than the expanding spray foam, but I'm not sure.

Mainly, I'm wondering how to get them to line up properly. I'm thinking putting some adjustable screw "feet" on the underside of the wooden collar, so that each corner could be adjusted (like the feet that come on appliances). Not sure if I could find those easily or not.

I think I've seen those before in the good hardware stores that have a lot of miscellaneous parts.