Beers lines running to 1st floor

[Curtis Bluel]

hey everyone, I just recently ran my beer lines from my keezer downstairs to the first floor. I currently have some carbonated water running to one of the taps on the tower upstairs but will have a homebrew very shortly. As of right now I have two lines running through 1.5 inch copper pipe that feeds through my floor and into my wine bar upstairs. My intention was to have the cool air from the keezer cool the lines inside the copper pipe with a fan. Does anyone know or have any knowledge of how powerful of a fan I need to push the cool air up about 10-12 ft?

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I'll be curious if this works without major foaming. Keep us posted. I would think most would recommend glycol.

2 lines in a 1 1/2" pipe doesnt leave a lot of airspace for movement. Plus the air dead ends at faucet buffering airflow.
I think some have made a loop out of pipe or pvc. 2 holes in the keezer. one for intake and one for pushing the air making for free flowing air.

I also "think" they make some sort of line cooler that wraps around the lines....maybe someone will chime in.

Its considered a challenge around here to get long external lines like yours to work without foaming issues....good luck

 

[Curtis Bluel]

I'll be curious if this works without major foaming. Keep us posted. I would think most would recommend glycol.

2 lines in a 1 1/2" pipe doesnt leave a lot of airspace for movement. Plus the air dead ends at faucet buffering airflow.
I think some have made a loop out of pipe or pvc. 2 holes in the keezer. one for intake and one for pushing the air making for free flowing air.

I also "think" they make some sort of line cooler that wraps around the lines....maybe someone will chime in.

Its considered a challenge around here to get long external lines like yours to work without foaming issues....good luck

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I did see that they make lines with Glycol lines all wrapped in an insulation but I wasn't able to pull that off. I needed to use .25 inch line due to the vertical climb/resistance. I figured I would give the forced air and very well insulated first before spending the extra money on some glycol.

 

[bleme]

I can't see this working at all without a loop. The air has to have somewhere to go.

 

[JONNYROTTEN]

I can't see this working at all without a loop. The air has to have somewhere to go.

And I would think the loop would need to be more like a 3" or 4" tube

I thought a saw awhile ago something about a chiller line that gets wrapped around the beer lines that wasnt glycol and works good.....could be wrong though

 

[Curtis Bluel]

I did think about an "exhaust" for the air. It is essentially be going into the space between the countertop and the cabinet. Not ideal but that was nearly the only way I was able to get it set up. Since the copper pipe and the tower is offset about an inch there wasn't a seamless transition from pipe to tower.

 

[Nate R]

@Curtis Bluel: Stumbled on this thread... how's the build going? This will always be a dream of mine (running lines to various taps around the house) and am keeping my fingers crossed for you. Hopefully you found a solution?

 

[mattdee1]

I'd be curious to know if this works as well. I am in the middle of building a system to serve 6 taps on my main floor, with the keezer in the basement. The keezer is not directly beneath the taps, but pretty close, so the run isn't very long.

When I started the planning stage, I really wanted to find a way to cool the lines with air for the simplicity and low cost of it, but after spending hours researching it, reading about the experiences of others, etc. it was pretty clear to me that I was asking for trouble with air cooling that many lines over that long of a distance.

So, I sprung for an insulated trunk line and will be attempting a DIY glycol loop. I think I have a good plan that will work, fingers are crossed. If it doesn't work, then I will likely *shudder* spring for a glycol powerpack (yes, I have an understanding wife).

 

[Bobby_M]

The only practical way to do it is to run a liquid cooling loop because even if you could flow quite a bit of air, air is a terrible way to move heat.

 

[Nate R]

Wait- what if you had a large air supply?
Like a VERY big air supply?
Say like a Platinum & Gold Collection?