SweetSounds
Well-Known Member
First off, I'd like to say what a great resource this forum has been. I'm pretty new at this, and there hasn't been a question along the way that I couldn't find the answer to in these pages. This is probably why I’m just now coming out of lurking mode...
I'll give a little background on what I'm trying to pull off before I defer to the group for advice..
I'm building my bar around a Kenmore 8.8 cu ft keezer. The bar is 8' long with my 4 tap tower sitting on the end. The keezer is about 2 feet from the tower, and 12" below. The challenge is, I have to be able to slide the cooler out from under the bar to open the lid. Since the bar is 8' long, I think it will be impractical to hinge the top of the bar for access.
With that said, here are some measurements...
I'll need 18" of beer line from the bar top to the faucets, 24" from the hole in the bar to the keezer, 48" of whip inside of the keezer, and a 36" whip of line for slack to slide the keezer out. I've decided that I'm going to build an 11' trunk line with 4 beer lines and 2 coolant lines, as has been discussed here before. The 6 lines fit very nicely inside a piece of 1" foam rubber pipe insulation, and is reasonably flexible.
I have seen a few threads on using reservoirs of glycol, (And the frightening volumes of coolant necessary for even a short run), but I have another idea...
I'm thinking about using a low GPM circulation pump from an aquarium or some such, in a closed loop system with an auto transmission cooler inside of the keezer. Basically, it would go tranny cooler > pump > trunk line > tower > make a U-turn > back through the trunk line > back to the tranny cooler.
My thinking is the heat exchanging capacity of a transmission cooler has to be FAR more efficient than a large pool of coolant in a bucket in a fridge due to the surface area exposed to the cold. Especially if I add a 4" fan or 2.
Questions...
I'm building the trunk line with 3/16" beer line, and 5/16 ID coolant line. Is that big enoughfor an 11' run? Or should I go with 1/4"?
Does anybody want to venture a guess if a tranny cooler in the keezer will get the coolant cold enough to make this worth the effort?
Part of me is thinking "Wow this would be cool!", and another part is thinking "Someone would have done this already if it worked"
Hmmm…
Sorry for the long post..
I'll give a little background on what I'm trying to pull off before I defer to the group for advice..
I'm building my bar around a Kenmore 8.8 cu ft keezer. The bar is 8' long with my 4 tap tower sitting on the end. The keezer is about 2 feet from the tower, and 12" below. The challenge is, I have to be able to slide the cooler out from under the bar to open the lid. Since the bar is 8' long, I think it will be impractical to hinge the top of the bar for access.
With that said, here are some measurements...
I'll need 18" of beer line from the bar top to the faucets, 24" from the hole in the bar to the keezer, 48" of whip inside of the keezer, and a 36" whip of line for slack to slide the keezer out. I've decided that I'm going to build an 11' trunk line with 4 beer lines and 2 coolant lines, as has been discussed here before. The 6 lines fit very nicely inside a piece of 1" foam rubber pipe insulation, and is reasonably flexible.
I have seen a few threads on using reservoirs of glycol, (And the frightening volumes of coolant necessary for even a short run), but I have another idea...
I'm thinking about using a low GPM circulation pump from an aquarium or some such, in a closed loop system with an auto transmission cooler inside of the keezer. Basically, it would go tranny cooler > pump > trunk line > tower > make a U-turn > back through the trunk line > back to the tranny cooler.
My thinking is the heat exchanging capacity of a transmission cooler has to be FAR more efficient than a large pool of coolant in a bucket in a fridge due to the surface area exposed to the cold. Especially if I add a 4" fan or 2.
Questions...
I'm building the trunk line with 3/16" beer line, and 5/16 ID coolant line. Is that big enoughfor an 11' run? Or should I go with 1/4"?
Does anybody want to venture a guess if a tranny cooler in the keezer will get the coolant cold enough to make this worth the effort?
Part of me is thinking "Wow this would be cool!", and another part is thinking "Someone would have done this already if it worked"
Hmmm…
Sorry for the long post..