Well I am starting another Keggerator project.
My first was a Beverage Air BM23C-S which is the Club Top Stainless Steel Keggerator that I got off an auction for $100 I think a few years back. It holds a single 1/2 barrel or 4 Ball Locks which is a nice size for in the house. Since it has the optional 3 tap tower it works great for home brew. 4 ball locks, 3 on faucets and one on a cobra (picnic) tap. Typically charged water for the kids to use with Sodastream syrup or Mio stuff in the cobra tap. It was a pretty quick fix. Start up relay and cap was bad. Swapped it out and worked great until the thermostat died and froze my beer solid a few months after I first got it running. It is an older R12 machine and works like a champ.
http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/kegerators/BM23C-S___30164.shtml
On to the new project. Few weeks ago I noticed the same auction site has a much bigger unit listed. Won the auction and got it for a little over $50 after fees. Go pick it up and it is way bigger than I thought. This one is a Beverage Air DD94. It holds 5 x 1/2 barrels and is 8' long, weighing in at 460lbs.
http://www.basequipment.com/Beverage-Air-DD94-1-B-p/bev-dd941b.htm
The auction stated that it runs but is low on refrigerant. Ok huge gamble but went for it anyhow. If it is low it has a leak somewhere as it is a closed system. They loaded it up on my trailer with a bobcat with pallet forks. It was a PITA to get unloaded onto my motorcycle lift. Managed to pull it off by myself using a come-a-long hooked to my ATV which had it's winch anchored to a couple 2x4s through a doorway. Hey kids were not much help so I had to get inventive. Work smarter not harder.
Start cleaning it up and checking out what I have to start with. Nice wall mount secondary regulator, some gas manifolds, primary regulator with a smashed high pressure gauge. That can be fixed up but I have a few primaries laying around so set it aside for now. No couplers but I have every commercial version made along with a selection of ball locks. I gutted all the gas lines and will replace all that once I get things up and running. No towers either which kind of sucks. More on that later. Lets see what is going on with this thing....
Plug it in the next day but no signs of cooling. Call up a friend of a friend that does refrigeration repair and set up a time for him to stop out. Week or so later he stops out and takes a look at things. He could see someone worked on it before, not a good sign as he can see it has been refilled on refrigerant once before. Starts pumping some in and running it and we find the leak. The Capillary tube (thin copper line to internal fan) has been rubbing against the compressor and wore a hole in it. Easy fix as it is accessible but he didn't have the parts as he didn't know what to bring. Comes back the next day, cuts out bad section of copper and brazes in a new section along with a new dryer. Pulls a vac on the system to get the air/humidity out and test integrity of system. After 30 min it is maintaining vac. Fills with refrigerant and tests it. In about 30 minutes it drops internal temp from 85 to 42. For how big it is (40cu ft) not bad. Charges me $70 I give him $80. So I am $130 into it now but it runs.
Next up is making this thing more portable. It is too big for in the house. I wanted this for in my shop/pole barn. I need to free up my motorcycle lift so I can, well work on motorcycles. While it was nice to have it on the motorcycle lift most of the work where I would be crawling around on the ground is done. Had some heavy duty casters and made a wood frame. Then used a pair of high-lift jacks to lift one end and a floor jack on the other end to get it up in the air. Pulled the motorcycle lift out and wheeled in my wood platform with casters. Get everything centered and lower it down. Perfect fit.
Cleared out an 8' section of wall space and parked it there. It easily rolls around with one hand. While the casters bumped the top to about 44" I am not worried about it as I am 6'4". Once I get the tower figured out my wife may find she needs a step ladder. Though she doesn't drink much beer.
So as I mentioned the unit didn't come with any tap towers so I need to start planning for the next phase of the refurb. Here is what I am thinking.
I only have 8 ball lock kegs. I came across a post of someone here with this same unit that has 16 kegs on tap. Don't really need that much space right now. With 4 kegs in the other keggerator I only have 4 kegs left until I pick up some more and that is a good starting point. One thing I could use is expanded space for fermentation. I currently use a STC1000 controlling an old wine fridge. This will hold a 6.5 gallon bucket fine or a carboy for secondary. If I make a Lager I have to stock up a bunch of batches as I will be down for a few months with the fermentation chamber tied up. So I am thinking I will have 4 taps on this. I have a bunch of that 2" pink insulation board. Put up a wall internally to divide up the fridge. Basically make a cold side and a warm side. I can then use the cold side for serving beer but big enough to add a carboy for cold crashing. Depending on wall placement have enough room for 10-15 gallons fermenting on the warm side. Put a computer case fan in with some baffles (dryer vent) to blow cold air to warm side to maintain the coldest temp needed for the beer in fermentation. Then use a Fermwrap on an insulated carboy/bucket if I need warmer temps for other beers sharing the same chamber. Possibly controlling the entire thing with BrewPi. I need to read up more on how this works but it looks interesting.
So next phase is the tower. I saw a post where someone made one out of square fence post. I picked up a 5" square post. I was thinking using the two existing 3" holes to have two uprights (round PVC?) and bridge across them with the 5" fence post. Then do the 4 taps on the left side keeping the right side free for display(s) for BrewPi. I still might do something along these lines but now and am thinking wooden tower. The advantage of the wood option is insulating it would be much easier as well as accessibility for plumbing the lines/faucets and mounting displays and such. Since it is in the shop, I have also thought the rat rod look. Maybe sheet metal and let it look rusty but it has a nice stainless top so not sure how well that will go with the rest of it.
So what are thoughts out there on the tower? Fence post or wood tower. I think that the two best options right now.
My first was a Beverage Air BM23C-S which is the Club Top Stainless Steel Keggerator that I got off an auction for $100 I think a few years back. It holds a single 1/2 barrel or 4 Ball Locks which is a nice size for in the house. Since it has the optional 3 tap tower it works great for home brew. 4 ball locks, 3 on faucets and one on a cobra (picnic) tap. Typically charged water for the kids to use with Sodastream syrup or Mio stuff in the cobra tap. It was a pretty quick fix. Start up relay and cap was bad. Swapped it out and worked great until the thermostat died and froze my beer solid a few months after I first got it running. It is an older R12 machine and works like a champ.
http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/kegerators/BM23C-S___30164.shtml
On to the new project. Few weeks ago I noticed the same auction site has a much bigger unit listed. Won the auction and got it for a little over $50 after fees. Go pick it up and it is way bigger than I thought. This one is a Beverage Air DD94. It holds 5 x 1/2 barrels and is 8' long, weighing in at 460lbs.
http://www.basequipment.com/Beverage-Air-DD94-1-B-p/bev-dd941b.htm
The auction stated that it runs but is low on refrigerant. Ok huge gamble but went for it anyhow. If it is low it has a leak somewhere as it is a closed system. They loaded it up on my trailer with a bobcat with pallet forks. It was a PITA to get unloaded onto my motorcycle lift. Managed to pull it off by myself using a come-a-long hooked to my ATV which had it's winch anchored to a couple 2x4s through a doorway. Hey kids were not much help so I had to get inventive. Work smarter not harder.
Start cleaning it up and checking out what I have to start with. Nice wall mount secondary regulator, some gas manifolds, primary regulator with a smashed high pressure gauge. That can be fixed up but I have a few primaries laying around so set it aside for now. No couplers but I have every commercial version made along with a selection of ball locks. I gutted all the gas lines and will replace all that once I get things up and running. No towers either which kind of sucks. More on that later. Lets see what is going on with this thing....
Plug it in the next day but no signs of cooling. Call up a friend of a friend that does refrigeration repair and set up a time for him to stop out. Week or so later he stops out and takes a look at things. He could see someone worked on it before, not a good sign as he can see it has been refilled on refrigerant once before. Starts pumping some in and running it and we find the leak. The Capillary tube (thin copper line to internal fan) has been rubbing against the compressor and wore a hole in it. Easy fix as it is accessible but he didn't have the parts as he didn't know what to bring. Comes back the next day, cuts out bad section of copper and brazes in a new section along with a new dryer. Pulls a vac on the system to get the air/humidity out and test integrity of system. After 30 min it is maintaining vac. Fills with refrigerant and tests it. In about 30 minutes it drops internal temp from 85 to 42. For how big it is (40cu ft) not bad. Charges me $70 I give him $80. So I am $130 into it now but it runs.
Next up is making this thing more portable. It is too big for in the house. I wanted this for in my shop/pole barn. I need to free up my motorcycle lift so I can, well work on motorcycles. While it was nice to have it on the motorcycle lift most of the work where I would be crawling around on the ground is done. Had some heavy duty casters and made a wood frame. Then used a pair of high-lift jacks to lift one end and a floor jack on the other end to get it up in the air. Pulled the motorcycle lift out and wheeled in my wood platform with casters. Get everything centered and lower it down. Perfect fit.
Cleared out an 8' section of wall space and parked it there. It easily rolls around with one hand. While the casters bumped the top to about 44" I am not worried about it as I am 6'4". Once I get the tower figured out my wife may find she needs a step ladder. Though she doesn't drink much beer.
So as I mentioned the unit didn't come with any tap towers so I need to start planning for the next phase of the refurb. Here is what I am thinking.
I only have 8 ball lock kegs. I came across a post of someone here with this same unit that has 16 kegs on tap. Don't really need that much space right now. With 4 kegs in the other keggerator I only have 4 kegs left until I pick up some more and that is a good starting point. One thing I could use is expanded space for fermentation. I currently use a STC1000 controlling an old wine fridge. This will hold a 6.5 gallon bucket fine or a carboy for secondary. If I make a Lager I have to stock up a bunch of batches as I will be down for a few months with the fermentation chamber tied up. So I am thinking I will have 4 taps on this. I have a bunch of that 2" pink insulation board. Put up a wall internally to divide up the fridge. Basically make a cold side and a warm side. I can then use the cold side for serving beer but big enough to add a carboy for cold crashing. Depending on wall placement have enough room for 10-15 gallons fermenting on the warm side. Put a computer case fan in with some baffles (dryer vent) to blow cold air to warm side to maintain the coldest temp needed for the beer in fermentation. Then use a Fermwrap on an insulated carboy/bucket if I need warmer temps for other beers sharing the same chamber. Possibly controlling the entire thing with BrewPi. I need to read up more on how this works but it looks interesting.
So next phase is the tower. I saw a post where someone made one out of square fence post. I picked up a 5" square post. I was thinking using the two existing 3" holes to have two uprights (round PVC?) and bridge across them with the 5" fence post. Then do the 4 taps on the left side keeping the right side free for display(s) for BrewPi. I still might do something along these lines but now and am thinking wooden tower. The advantage of the wood option is insulating it would be much easier as well as accessibility for plumbing the lines/faucets and mounting displays and such. Since it is in the shop, I have also thought the rat rod look. Maybe sheet metal and let it look rusty but it has a nice stainless top so not sure how well that will go with the rest of it.
So what are thoughts out there on the tower? Fence post or wood tower. I think that the two best options right now.
