kegerator/keezer advice

[hou_me]

Okay, so I'm ready to give up the bottles and start kegging this spring. I've never minded bottling in the past, but suddenly I don't want to clean and store a million bottles. So I have been reading up on building a keezer which seems simple enough, but here's the thing. I have a working mini fridge that a friend gave me for free just sitting in the garage. I originally planned to make it a second fermentation chamber exclusively for lagers but haven't gotten around to it. So naturally the cheapskate in me wants to turn this into a keg chilling apparatus of some description instead, especially since we don't drink many lagers anyway. Basically I'm imaging removing the door, building an insulated box around the whole thing with taps and a temp controller. The upsides that I can see are that 1) I already have the fridge, and 2) I can build the box to [almost] any dimensions. The downsides that I see are 1) loss of another ferm chamber 2) more construction and more building supplies 3) the fridge is probably underpowered for this. Either way is pretty much win-win, so if I have to buy a freezer that's fine. I just want to hear what some of y'all would do in my position. Thanks!

-ben

 

[xenomaniac]

I literally just finished building my first kegerator myself. It's really easy to do. Do you have pictures of the mini fridge in mind you wish to use?

 

[hou_me]

Sorry, no pics. It's a haier. Model Number bc117lw.

 

[xenomaniac]

I'm at work right now, I'll have to look at it later. You can find a lot of videos on YouTube on how to build them.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[hou_me]

Cool, thanks for the tip.

-ben

 

[doublehaul]

I'm always in favor of being a cheapskate... Plus, with a keezer you have to lift the kegs instead of just opening the door. But a keezer has much more room. You could always try it out and if you don't like it make it a ferm chamber and build a keezer.

 

[Watzee]

I turned an average sized fridge into a kegerator with 4 corny kegs in it. I decided to put my 5lb CO2 tank inside and it is very cramped in there. Kind of a pain to change PSI, or change around kegs and everything needs to be in there perfectly to close the door.

If I had to do it over again I would use a Keezer. On the other hand I can always put my CO2 tank outside. But then again I've never used a Keezer.

Good luck on whatever you decide to do.

 

[xenomaniac]

^I have a 4 lb tank and I'm planning on making my kegerator with 4 taps in the future.

 

[hou_me]

Thanks for all the insight y'all! I think I'm going to go ahead and build a keezer. Seems the ubiquitous CL freezer always comes in white. Who has painted yours, and how did it come out?