Mini fridge powerful enough?

[Bjornbrewer]

Hey guys,

I'm currently finishing my basement and I plan on putting in a bar this winter. I was thinking of building up a keezer and running lines out the top to a tap tower. However I don't want to have to pull the thing out of it's spot under the bar ever time I need to swap a keg.

Instead I was thinking of using a mini fridge, taking the front door off and building an insulated box off the front that would house 4 kegs or so. My question is: Is a 4-5cu*ft mini fridge powerful enough to cool 7-8 cu*ft to 40* or so? Have any of you guys tried this?

Thanks for any input.

Paul

 

[sketerbuck]

I have a small mini fridge that would only hold one corney. I added some 2x6 on the front and now I can fit two more kegs , however it is working really hard and I hope I don't burn it up. This project added about 15-20% to my fridge. I don't think mine would do much more than that....Good luck

 

[RogerMcAllen]

Depends how big the mini fridge is.

I have a 4.4 sqft that cools 8.8 sqft to 40 without too much hassle.

 

[Bjornbrewer]

thanks guys. Roger, what kind of fridge do you have? That sounds about the size I'd be shooting for. Did you do anything to the Mini like remove the baffling for the freezer or anything?

 

[RogerMcAllen]

GE 4.3 Cubic Foot Compact Refrigerator (Model # SMR04DAPB), I think it was $130 at Sam's Club.

I took out all of the inside shelves, the freezer door flap, and the plastic piece on the door that holds cans.

 

[pen25]

i have the same thing pretty much with a 4cf or so and i doubled the size with foam and it gets to 40 no problem. I can fit 3 kegs no problem. i could go larger and i think it would be fine. just will take a while to get down to the temp. use a fan to move the cold air around.

you can take a muffin fan 12volt put it on an old cell phone charger and slow the fan if you want.

 

[Bjornbrewer]

Thanks guys...I may give it a try. Good idea about the fan Pen.

 

[rudy0498]

I've done this with a 4.4 cuft fridge and it does fine. I insulated it with 3 sheets of 3/4" R 4.0 foam board, and I can get the whole thing below freezing. One thing I would suggest is getting a temperature controller of some sort (Love, Ranco, Johnson, etc.) to maintain a consistent temperature. Most mini-fridge thermostats are checking the temperature in the freezer compartment and when you double or triple the total Cu*ft it throws that off considerably. My temperature would fluctuate 10 degrees at the same setting. That caused considerable temperature differences between the large thermal mass of beer inside the keg, and the strung out beer in the lines. This led to the co2 separating from the beer and cause air bubble and foaming problems.

So it can definitely be done, but budget for a temp controller or it will frustrate the crap out of you.

 

[Bjornbrewer]

I've done this with a 4.4 cuft fridge and it does fine. I insulated it with 3 sheets of 3/4" R 4.0 foam board, and I can get the whole thing below freezing. One thing I would suggest is getting a temperature controller of some sort (Love, Ranco, Johnson, etc.) to maintain a consistent temperature. Most mini-fridge thermostats are checking the temperature in the freezer compartment and when you double or triple the total Cu*ft it throws that off considerably. My temperature would fluctuate 10 degrees at the same setting. That caused considerable temperature differences between the large thermal mass of beer inside the keg, and the strung out beer in the lines. This led to the co2 separating from the beer and cause air bubble and foaming problems.

So it can definitely be done, but budget for a temp controller or it will frustrate the crap out of you.

Thanks Rudy for that. I was hoping to go with the minifridge (partly) to get away from a temp controller. Oh, well...I'll just have to budget for it. Thanks for the heads up though.

What kind of fridge did you start with and what size is the final unit?

 

[rudy0498]

Thanks Rudy for that. I was hoping to go with the minifridge (partly) to get away from a temp controller. Oh, well...I'll just have to budget for it. Thanks for the heads up though.

What kind of fridge did you start with and what size is the final unit?

It should work without it, don't get me wrong. It stayed fairly stable for me for a couple months, but then it started dipping below freezing. I got to the point where I was constantly fiddling with it. You could try it without, and if it doesn't stay stable, you could always add on the temp controller later.

My fridge is the best kind....FREE! I don't know the model number, but it was a 10-12 year old Haier that my sister had in college and wasn't using anymore. It wasn't really used much, so functionally, it was probably a lot newer.

My original build was about 12-14 cuFt. including the fridge space. So I more than tripled volume. It would have been big enough to hold 5 cornies with only the co2 tank needing to so inside the fridge. I had some foaming problems early on, and was on utilizing 2 kegs, so I stuffed a several more pieces of foam board on one side to limit the open air space. That reduced the volume to about 8-9 cuFt.

Here is a thread that I opened asking for advice and has some pictures: Cold Box Project. There are a couple more pictures in my gallery.

I built mine into an existing bar, which added to the complexity. But if you are building one from scratch, one thing you should account for is keeping the compressor cool, so you don't burn it out. Mine is pretty concealed so I stuck in a couple muffin fans to ventilate behind the fridge.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, because it's likely that I had to think through some of the same issues.

 

[Bjornbrewer]

^lots of good info here and in your other thread! thanks for everything Rudy.

cheers

 

[seabeefrantz]

awsome thread this just made my day and my mind up about building one under my existing bar.

 

[sethful]

A fellow forum member (D-Boss) did something close to what you're talking about. I like the fact that he was using the freezer section to help cool things off as well... but that is just me. Here is the link to the thread

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/just-another-bar-build-124367/

 

[Bjornbrewer]

I probably won't get to this until the winter time (maybe fall), but I'll keep you all posted on the work.