Americana Fridge Conversion - Help?

[musikguru6]

Picked up one of these on Craigslist to convert to a kegerator (http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SpecPage&Sku=A3316ABSWW). Would like to put my taps on one side, and store my co2 tank outside on the other side. How do I know that it's safe to drill into the side walls?

 

[day_trippr]

Gone through this a couple of times to set up a pair of 17cf fridges in my brewery (running in gas lines, temperature probes, fan & heater power, etc).

I start with any of the larger parts suppliers. In this case, I started here, looking for diagrams of the cabinet and the internal parts layout.

That took me here, where the expansion and condensing coils are shown.

The diagram shows your fridge has a fan cooled condenser under the cabinet bottom, and if you examine the condenser and the expansion coils you can see their connections are both in the back/right corner of the cabinet (as viewed from the front). So I would definitely stay away from that area, and would put all through-connections over in the back/left corner area. (fwiw, the same was true on my two fridges).

For appearance sake I'd put the holes in the back wall rather than straight out the side, but either should be ok if caution is taken. Drill small shallow holes, probe through the insulation feeling for any plumbing bits, then drill through and open the hole to the desired diameter...

Cheers!

 

[musikguru6]

Gone through this a couple of times to set up a pair of 17cf fridges in my brewery (running in gas lines, temperature probes, fan & heater power, etc).

I start with any of the larger parts suppliers. In this case, I started here, looking for diagrams of the cabinet and the internal parts layout.

That took me here, where the expansion and condensing coils are shown.

The diagram shows your fridge has a fan cooled condenser under the cabinet bottom, and if you examine the condenser and the expansion coils you can see their connections are both in the back/right corner of the cabinet (as viewed from the front). So I would definitely stay away from that area, and would put all through-connections over in the back/left corner area. (fwiw, the same was true on my two fridges).

For appearance sake I'd put the holes in the back wall rather than straight out the side, but either should be ok if caution is taken. Drill small shallow holes, probe through the insulation feeling for any plumbing bits, then drill through and open the hole to the desired diameter...

Cheers!

This is so helpful. Thank you!

One question on aesthetics... are you suggesting running just the gas lines out he back wall? I'm not sure that I follow the logic of having both tap lines and gas lines running out the back wall. Would think that side wall taps w/ back wall line would cover ease of access to the beer, and a way to hide away the gas lines for the tank.

Or maybe I'm just not following what you're saying...

 

[day_trippr]

Sorry, that was kind of nebulous, wasn't it?

Taps out the left side, gas out the back/left then over to the tank on the right side...

Cheers!