Considering a tower

[petemoss]

Hey guys,

So, I have a commercial undercounter fridge that I use as a "keegerator" or something. It will hold three corny kegs and a CO2 tank (I only have two at the moment). Currently I just have picnic taps on these, and I open the door whenever I want a pour.

It is basically a large cooler box with a stainless exterior. There are no refrigerant lines in the body of the unit itself as the refrigeration unit is more or less a unit mounted to the back wall. I have been thinking about adding a three tap tower on top. I don't really know anything about towers, so I have a couple of questions.

1. Assuming that I just cut the hole in the top of the unit and mount the tower, do I need to have a fan or something to blow cold air up into the tower?

2. Are towers insulated in some way? In other words do I have to worry about it having condensation all over it due to the crazy heat and humidity in Alabama?

Thanks all,
Petemoss

 

[day_trippr]

I can't speak to all towers but mine (a six faucet t-tower) came with the 3" column insulated with a neoprene sleeve liner and the t-box lined with rigid foam. I still ran a 1" ID hose driven by a small blower up the column to the base of the t-box. The temperature inside the box is typically within 10°F of the keezer below on the hottest days of the year and even closer in cooler times.

With all that on really humid days if we don't have the AC running I do get some condensation on the faucets, but I consider that a battle won

Cheers!

 

[petemoss]

Day_trippr, great info, thanks. I like the idea of blowing the cold air up a hose to the top of the tower and letting it flow back out. That seems like it would be much more efficient that just blowing air at the bottom of the tower. What kind of a blower did you find that could be attached to a hose in that fashion?

 

[day_trippr]

I cobbled my tower cooler together based on a 40mm 12vdc fan, 1" ID vinyl tubing, and a small plastic case.
Here's all the stuff I used (save for the drill press).

Fan mounted to one side...

...tubing siliconed to the other side.

Et voila!

Later I stumbled onto this vacuum cleaner hose adapter in a big box store, the male end is 1-1/4" OD and I think the female end is 1-1/2" ID. I widened the case hole and press-fit the adapter through, then used heat to get the 1" ID vinyl over the 1-1/4" adapter end. The result was markedly increased airflow.

Here's the cooler stuffed up the column with the beer lines tye-wrapped around the tube.

I found the best performance was with the top end of the tube just above the top of the column to maybe an inch proud. In that range there's good flow up and back down without too much mixing...

hth

Cheers!

 

[petemoss]

DUDE!! This is genius. Thanks for the explanation and the pictures.

 

[Beernik]

I just bought this used KegCo tower and it has a layer of rubbery insulation in it. There is also a layer of styrofoam under the cap.

Haven’t used it yet.

 

[petemoss]

Beernik, good photo, thanks for sharing. I feel better that I won't have a sheet of water pouring off the top of the refrigerator.