Fridgidaire Gallery French Door Refrigerator Kegerator Build - 5 taps, 2.75” spacing

[Tommydee]

I wanted to share my recent build as there’s not much on here of late on managing kegerator builds in more modern household refrigerators. This is not a super detailed build thread, it’s a pragmatic build using as much hardware on hand as possible. Goal was to get the brewery back up and running so i can share homebrew with friends/neighbors.

First, this is NOT the best model to choose, as the curved doors are a challenge, but the build came out perfectly fine. We recently moved and the fridge icemaker was broken along w/ a defrost issue (i think it was just too full), so sellers gave us $$ for a new one. The 2nd hand fridge, which costs $0 and is already in the house, is the right fridge to convert, plain and simple. The Home Depot guys were happy to move it into my garage rather than on their truck. I wanted 4 taps, but space for 5 in 1 door ideally, as there are controls in the left door.

1. Rip out the drawers and shelves,, unscrew The drawer slides. As this thing fills up with kegs, I’ll need to move the door shelves as well.
2. Find a random old ikea metal shelf, or a piece of painted plywood to reinforce the bottom (kegs are heavy)
2. Remove door handle on the tap side - maybe not required, but if you want to squeeze in 5 taps, youll need the real estate. It’s no issue opening a french door fridge with 1 handle, just need to open left door first.
3. Plan the shank holes and drip tray. without making a massive mess cutting foam/plastic in the door, there is about 13” of space on the inside of the door to stay within the compartment. To get 5 taps, one need to collapse to 2.75” spacing on center between taps, not ideal, but glad i did it for the 5th tap. BUY YOUR SHANKS AND MAKE A TEMPLATE ON GRAPH PAPER. Drilling into pretty stainless doors is high stakes poker. Measurements for me ended up as follows:
- Top of door to tap centerline - 17“. (Go 2 “ lower so to have a chance of NOT hitting a wire…more on that later)
- centerline to centerline span 5 taps - 11”, 2.75” spacing
- bottom of taps to top of drip tray - 9”
- Drip tray width - 14”. (Brewhardware sells a perfect one for this build)

4. Hardware list: (All from Brewhardware, of course)
- 5 QD gas assemblys- brewhardware sells these, it’s 5X8 mm tubing+ john guest/flare connection on one end, duotight QD gas on the other end.
- dual gauge Komos regulator
-5 lb CO2 tank.
- 4 X 8 mm OD tubing- female flare push fit connectors - allows me to reuse my existing manifolds. Need 4 to attach Each manifold to the regulator outputs
- 3 ft gas tubing 5 mm X 8mm to connect regulators to distribution manifolds.
- Co2 manifolds (reused)

- Faucets - 3 SS perlicks (reused) , 1 Intertap nukatap with Nitro/stout attachment, and I’ll add a 5th tap shortly, probably Flow control for my seltzer.
- Shanks - 3 x 5” and 2 X 4”. note the door gets thicker towards the center of fridge. Now that build is done, could have gotten away with 3 or 4 4”, but the 5th tap on the center edge of the door definitely needs 5”. 3” not enough for any of the holes, i could not repurpose old ones.
- Beernut/shank connection - i opted for the pushfit/john guest beernut connection that Bobby sells. Easy.
- Beerline 5 X 5.5’ 4 mm x 8 mm EVA barrier semiridgid
- 5 X Duotight liquid QD’s (get the ones that fit 8 mm OD tubing)
- 14” drip tray (brewhardware)

 

[Tommydee]

Step 5 tape template, say a prayer, drill holes- The curve of the door rears its ugly head for the first of many times, as it’s really hard to draw a level line with a wax pen, but i managed. I decided to go with a template on graph paper and taped it to the door. Use a 1/4”” bit first to make sure your end taps are coming through the door where you want. I had to move 1/2” after my first pilot. After you’re happy with the 2 end taps, use a 7/8“ bimetal hole bit to get through the SS, then switched to the ole spade bit to bust through the insulation and plastic on the other end. vacuum as you go, the insulation sticks to everything, and is messy as heck. Drill perpendicular to the surface, which means the shanks will toe in on the inside of the fridge due to door curvature. Happy to report that the standard black collars that come with beer shanks cover everything with no gaps, the curve is not extreme enough to cause an issue. Looks clean. I planned on 4 taps, but drew a template for 5….and guess what i forgot to do…..NOT drill the 5th hole in the middle…I guess subliminally i wanted 5 taps to start with.


Note 1: Both doors have wiring, so this is a risky job. The left door has a controls on the inside, so i figured the right door was safe. Wrong. Drilled through wire in 2 of 5 holes. This caused the circuit breaker to trip. You’ll notice my shanks on the inside are pointing at odd angles, since i tried to “miss” the wire after hitting on tap 1, but oddly it runs at a random angle and I got it again on tap 3`. I was able to fish it out, removed the severed section from the insulation, and left the dead end in tap 1 hole. The live live, neutral and ground with a meter, tape each of 3, and have safely isolated…the fridge works fine, so I’m left not knowing what i may have disabled in that door. The dead end of the wire i drilled is in tap #1, so i can splice and rewire if necessary….but since the fridge works fine, I‘m leaving well enough alone for now. If anyone knows what that wire might do, and if my fridge is going to have any lack of moisture control, please let me know. (And I’ll start the radio-shack project to rewire)

Step 6. Install gas manifolds and hook up CO2 - see pics
Step 7. Install shanks, faucets, QDs - see pics
Step 8 - Install drip tray. I used 3 self tapping trailer screws i had laying around. I made a frame of 1“X 3/4” black weatherstripping, stuck it on the mounting surface of the drip tray to fill the gaps caused by the ends. Make sure you do it this way so you can zip the tray out for cleaning out of place, if needed. Looks clean enough, though there’s probably a better solution out there. . Said some prayers, drew level lines and end lines with wax pens and zipped it in with the random trailer hardware. Seems to be holding up fine.

 

[Tommydee]

Pics below. I’ll probably add more comments later, but need to run for now…

 

[day_trippr]

That'll play!

The door wiring may have been for an anti-condensation resistance heat strip inside the vertical edge where it meets the other door (which would have the same thing on its edge). Not uncommon with these "French" style units...

Cheers!

 

[Tommydee]

That'll play!

The door wiring may have been for an anti-condensation resistance heat strip inside the vertical edge where it meets the other door (which would have the same thing on its edge). Not uncommon with these "French" style units...

Cheers!

Thanks for the insights. Makes sense based on location. I’ll leave well enough alone for now, then.

 

[bike2brew]

Pics below. I’ll probably add more comments later, but need to run for now…

 

[Bassman2003]

Looks nice. The only thing I would say is about the CO2 tank. I have read that is is not safe to put them on their side as the liquid can clog the gas output and the top can blow off. You might want to call a welding supply shop like Airgas and ask their opinion just be safe!

Where is the pic of all of your hops down in the freezer?

 

[Tommydee]

Thanks for the insights. Makes sense based on location. I’ll leave well enough alone for now, th

Looks nice. The only thing I would say is about the CO2 tank. I have read that is is not safe to put them on their side as the liquid can clog the gas output and the top can blow off. You might want to call a welding supply shop like Airgas and ask their opinion just be safe!

Where is the pic of all of your hops down in the freezer?

Appreciate the feedback. I know the bigger cylinders in industrial settings, it’s a no-no, but for some reason didn’t consider it. I may move it to a door shelf, or just in the corner. I doubt I’ll completely fill with kegs, but who knows…

 

[Tommydee]

Modified CO2 for upright storage. Should hold 5.5 kegs easy this way. Added some more pics, you can see the inside fridge info, and how the shanks fit. Note the pilot hole, i needed to shift the template. Luckily this oops is covered by the black collar. Important again to measure thrice, drill pilot once, then drill the 7/8”


Also note I’m temporary plugging tap 5 with a 3 ft shank until i buy the required 4” shank and faucet. I need to get some proper shrink fit terminal ends for the wire i butchered, but electric tape for now. (Hot, neutral, ground all separately wrapped and good) Also note how the shanks are purposely off level in my (failed) attempts to miss the wire on subsequent taps. Not my finest worksmanship, but the end result is fine from the front.

 

[Bassman2003]

Cool. Now you can sleep better! Looks nice with an all-EVA barrier setup. Any way to get the job done as long as the trim covers it up