Convert tower to wall faucets?

[ThePrisoner]

Can you take the faucets from a tower and convert to a wall faucet?
Will I need any new parts or can all the existing ones work?

 

[SleepyCreekBrews]

you can remove the faucets from the shanks in the tower, but I don't think you'll be able to use the shanks in a wall if that's what you're asking. Don't your shanks have just a few threads (for mounting through thin material) and also have a curved surface to mate with the round tower?

 

[ThePrisoner]

you can remove the faucets from the shanks in the tower, but I don't think you'll be able to use the shanks in a wall if that's what you're asking. Don't your shanks have just a few threads (for mounting through thin material) and also have a curved surface to mate with the round tower?

It would need to go through a 1/2" drywall. So, I need to buy a shank that will fit this length?
Or should I mount it through a 2*4 or something to make sure it's supported well?

 

[SleepyCreekBrews]

Ya, I don't suspect the drywall would last very long with a sweaty beer tap mounted through it

I'd be inclined it use a nice panel of wood, but most anything will do ,and you'll need to buy a shank long enough to fit through it....check out this tree trunk user Brewmoor used for his:

 

[ThePrisoner]

Ok, now when a store sells a shank measured at 4" - is that the total length or just the length of the threaded part that would be inside the wall?

 

[augiedoggy]

You can just get a thin piece of something strong like diamond plate or even oak.. the short Shank will till be long enough to work with this.. the curved spacer comes off the shank which gives you more wiggle room.
Or you can buy shanks in all different lengths. As mentioned you don't want to mount them in drywall... Keep in mind that if you don't have a cooling system for the beer lines they will foam on ever first pour or two.. I learned this that hard way myself..= a lot of wasted beer if tou only use it for a beer or two at a time. Most wall mounted taps have the walk in cooler directly on the other side of the wall or use a glycol beerline chiller for this reason.

 

[ThePrisoner]

You can just get a thin piece of something strong like diamond plate or even oak.. the short Shank will till be long enough to work with this.. the curved spacer comes off the shank which gives you more wiggle room.
Or you can buy shanks in all different lengths. As mentioned you don't want to mount them in drywall... Keep in mind that if you don't have a cooling system for the beer lines they will foam on ever first pour or two.. I learned this that hard way myself..= a lot of wasted beer if tou only use it for a beer or two at a time. Most wall mounted taps have the walk in cooler directly on the other side of the wall or use a glycol beerline chiller for this reason.

The cooler would be in the other side but the beer lines would be 6ft. Why the foam? I thought that was only from air in the lines.

 

[augiedoggy]

The cooler would be in the other side but the beer lines would be 6ft. Why the foam? I thought that was only from air in the lines.

The massive temp difference between the line and the beer... This is why they sell cooling fan systems for the towers and glycol beer line chillers. At least that was the experience I had.. my kegerator came with a small DC blower that blows cold air up into my tower mounted on it... 6ft of beerline holds something like 1/2 a pint I believe... So that's 1/2pint of warm less carbonated beer the you'll likely be dumping every time it sits overnight.. if most of the beer line is going to be in the cooler it won't be an issue.. hieght does effect the amount of line you need thought for a good pour. I just changed my 5 ft lines to 11 ft for better pours on my kegerator

 

[ThePrisoner]

Hmm. Well the distance between top of fridge and faucet will be around 2ft. The rest of the line I could push back into the fridge. Presumably that foam will settle and can be drink shortly after
I guess I could just have the tower straight above the fridge with only a few inches exposed to warm.
This spot here in the entrance room but kind of an odd place.
The line coolers are expensive I imagine.

 

[augiedoggy]

If I understand you correctly and you only have like 2 ft of line that wont be cooled it will honestly be like many tower setups out there and should work ok.. yes the line coolers are chillers and use jacketed lines... I actually use a repurposed line cooler as the chiller for my conical fermenters...
I would not consider a chiller for your setup and such a short run.

 

[ThePrisoner]

If I had longer lines outside of the cooler, couldn't I just pour the foam and leave it aside until it turns into cider/beer then drink that? I'm trying to figure out the best of 2 different options.

 

[augiedoggy]

2 ft is not a huge deal... you could use a pipe to run the lines up to the taps or try to box in the whole area so you can keep it cool too but honestly I dont think it will be a big deal with only 2 ft exposed... I was mainly commenting on having like 6 ft exposed