Just a concern with temp.

[bracconiere]

If the kegerator in question does not use the cabinet skin as a radiator for an underlying condenser loop - thus either has an external grid-style tubing condenser in the back, or uses an under-cabinet radiator-style condenser (typically fan-driven) - you can coat the thing with concrete with no operational concerns

But if it relies on the cabinet skin to get rid of heat, things aren't quite so cut and dried, as raising the thermal resistance to room air by a significant factor will put strain on the system causing it to run longer.

So, perhaps an 1/8" veneer would not be that significant, but I suspect 3/4" planking would be bad...

Cheers!

you're the man on stuff like this.

i got gifted a mini fridge kegerator, the built in temp controller was shot. but looked at the circuit and it just gave the compressor power. so i pulled the leads off and shorted them, and plugged it into a external temp controller. should i be worried about anything?

as far as i can tell the built in one was pretty much the same thing, and it's working with the external one....

any other HVAC people got any ideas? how low is too low for a mini fridge, i was cold crashing my 10 gallons of beer, and the compressor did get hot? but i had the fridge set to 30f. with a 15 gallon fermenter stuck inside with 70f beerf for hours...is that risky?

basicly the compressor is plugged straight into the wall with only my temp controller to say other wise.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]
i got gifted a mini fridge kegerator, the built in temp controller was shot. but looked at the circuit and it just gave the compressor power. so i pulled the leads off and shorted them, and plugged it into a external temp controller. should i be worried about anything?

Should be no concerns, that's actually a common method of bypassing oem thermostats that don't have the range required for the intended use and just get in the way.

[...]
how low is too low for a mini fridge, i was cold crashing my 10 gallons of beer, and the compressor did get hot? but i had the fridge set to 30f. with a 15 gallon fermenter stuck inside with 70f beerf for hours...is that risky?[...]

Compressors get hot. That's part of the physics of compressing vapor. And that's why there's a heat-removing condenser following the compressor
Anyway, the compressor is designed to deal with what seems to be crazy hot operation (and you're only feeling the skin!).

fwiw, it takes almost 40 hours for either of my 17cf top-freezer fridges to drop 11 gallons of beer from ~68°F to 34°F....

Cheers!

 

[bracconiere]

fwiw, it takes almost 40 hours for either of my 17cf top-freezer fridges to drop 11 gallons of beer from ~68°F to 34°F....

when i used my standing fridge it took two days, i was impressed with this thing. thanks for putting my mind at ease! basicly i can turn this thing into a mini freezer then! and it's about the same size as my fermenter. and only burns 85 watts according to my kill-a-watt meter.