So I've made a couple small modifications to the monthly budget to get a small / medium keezer or kegerator setup. Initial build will be the box, no modifications, picnic taps, and a temp controller. Nothing fancy for now. Future plans will be to possibly decorate the outside, have a tap tower / front spigots, something fancy with external dispensing.
Anyways the question at hand is where to go from here? It looks like there's a few small mini - fridges out there that will fit my 10lb co2 and 2 cornies. Which is great for the time being, I've only got the 2 for now. Problem is later on I have to decide what 2 kegs to have available at any given time, and likely have a couple sitting around being lonely and untapped.
As far as small freezers go the 5 cu ft ones tend to not have an area large enough for more than 3 kegs. 3 is better than 2, and on the compressor hump there's lots of space for regulators and manifolds. Now at the 7 range is when it looks like I can fit 6 kegs and all the fixings. Currently a little outside the price range, a month or two of saving may fix that.
I do not currently have a logical place to put a full size upright fridge, nor do I see it happening any time in the near future. They're also non-budget-compliant.
Alternatively, there is the option to get a mini fridge kegerator for now, then get a twin brother for it later on in life. I saw one particular model that has all the cooling fins inside the unit meaning the back panel is clear for drilling. This could allow co2 lines to go in from the backside and the 2 kegerators share a tank. Might even be able to put taps on the front door and stack the 2, but then that's the same size as the upright fridge. All in the name of beer I guess.
The other factor to look at is electricity costs. I do realize that each appliance is different and cannot go under a broad umbrella fairly. But lets give it a shot. I'd bet that at beer serving temps (likely around 45-50F for me) the freezer would have less power usage based on being designed for keeping things sub-zero and having more insulation. Based on that it would be fair to assume that 2x mini-fridges would have even more power consumption than a single freezer of double the volume. Make sense?
Being somewhat mechanically inclined I do like some of the "Show us your kegerators" where they have the freezer with an added section to give it the height required to properly utilize the compressor hump. I could pull that off when I decide the deep floor space isn't enough.
Anyone out there have experience with this? Getting one setup and swapping because you didn't start big? Anyone get something too big on impulse? Anyone rocking the dual mini fridge setup? Thanks in advance.
Anyways the question at hand is where to go from here? It looks like there's a few small mini - fridges out there that will fit my 10lb co2 and 2 cornies. Which is great for the time being, I've only got the 2 for now. Problem is later on I have to decide what 2 kegs to have available at any given time, and likely have a couple sitting around being lonely and untapped.
As far as small freezers go the 5 cu ft ones tend to not have an area large enough for more than 3 kegs. 3 is better than 2, and on the compressor hump there's lots of space for regulators and manifolds. Now at the 7 range is when it looks like I can fit 6 kegs and all the fixings. Currently a little outside the price range, a month or two of saving may fix that.
I do not currently have a logical place to put a full size upright fridge, nor do I see it happening any time in the near future. They're also non-budget-compliant.
Alternatively, there is the option to get a mini fridge kegerator for now, then get a twin brother for it later on in life. I saw one particular model that has all the cooling fins inside the unit meaning the back panel is clear for drilling. This could allow co2 lines to go in from the backside and the 2 kegerators share a tank. Might even be able to put taps on the front door and stack the 2, but then that's the same size as the upright fridge. All in the name of beer I guess.
The other factor to look at is electricity costs. I do realize that each appliance is different and cannot go under a broad umbrella fairly. But lets give it a shot. I'd bet that at beer serving temps (likely around 45-50F for me) the freezer would have less power usage based on being designed for keeping things sub-zero and having more insulation. Based on that it would be fair to assume that 2x mini-fridges would have even more power consumption than a single freezer of double the volume. Make sense?
Being somewhat mechanically inclined I do like some of the "Show us your kegerators" where they have the freezer with an added section to give it the height required to properly utilize the compressor hump. I could pull that off when I decide the deep floor space isn't enough.
Anyone out there have experience with this? Getting one setup and swapping because you didn't start big? Anyone get something too big on impulse? Anyone rocking the dual mini fridge setup? Thanks in advance.
