Opinions on Side by Side Kegerator/Fermentation chamber

[NickThoR]

So, my super old kegerator is gonna kick it soon... Looking at different options, I am thinking of a side by side kegerator / fermentation.

I'm looking for some pro cons on the set up, and have a few questions for those using one .

- If you can fit up to 4 kegs, it seems like a PITA to switch out the kegs, is it?

- Someone once told me the serving side always leaked over to the ferm side, and it was on the cool side for fermenting ales. I would rather not add a heating element just to keep it at 65ish. Is this an issue much?

- Can you crank down the ferm side to do lagers?

- rough estimate of cost of the electronics/ tempcontrolers, etc? (not including fridge or kegging, co2 equiment,etc,)

- Any other thoughts/pros/cons

 

[NickThoR]

- Also, any pariticular types of fridges I should avoid other than "digital"?

 

[NickThoR]

No Opinions?

 

[SGTSparty]

I don't have the combo ferm/serv but i have a side by side kegerator and I'll throw out that changing kegs can be a PITA. And I use the fridge side (freezer side is still a freezer). Some of it is probably complicated by the fact that i have my taps through the side wall not the door. If you were gunna use your freezer side as the serve side, I've seen folks do up to 4, 2 front to back/side by side on the bottom and a shelf of 2 more above... I'll look for the place on HBT I saw it and edit w/ a link if i can find it. To do that you'd need to dispense through the door. Lines are always gunna be a bigger pain than in a keezer and lifting full kegs to the upper shelf probably sucks, but you're lifting those into a keezer anyways so IDK how much worse it is.