Avanti 5.0 Cu. Ft. Compact Refrigerators

[sslandry]

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.

 

[Baja_Brewer]

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!

 

[Eric_Leifermann]

Was supposed to get mine today but FedEx decided to be a giant sieve and push it back to tomorrow.

 

[Baja_Brewer]

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!

 

[Eric_Leifermann]

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.

 

[knotquiteawake]

If you're lucky they will just send you a new one. Then you get two!

 

[Baja_Brewer]

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.

Bummer man. I imagine buy.com will make good on it one way or another, I've had very few issues with them.

 

[bengineerd]

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.

 

[Eric_Leifermann]

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.

 

[buffalobrewer]

and now they are up to $243

 

[Baja_Brewer]

and now they are up to $243

Thats a thread killa... they'll probably drop the price again at some point.... I'm gonna order my tower...

 

[Eric_Leifermann]

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?

 

[sslandry]

I can't post pics yet until I have a few more posts. I am now one post closer.

 

[BoogieBrandBooze]

For anyone interested you can get if for $189.54 + free shipping here:

http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?989153_g10e

I have never dealt with this site so I have no idea what kind of operation they run but it's the cheapest I've seen this fridge lately...still not cheap enough for me though

 

[bengineerd]

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?

 

[bmorgan]

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?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/avanti-5-0-cu-ft-compact-refrigerators-193768/index4.html#post2297728

 

[bengineerd]

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?

 

[bmorgan]

Most people here just crank it up to max and then use a Ranco, Love or Johnson controller. Or you can roll your own

 

[Eric_Leifermann]

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?

 

[jlag]

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.

 

[Eric_Leifermann]

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.

I would not drill into either side. There are refrigerator coils running up and down both sides wrapping back and forth that if you hit you will have a nice expensive box and nothing else.

 

[EFaden]

Anyone post some pictures of this thing in process? Or completed etc? I am considering picking one up to mount a tower on to... It seems like you all are making progress.

 

[Eric_Leifermann]

I have some pictures but the process isn't complete. I will post all the pics when i am complete. Hopefully it will be done by next weekend.

 

[sslandry]

I would not drill into either side. There are refrigerator coils running up and down both sides wrapping back and forth that if you hit you will have a nice expensive box and nothing else.

The sides are pretty packed with coils, but I think there may be some space in the top toward the front based on feeling out the sides for heat, but you will need to do the starch trick yourself.

 

[jlag]

The sides are pretty packed with coils, but I think there may be some space in the top toward the front based on feeling out the sides for heat, but you will need to do the starch trick yourself.

Is there a trick to doing the "starch trick" on the side of the unit?

 

[GamePreserve]

.6 more cubic feet for $3 also At Lowes I will pay tax.
About $193 for me to buy it at lowes. I am going back and forth on it. Maybe i should check my lowes are display/damaged/returned models as well.

I'm happy with the 13 gallons I serve from my frigidaire, and am in the process of putting in a 3 tap tower. I also like that it's one of the options out there with a smaller foot print in my apt, and still has a nice clean look. Good lookin out on this though! Keep us updated, I'll have to tell my buds about it

___________
GPB

 

[EFaden]

What size CO2 tank will fit inside? 5 lbs?

 

[Eric_Leifermann]

I don't know the dimensions of a 10 pound tank but the 5# tank fits with lots of extra room. So depending on how much bigger a 10# tank is than a 5# tank it might fit.

 

[EFaden]

I don't know the dimensions of a 10 pound tank but the 5# tank fits with lots of extra room. So depending on how much bigger a 10# tank is than a 5# tank it might fit.

I'm looking at the ones from KegCowboy...

10 Lbs is
Height 19.75 “
Diameter 6.75”

5lbs is
Height 18.25 “
Diameter 5.25”

Assuming yours is about the same it should fit.... right?

 

[Eric_Leifermann]

the 10# tank should fit with those dimensions. I got my co2 tank from kegcowboy...