Drilling from the inside. Smart.
And I'm going to steal your access hole location.
You elevated it from a nice build to beautiful with the glass tiles.
Kegerator Conversion with Danby DAR440BL?
- Thread starter GloHoppa
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Drilling from the inside. Smart.
And I'm going to steal your access hole location.
You elevated it from a nice build to beautiful with the glass tiles.
JMBTempest
Active Member
Thank you opus345, brew on my friend...
schucksig5
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I converted the SS model a couple months ago. Not sure what your plans are, but for 2 ball Locks it is not necessary to relocate the light/thermostat. I drilled in the space between the unit and the coils in the back. I unscrewed the unit so i could have it out of the way when I drilled down without worrying about the electric, then reattached it after the fact. I did see someone else posted that they drilled from the inside, which is pretty genius.
I don't know about everyone else that has completed this conversion, but a dremmel was my best friend. Made cutting out the door panel a breeze as well as cutting the metal layer in the top of the fridge.
What attachment did you use to cut out the shelf supports?
RSNovi
Active Member
I just used a utility knife with a sharp blade. Cut them right out no problems.
Seconding this.
If you're having a tough time on parts, I found it easy to score the plastic lightly then do a full blade depth pass afterwards. The plastic and the foam are two very different materials that react differently to the blade.
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FordForever
Member
Because of this thread, I ordered one of these from Amazon a few months ago and I am really looking forward to doing this conversion when I get home. Unfortunately I am still on vacation in Afghanistan, so it will have to wait.
Here is what I want to do if someone can look this over and confirm my plan, maybe help me choose a kit:
I want a tower with two faucets. One tap will be a cornie with a mixed drink like rum and coke for (SWMBO). I know this requires 20ft lines for the soda and higher pressure so I assume I need dual regulators. The second tap will be commercial 1/6, I really like Sierra Nevada and that is likely what I will have in it.
Thanks in advance, also thanks to everyone else who posted in the thread!
Here is what I want to do if someone can look this over and confirm my plan, maybe help me choose a kit:
I want a tower with two faucets. One tap will be a cornie with a mixed drink like rum and coke for (SWMBO). I know this requires 20ft lines for the soda and higher pressure so I assume I need dual regulators. The second tap will be commercial 1/6, I really like Sierra Nevada and that is likely what I will have in it.
Thanks in advance, also thanks to everyone else who posted in the thread!
I used the Japanese blade on mine.
Has anyone tried fitting a 2.5 or 3 gallon keg on the compressor hump in this fridge, along with the two 5 gallon ball locks?
Took some measurements but seems a mini keg would be too wide with two cornies in there too.
I'm trying to get the danby to sit at about 40. I have the thermostat dialed to about '10 o clock' right now. Any tips from those who sit their kegs at around 40?
I'm trying to get the danby to sit at about 40. I have the thermostat dialed to about '10 o clock' right now. Any tips from those who sit their kegs at around 40?
William625
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Sweet! Croid I just PM'ed you for more info, so check it out if you read this first.
gwcr
Active Member
This is the same thing I am looking to do with mine. Any thoughts on this scenario?
yewtah-brewha
Well-Known Member
Not sure, my 3.4 wont fit it, I am going to be adding a 1x4 pine extersion all the way around the perimiter. Ill then be lagering in the unit. aswell as have a place to add my taps and tempcontrol unit.
jstuts2260
Well-Known Member
You can easily fit a carboy in it without modification. You can not however fit a bucket in it without the door being slightly ajar. I've lagered in in this kegerator several times. CHEERS!
HIlife
Well-Known Member
Is there enough height above the hump to fit a bucket fermenter on that?
I found this guide very helpful when making my kegerator and followed basically the other builds. However, I wanted to keep the plastic top that came with the fridge as the new model has a pretty ugly front section once its removed now. when I went through the thread and did not see anyone adding back the top plastic piece so I figured I would add a couple of photos to show how I did it.
First I discarded the Styrofoam spacer that came with the fridge on top then planed down a section of wood to the height of the standoff shown in the second photo. This standoff is higher than the ridge shown by a slight amount (maybe .150") and I did not want the plastic to have any flexed load which could crack it or prevent the seal from being even.
I had planned on gluing down the wood but figured it would stay in place while drilling if it was abutted up against the back moulded ridge shown in third photo (and luckily it did!). All the other steps I followed the other builds so I won t bother repeating.
Cheers,
First I discarded the Styrofoam spacer that came with the fridge on top then planed down a section of wood to the height of the standoff shown in the second photo. This standoff is higher than the ridge shown by a slight amount (maybe .150") and I did not want the plastic to have any flexed load which could crack it or prevent the seal from being even.
I had planned on gluing down the wood but figured it would stay in place while drilling if it was abutted up against the back moulded ridge shown in third photo (and luckily it did!). All the other steps I followed the other builds so I won t bother repeating.
Cheers,
ClemTiger0408
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Any potential problems drilling up from the inside? Did you leave the plastic top on while drilling up? I like the idea of doing this but I was worried the top of the plastic would flex too much and possibly crack as the drill was pushing up.
I drilled up most of the way through the other materials on mine, but I only had a shallowish hole saw, so once the centerdrill from the hole saw poked through the top I just came down from there too finish the hole off. There was quite a bit of swarf left on the plastic, but it was easy enough to clean it up with a knife.
I first reinforced the area between the top of the fridge and the plastic cover though as it is just a piece of stryofoam, you could probably drill through it with the cover the way it is, but mounting the tower on would likely crack it once the stryofoam compressed.
JMBTempest
Active Member
No problem at all. Take a piece of wood (1x6 about a foot long) and place it on top of the refrig over the area you are going to be drilling. Have someone carefully hold the wood on the edges pressing down while you are drilling up. This will keep the top from flexing upward. You will drill a perfect hole without damaging the top.
Good luck. Drill on my friend.
JMBTempest
ClemTiger0408
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Wonderful. Thanks! What is the optimal hole saw size? I don't own any hole saws so I am just going to buy the one size I need. I wanted to do the copper pipe insert but it seems like my Lowe's doesn't have any pipe.
If I did copper pipe with spray foam, what size should the hole be (looks like the pipe diameter should be 1")?
If i DONT do the copper pipe what should the hole size be?
spaceyaquarius
Well-Known Member
You don't really need to have a perfect hole. I just used a wire cutter for my Danby 440BL conversion.
I bought the Danby 440BL after reading this post.
For a step by step pictorial and text instructional guide:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/danby-dar440bl-mini-fridge-conversion-kegerator-453105/
I bought the Danby 440BL after reading this post.
For a step by step pictorial and text instructional guide:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/danby-dar440bl-mini-fridge-conversion-kegerator-453105/
jhenry
Active Member
I'm looking to do the same thing, but my newer model of this Danby Fridge doesn't have the screws holding the door panel on. Did yours? If not, how did you get the plexi panel on there?
What size carboy? I'm about to grab one on Amazon thanks to Prime shipping being fantastic, but was hoping to fit a 6-gallon Better Bottle. Could probably use a 5 with a blow-off if the 6 doesn't, but I'd like to know before I click order.
Anybody who own one of these happen to know? Thanks and cheers :cross:
DerCribben
Well-Known Member
So when I go to Amazon and look up this fridge because I'd love to recreate your results I find at the top of the reviews listed as the second "most helpful review":
"Unfortunately, confirmed by a phone call to Danby customer service, this fridge has a 41 degree max cold temperature when empty, and (per the user manual) floats up to 45 degrees under normal operation. I used a thermometer on each level, and when empty the top shelf registered 42, middle 45,and bottom 48.
As a glance at any fridge thermometer or food storage recommendation to prevent spoilage will reveal, safe temp ranges from 35 to 40 degrees MAXIMUM. This is a problem with an all fridge unit folks; even though that little freezer section in the combo compact units is admittedly silly and almost useless, it drives down the ambient temp of the fridge to 35 to 37 degrees or so by leaking cold air inside the compartment (I have two of them), while a fridge only unit like this one has much higher temps.
So its back to the combo unit for my third purchase. This will be fine for beverages only, but not acceptable for food.
UPDATE July 30th - ordered the Haier 4 Cubic Foot fridge with (tiny) freezer, and its now at a cold 35 degrees from top to bottom at 6 of 7 cold setting."
It seems like you guys are getting much colder results, any thoughts on this?
"Unfortunately, confirmed by a phone call to Danby customer service, this fridge has a 41 degree max cold temperature when empty, and (per the user manual) floats up to 45 degrees under normal operation. I used a thermometer on each level, and when empty the top shelf registered 42, middle 45,and bottom 48.
As a glance at any fridge thermometer or food storage recommendation to prevent spoilage will reveal, safe temp ranges from 35 to 40 degrees MAXIMUM. This is a problem with an all fridge unit folks; even though that little freezer section in the combo compact units is admittedly silly and almost useless, it drives down the ambient temp of the fridge to 35 to 37 degrees or so by leaking cold air inside the compartment (I have two of them), while a fridge only unit like this one has much higher temps.
So its back to the combo unit for my third purchase. This will be fine for beverages only, but not acceptable for food.
UPDATE July 30th - ordered the Haier 4 Cubic Foot fridge with (tiny) freezer, and its now at a cold 35 degrees from top to bottom at 6 of 7 cold setting."
It seems like you guys are getting much colder results, any thoughts on this?
I froze 2 kegs solid in mine accidentally. I measured around 28 deg at the bottom when that happened, and this was around 2/3 of max using the stock controller. Its odd that customer service would state 41 degrees but that may be all that is guaranteed and mine is just a good outlier from the manufacturing variance of the compressor and controller. I guess its also not like you get to talk to their design engineers on the phone.
There is a large swing in temperature in mine (about 5 degrees) and around 5 degrees difference in temperature from bottom to top. I keep meaning to get a better after-market controller to install but never get around to it.
Cheers
There is a large swing in temperature in mine (about 5 degrees) and around 5 degrees difference in temperature from bottom to top. I keep meaning to get a better after-market controller to install but never get around to it.
Cheers
I have mine set to the warmest temperature and if I remember correctly from the last time I took the temperature of a glass of water in there, it was sitting right around 40 degrees, which is where I like it. I imagine it gets a lot lower than 40 degrees if you turn the temperature dial the opposite way.
spaceyaquarius
Well-Known Member
The Danby can easily freeze beer or food. I've seen 29 degrees F. And the knob was only half way down. The temp swings can be fixed with the thermostat adjuster that most ppl recommend on HBT. It costs about $80. I never got one, and I just found the perfect range for my kegerator, always just above freezing, and it goes up to 39 F at the highest in the summer.
DerCribben
Well-Known Member
Awesome! This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I've been on brew hiatus for a year'ish as we moved across country and back. I'm going to be filling a pair of 5 gallon kegs in the next couple/few weeks and who likes warm beer? Not me...Thanks for clarifying this!!
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