Frozen beer lines!!!

[Jennyfer33]

I am hoping to get suggestions on how to keep my lines from freezing during the winter. My kegerator is in an outside shed that insulated but the lines inside the fridge and outside leading to the taps keep freezing. I've tried pipe insulation and that didn't work. Am I out of luck on having beer in the winter (say it isn't so!)?

 

[mongoose33]

I'm a little unclear as to the exact arrangement. If your lines are exposed to temps around 29 degrees or lower, you are going to get frozen beer. It depends on the actual alcohol level as to what that temp might be.

The only way to deal with this is to somehow provide enough heat where the lines are exposed to freezing temperatures. If the shed is insulated that's a good start--but without a source of heat in that shed, it'll eventually drop to the ambient, or average of ambient temperatures.

You don't say where you live; I live in Wisconsin where it can drop to 15 below zero F or even more. A shed, insulated or not, when exposed to that kind of temperature is going to be darned cold inside.

There are some things you might try, though if you warm the lines too much you end up w/ a situation where you'll get foaming.

The beer in the fridge will also drop to lower temps; you might try something like a FermWrap around the kegs to give them a bit of warmth to keep them at a temp of your choosing.

The exposed lines are a tougher problem. You might try running them through a tube of some sort (3" drain tile? PVC? A wiring chase?), and then run a freeze tape through there to keep them warm. A freeze tape is what people wrap around pipes to keep them warm enough that they don't freeze. Some of those freeze tapes may have a thermostat incorporated in them to sense when things get too cold, then turn on.

Sounds like only the lines freeze, which means the beer in the kegs is never getting cold enough to freeze. That may be due to their having a lot of thermal mass that never drops low enough in temperature, or the pressure might be helping prevent that as well--though the pressure in the lines should be the same.

Those are some ideas you might try. Can you post a couple pics showing specifically what you have? Also, you can control temps with an Inkbird fairly easily. Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.

 

[PlexVector]

don't know where you're at, but in eastern to mid NC it's usually enough to leave a 60W to 100W incandescent light on at night when the temps are below freezing in the upper teens or more. Get rid of drafts: caulk cracks, plastic on windows, etc goes a long way.

 

[Jennyfer33]

Thank you for your replies and suggestions! I'm in Idaho, we are having an exceptionally cold winter and are getting down in the single and negative digits. I've attached a couple pictures. I know my set up isn't the best and that could be a huge part of the problem. The lines coming out go to the taps on the other side of the wall on my patio.

 

[JonM]

I'd be way more worried about frozen and burst kegs. If it were me (and I'm also in frozen Wisconsin where it's not uncommon to go weeks without the temp ever going above freezing) I'd keep an eye on the weather and bring the kegs and lines inside the house if it looks like it'll be below freezing for a while.

 

[mongoose33]

Assuming the area where the lines coming out of the refrigerator is protected (i.e., not exposed to the outside directly), I think Plexvector's idea would work. It's what I'd do.

One light below the exposed lines outside the refrigerator, one inside. I'd do about a 40-watt inside the fridge, and maybe a 60-watt under the outside lines. Heat rising from the 60-watt would warm the lines. A 40-watt bulb would be enough heat inside the insulated refrigerator to keep ambient in there at a reasonable level. If for some reason that didn't work, you could go to 60 or even 100 watt bulbs, but I'll bet a 40 would work.

Of course, if you have a thermometer, put it in there and see what you get.

[I have a fermchamber fridge in my garage; had a 21-watt heat mat wrapped around a keg to keep it at 66 degrees; even when the garage was below 40 degrees, it had no problem keeping that keg at 66.]

I have a sink in my garage; the garage is insulated but not heated. Even during the coldest periods it rarely drops below 32 degrees (believe it or not, the cars shed heat and that helps keep it fairly temperate in there). When it's getting pretty cold, I just put a trouble light inside the cabinet below the sink, w/ a 60 degree bulb. That keeps the lines above freezing.

The light bulb idea is probably the most elegant one.

 

[kh54s10]

Put a temperature controller with a shielded lightbulb or some other kind of heat source in the keezer. Somehow get controlled heat on the lines to the faucets also.

 

[Ike]

I'm in Boise, and you're right: this cold is a PITA for my outdoor kegerator as well. When building it earlier this year, I snaked a 50W reptile heating cable around the inside, never imagining that wouldn't be enough to keep it warm enough when needed. But over the past couple weeks I've had to upgrade to a 100W ceramic "bulb" to create enough heat to keep up.

You have the added difficulty of that dead space between the fridge and the outer surface where the taps are located. I'd say increasing the amount of heating you have in the kegerator, along with adding some sort of warming measure in that dead space, should help out.

EDIT TO ADD: Is what I'm calling the "dead space" between the fridge and the taps completely open to the shed? If so, keeping them warm is gonna be a bear. If that's the case, I'd suggest wrapping one of the previously-mentioned reptile heating cables around the lines, and maybe wrapping the whole kit and kaboodle up in some sort of insulation:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002DIWMS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[PlexVector]

Thank you for your replies and suggestions! I'm in Idaho, we are having an exceptionally cold winter and are getting down in the single and negative digits. I've attached a couple pictures. I know my set up isn't the best and that could be a huge part of the problem. The lines coming out go to the taps on the other side of the wall on my patio.

More questions:
1. Is the patio exposed to the weather - pic may help
2. Is there insulation in the wall where the shanks feed the faucets?

Consider an insulated faucet cover; http://www.homedepot.com/p/Hard-Faucet-Cover-1981/204759083

Provide a little bit of safe heat between the fridge and wall.

 

[Jennyfer33]

That dead space is just open to the shed. My next project is to find a way to get the refrigerator flush with the wall to eliminate that.

Do you have the bulb in the kegerator itself?

 

[PlexVector]

That dead space is just open to the shed. My next project is to find a way to get the refrigerator flush with the wall to eliminate that.

Do you have the bulb in the kegerator itself?

Lot of good suggestions above.

The faucets need to be insulated from the cold and the localized heat in the dead space will keep the lines and shanks warm and the shanks will conduct some heat out to the faucets. I'm surprised you have not had one burst.

if you insulate the chanks and beer lines without insulating the faucets the faucets will act as a conduit for cold and still freeze the lines.

I would put a thermocouple on one of the shanks and use that with a controller to control the heating device of your choosing and set the temp to 40F so the beer in the line does not get to warm. The reptile heaters mentioned above are probably the safest choice. there are a lot of ways to skin this cat.

I also like the idea of providing some bias heat in the fridge. Just enough so the fridge can keep the set temp. I do this with my fermentation chamber in the winter with a 20W bulb that runs continuously.

 

[mongoose33]

That dead space is just open to the shed. My next project is to find a way to get the refrigerator flush with the wall to eliminate that.

Do you have the bulb in the kegerator itself?

Yes--if you have a regular extension cord (not a round one like with an orange heavy-duty extension cord), your refrigerator gasket will close on it. Run it through the side where the hinges are.