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Great build! It's always great seeing other people fix up classic fridges. If you ever get around to it, pick up a kill-a-watt and see how much juice the thing pulls. I'd love to get real world numbers from some more people to help dispel the "old fridges are inefficient" myth.

They do use ozone-depleting chemicals. By using an old fridge and keeping it out of a dump, you're actually helping to keep those chemicals out of the environment. If you do get a leak in your refrigeration system, you wouldn't be able to just refill it, so you're not really adding to any...

The closest to what we're talking about would be under "NonComm Refrigerators.zip", then Single Door, manual defrost. Those are showing anywhere from 300-550 kWh/year depending on the manufacturer. As is, most of the fridges shown on there are energy-hungry post-50's. They contain features like...

Citation required! Ask anyone with an old (pre-60's) fridge and you'll find that it's exactly the opposite. Fridges from the 50's and earlier were very energy efficient and will not make much difference in your energy bill. I have no idea where people are getting this BS from, but it's just...

You have no idea how often I have to correct people on that. Inevitably, someone will see a post about my kegerator and feel the need to 'inform' me about the inefficiency of it. One of the first things I did after picking mine up was to connect it to a kill-a-watt. It draws ~170 watts when the...

Keep an eye on craigslist and you might find one cheap!

Right now, it's just taped to whichever keg is fullest. At some point, I'd like to seal it inside something with a bit more thermal mass.

I'm still using a welcome mat on the floor in front of it. I really would love to know where schmidty found his stylish drip tray, but he's not posted back with details yet.

I'm really curious to know where you got that! I've been looking and HOPING I wouldn't have to fabricate one for mine.

I used 1-1/4 in. wide x 7/16 in. thick High-Density Rubber Foam Weather Stripping Tape from Home Depot. It wasn't quite thick enough to fill the gap, so I have some attached to both the door and the chassis. It was incredibly hard to close the door the first few times, but after about a week it...

Not for original replacements, but if you're just going for a digital swap-out, this is a good option. I rolled my own solution for my kegerator so that I could play with different control algorithms.

That looks great! Thankfully, swapping out a thermostat on these is pretty straight forward.

Does the radio still work? It would be great to retrofit it to play brewing podcasts ;)

That must be horrible! Hah. There have been discussions on sensing keg volume in a few different threads, but I'll more than likely go with weight sensors under each keg. The downside is that the majority of weight sensors are meant for instantaneous readings and drift when under a constant...

That's pretty decent! Once I move the data logging to a different Linux box, the constant draw from the Arduino should be minuscule. Once I get around to it, the Arduino will also handle the sensors for keg volume and such.

I'm not sure I'm following. Are you referring to the constant 5 watts draw from the linux computer? The point of going digital with the setup is so that I can log and track my temp, as well as keep it within ~0.5 degrees of my desired temperature.

Glad to provide some assist :) The biggest reason I wanted to use an Arduino is just for the bulletproof reliability of a microcontroller. Reading the temp into linux/Android and controlling it from python should work just fine. The problem would be the first time the thing locks up or gets...

Looking great! Did you do anything to protect the paint from the metal flange on the shank? I was worried about it, so I got some black cupboard shelf liner and cut out some rings to act as a cushion behind them.

If you really want to get a good idea of the energy consumption, pick up a kill-a-watt.

I'm jealous of the great time you're going to have learning about micro-controllers! Right now, the setup is really straight forward and any specifics to the following bits can easily be found on the Arduino forums. Temperature is read from a DS18B20 digital temp probe wired to an Arduino...