Avanti 5.0 Cu. Ft. Compact Refrigerators

Yakima 728
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After building a riser for the front part of the floor to make it level with the back shelf you would only have 21 inches which is enough for a bucket, but but only with a few inches to spare. You would not be able to use a standard air lock. The fridge is plenty deep. I just measured it and the bucket.
 
sslandry said:
After building a riser for the front part of the floor to make it level with the back shelf you would only have 21 inches which is enough for a bucket, but but only with a few inches to spare. You would not be able to use a standard air lock. The fridge is plenty deep. I just measured it and the bucket.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the reply. Would there be enough room to shove a blowoff tube into the bucket and run it down the side? Or, maybe I should start fermenting in cornies. Would give me an excuse to start buying kegging equipment.
 
mjohnson said:
Thanks a lot for the reply. Would there be enough room to shove a blowoff tube into the bucket and run it down the side? Or, maybe I should start fermenting in cornies. Would give me an excuse to start buying kegging equipment.
Click to expand...

I plan on using this unit as a lagering fridge. I will be fermenting in cornies, likely doing 8 gallon batches split into two different ones. I will also be using spunding valves to allow me to ferment under pressure and naturally carbonate.
 
6 gallon Better Bottle (11 3/8") and blowoff jar (6 1/2")
There's a little less than 10" from the top of carboy to the top of fridge.

There is no lateral space left. The carboy is touching the hump.

915-6-gallon-better-bottle-11-3-8-blowoff-jar-6-1-2-little-less-than-10-top-carboy-top-fridge.jpg
 
Do you plan on putting a tower on the fridge or just using it for lagering and cold crashing? If you do have a tower do you have pictures of the process and the final set up?
 
I'm keeping that option open, but don't have immediate plans for kegging. I use 1 liter bottles as that's the most I want in one sitting and don't entertain much. I prefer variety and don't want to tie up the fermenter for long. Hats off to those individuals who can knock out 5 gallons in short order.
 
I'm looking into purchasing this same refrigerator for conversion, anyone have any idea where to find the schematics for it? I want to make sure there's enough room for me to run a 1/6 and a corny at the same time, in addition to the co2 tank.
 
I emailed them several times like i posted before and all they would tell me is that there was indeed a condenser coil running along the top of the fridge some where. They said that the location changes with each fridge and that drilling through the top was not recommended. I asked for a schematic but never received one, all i got was a link to a pre-made kegerator.
 
The top is plastic and easily removed. Underneath is insulation which should be easy to dig around in.
 
Yea I saw what you posted earlier, but then someone else posted that they checked the top and nothing heated up, so I was confused. Thanks for your help though, I appreciate all I can get, pretty noob at this :)
 
I received this fridge yesterday. Purchased on buy.com for $181, and then it dropped back down in price a day later. BAH! :mad:

Anyway, here are my impressions.

It's a big fridge! It will certainly fit 2 cornies and a CO2 tank. The light/thermostat unit might have to be moved though. I only own 1 corney, so this isn't an issue for me yet. It also fits my 6 gallon plastic carboy. Part of the carboy rests on the bottom door shelf, but if this becomes a problem the shelf can be easily cut away.

The door comes with some kind of plastic shrink wrap on it, presumably to protect the faux stainless finish. This stuff is a pain in the ass to get off! Did anyone else have this problem? How did you get the shrink wrap off?

The top is plastic comes off very easily. It is not glued down at all. Just unscrew the 3 screws in the back, then gently lift up the back and push the top towards the front of the unit. This will slide it off the notches that keep it attached in front.

Underneath the top is a lot of hard foam. I'm 99% certain that there is a heat coil running somewhere across the top. I can see the heat coil going out of the compressor and into the lower right side. As best I can tell, this coil snakes through the right side, crosses the top, and then snakes down the left side. The sides are metal, and they get quite hot when the compressor is running. My hope is that the vodka/cornstarch trick can be used on the sides to see where the coil is entering the top. I felt the sides with my hands, and it seems like the coil is entering the top right in the middle. For those building a tower, I wouldn't recommend drilling anything through the top until you locate that coil.

So, what is a good tool to use to gently extract the foam without breaking the heat coil?
 
If the coil is entering the top at the center, wouldn't that lead us to believe that it wraps back and forth across the whole top, making it impossible to install a tap tower?
 
I saw this thread on Monday. Ordered one Monday night from buy.com (I had to go through Amazon to find it) for $165 and free shipping. My first keg is not ready yet, so I opted for the free 7 to 9 business day shipping. I got a shipping notice Tuesday morning and it arrived Wednesday evening just as I got home from work.

I took the shelves out and put two cornies in, the thermostat will need to be moved for two and it looks like the door will need some modification to close completely.

I'm not doing a tower, but will be running lines to my bar through the top. I'll be using picnic taps for the time being because my bar is not built yet. I'll be watching this thread to see if anyone finds the hot lines.
 
FunkMan44 said:
If the coil is entering the top at the center, wouldn't that lead us to believe that it wraps back and forth across the whole top, making it impossible to install a tap tower?
Click to expand...

It doesn't seem to make sense for the coil to snake around on top. Heat can't be radiated away through the foam insulation. Makes more sense to snake around on the metal sides. At least, that's what I hope. At the very worst though, you just have to excavate the foam on top and find a spot where the coil isn't.
 
bengineerd said:
It doesn't seem to make sense for the coil to snake around on top. Heat can't be radiated away through the foam insulation. Makes more sense to snake around on the metal sides. At least, that's what I hope. At the very worst though, you just have to excavate the foam on top and find a spot where the coil isn't.
Click to expand...

The more I think about it, the more that makes sense. I'm hoping by the time I get mine, somebody's figured it out.
 
It is a no brainer. I found no coils in the dead center, but you can easily select where you want to put your tower then dissect the foam to see if there is a coil. I drilled a 2 inch hole after poking around with a paper clip to check for coils.
I felt warmth only on the sides and back. Nobody mentioning that the back has coils. I assumed the coils crossed in the back because I felt no heat on the top. If there is a coil up there, it does not go back and forth. Don't bother calling the company in Florida. They have no f'ing clue what is up there.

If you are doing an external Co2 tank like me then you can safely drill through the shelf wall in the back. I found no coils there either. I recommend it if you are doing 2 Kegs because you will have to pull a keg out to dick with the CO2 tank.

Finally, this sucker can freeze a keg on the highest settings, so start the thermostat on the lower settings to begin with.
 
Mine was just delivered!! I won't have time to play with it til Sunday I don't think.... I'll see though. It looks plenty big though!
 
Took mine out of the box yesterday and opened it up. The plastic on the door does suck. Thermostat looks easy to move, and the thing is massive! Been a while since I've had a minifridge....

Still deciding the best route to go on removing the door stuff. I've had a fridge mold on me before when moisture got behind the plastic I replaced the door piece with. I'm liking the looks of dry erase board from what I've seen on other kegerators, but I have yet to be able to turn some up on the lowes or Home depot site that I can just drill out and mount...all the ones on there have backing already...Input?

Sold some extra kegs that I had lying around at a ludicrous price on CL which will fund a tower... looking at one with threaded disconnects so that can get one or two of these which will allow me to switch back and forth from my corny's to a 1/6 sankey when the homebrew runs low!
 
Just got my fridge and it is in TERRIBLE condition. There is a huge gouge in the door of the fridge and the light bulb was out of its socket and had shattered all over the floor, also the coil plate in the back of the fridge is just hanging there it is not securely attached anywhere, i even found a screw that appeared to have been ripped out of the wall in the back from where the coil plate seemed to be attached at one time.

Needless to say I have sent an email to Buy.com complaining and expect to be compensated in some way for this bull.
 
Eric_Leifermann said:
Just got my fridge and it is in TERRIBLE condition. There is a huge gouge in the door of the fridge and the light bulb was out of its socket and had shattered all over the floor, also the coil plate in the back of the fridge is just hanging there it is not securely attached anywhere, i even found a screw that appeared to have been ripped out of the wall in the back from where the coil plate seemed to be attached at one time.

Needless to say I have sent an email to Buy.com complaining and expect to be compensated in some way for this bull.
Click to expand...

Bummer man. I imagine buy.com will make good on it one way or another, I've had very few issues with them.
 
Last night I dug through the foam on top of my fridge.

Instead of going through the exact center, I dug a 1 wide inch hole about 6-7 inches from the back. I used a razor blade and flathead screwdriver to carefully extract the foam. Interestingly, the foam had a static charge such that all dislodged chunks came flying right out of the hole and stuck to the top. That made it pretty easy.

No condenser lines were encountered.

The foam is 1.5 inches deep. As previously mentioned here, once you're through the foam you hit the black plastic interior.

I didn't get a chance to drill all the way through yet. I'll do that once I figure out how I want to mount and stabilize the tower.
 
Just got a hold of Buy.com on the phone and they will be shipping me a new one tomorrow afternoon once i confirm with them that FedEx has picked the damaged fridge up.

Hopefully this new fridge won't be damaged.
 
Got my replacement fridge today and it is in good shape only one small ding on the back that I really don't care about.

Anybody have any pics of their complete conversion of this fridge?
 
Has anyone been able to relocate the thermostat? There seem to be two screws holding it on, one of which is not accessible. Whats the best way to remove the thing?
 
Doh for not seeing the answer in this thread, and Doh for it being so easy anyway.

I got the thing off now...

Holy crap is that a coolant line going into the thermostat? Or is it just a wire to conduct temperature to the sensor? I'd have been more careful trying to pry the thermostat off if I'd known there might be a coolant line connected to the thing.

I want to bypass the thermostat completely and put my own in. Is there a way to completely remove the stock thermostat?
 
So finally have some time today to putz with the fridge.

I took the lid off and plugged in the fridge at put it at the coldest temp setting and I can definitely feel the heat coming from the evaporator coil running across the top through the 1.5" deep or so foam insulation. Its about 6 or so inches from the very back of the fridge on mine. From the overall layout of the fridge it looks like the best place for the tower is going to be about dead center of the fridge like one of the earlier posters did. I've taken some pictures and i will upload them all when im done with the whole process so other people can see what I did.

Has anyone drilled into the actual fridge yet not just through the insulation?
 
I just bought one here http://www.homeeverything.com/web/sitefiles/product.asp?sku=27396&ref=cPricegrabber for $189.95. Can't wait for the price to drop or risk it rising.

Does anybody know if I can drill for a tap on the left side? I can't do the top because I need to put another 4.6 CuFt on top of it. I lager and carb in that fridge. The 4.6 has the freezer stuff on top so a ball lock keg will not fit and a pin locker will not clear with the disconnects on it.

I can't really tap the door as I need clearance on that side to walk by. Changing the kegs doesn't happen too often so there is room to open the door when needed.

I can't rotate it as there is a short set of stairs on left side that will prevent the door from opening.

Either way, its coming. I have been thinking of seeing if I can use ultrasonics to see what is under the skins on these things.
 

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