Cooling kegerator line through a wall? Insulate it or let the fridge cool the duct?

[willpower101]

We have a beer line running about 3-4 feet from the soon-to-be kegerator through the wall to a tap at my work.

My question is how to best insulate this line?
I'm picking up where the last guy left off because the fridge didn't cool. So I don't know what his plans were.

You can see in the pictures, he's using duct work to run the line through. This ductwork was just attached straight to the keg with a duct coupler and the idea was just to let the keg cool this line. BUT it seems that it's not going to be insulated enough and the fridge will over work?

I was wondering if I should make the duct smaller?
Or run some insulation around the line?
Or scratch the duct and do something else?

What do you guys think?
Also of NOTE: I have a door knob cutter that I want to use. If I use this ductwork I have to make the whole HUGE! I figured a smaller space would be easier to cool anyway.

 

[agcorry00]

A kegerator at work? Are you hiring?

 

[Johnnyhitch1]

Is that your "6 point buck" tap handle?

IMO your looking for more trouble than its worth. Take the shelves out and build a wrap around in front and house the kegerator behind the finisher panels.
Then all you need is a tap coming thru the marble. This will also allow you to add a tap or 2 in the future if using a tower.

If your going with the duct work then i would take that last picture to heart and insulate the HELL out of those lines even more than you think is ok.
Problem here is that if your lines are to short/narrow or the tap is to high, then youll have to rip it all apart when the fridge still dosent chill the lines or push your beer thru them without foam!!

Good luck!

 

[ACbrewer]

How frequently will the beer be pulled from the tap, and is the line metal or plastic.

Here are my thoughts. Insulation slows, but does not prevent temperature transfer, so if it is a plastic line out of the keg, eventually even insulated like your last picture, the beer will warm in those fee out of the fridge.
As for the duct work, I'd look for insulated duct, but the smalles id is probably 3 inches, so not much help there if you wanted to keep size down, unless you can work some conduit, in which case running the beerline inside a peice of conduit, insulate the conduit and have the conduit open back into the fridge. This will keep (ideally) cold on the beer line from the fridge, while slowing how much heat transfers.


and where do you work?

 

[willpower101]

Is that your "6 point buck" tap handle?

IMO your looking for more trouble than its worth. Take the shelves out and build a wrap around in front and house the kegerator behind the finisher panels.
Good luck!

Thanks! I don't have much control over where it's at and the boss doesn't want to modify the shelf.

That's actually a cutout of our logo

How frequently will the beer be pulled from the tap, and is the line metal or plastic.

It will probably sit from 7pm to 4pm the next day. Most people don't drink until the late afternoon. (although that might change, lol)

The lines are indeed plastic.

I was thinking of running a pvc conduit with a fan in a project box like in the photos below, and maybe running a copper tube loop through the fridge - touching the freezer panel - and wrapping it around the back of the tap like in the other pic.

Do you think it would be better to wrap the line in insulation inside the conduit, or insulate the outside of the conduit? I'm afraid it would restrict airflow if done inside.

A kegerator at work? Are you hiring?

We are indeed hiring! (or at least we were, looks like the ad might be down, unsure why or if the position was filled already.)
We're looking for a badass interaction designer in the Nashville area.
Also, we're always willing to look at dev applications. If you love building fully responsive web apps and/or native mobile apps and want to live in Nashville, then drop us a line. @tenfastfeet

 

[agcorry00]

That would entail a massive faking of qualifications...