Please give input on my kegerator

[Howiedw]

If you plan on using foam board insulation, I would make sure to get the foil backed variety. Face the shiny side out and tape the coils to that side. As for recessing the coils, you want them to male contact with the outer shell. If you have the room to fit the shell over with out cutting grooves, them go that way. If there is not enough clearence, then cut groves.

 

[humpadilo]

So this is where I am now. I have the cold coils under the foil on the back and I am going to cover that with foam insulation. The hot coils are going on both sides of the fridge. It will be sitting on top of aluminum and the foam insulation. The metal shell will be resting against the hot coils to transfer the heat away. I am also going to seal the compressor compartment from the rest of the fridge. I am planning on having vents on the compressor area and installing a fan that comes on when the compressor comes on. I am pretty close to finishing.

 

[humpadilo]

Last night my father in law came over to help me wire up the electrical parts. We put a little PC fan in the main chamber to circulate the air and another one by the compressor to cool it off. We wired them to have them come on only when the compressor is on. The one in the main chamber has a pretty shabby frame but it works for now. I also put a metal grate over the back and side of the compressor to vent it.

 

[tdexterc]

I haven't had much time to make progress on my kegerator. I'm a little concerned about how I am going to bend the copper coils. Does anyone have any suggestions or advice on how to do this?

Looks like I got here too late, but it sounds like you were able to bend the copper fine. For reference on future projects, when I was bending copper tubing for my wort chiller, rather than bending it freely by hand or buying an expensive bending tool, I just simply filled the tubing with sand to keep it from buckling anywhere and it worked like a charm.

 

[humpadilo]

That's a really good idea but the only problem with mine is that the copper lines have gas in it and i didn't want to have to pay someone to solder it back and refill it with gas. So, I had no way of filling it with gas. I will use that idea if I make a wort chiller though.

 

[tdexterc]

Ooooh I see. I was thinking you were buying new tubing and fitting it to an existing refrigerator unit. Looks like a really interesting and seriously ambitious project. I look forward to seeing the finished product!

 

[humpadilo]

So I am pretty much finished. I put some trim on the bottom and plugged it in for the night. I still need to paint over some scratches I put in and put a shelf in the top left compartment so I can store bottles. I will be moving it in to the house tomorrow and put my Oktoberfest that is fermenting in it until I get my keg. Here is the finished product.

 

[humpadilo]

Ooooh I see. I was thinking you were buying new tubing and fitting it to an existing refrigerator unit. Looks like a really interesting and seriously ambitious project. I look forward to seeing the finished product!

It was really ambitious! Especially since I have little to no experience in thus kind of stuff. I just took my time and experimented. I am extremely happy with how this turned out. I think it looks great. I will see in the morning if it gets cool enough to chill my brews.

 

[GrantH]

So is it holding temps like you want? This is really awesome and looks amazing.

 

[humpadilo]

I turned the temp control to just over half way last night and it was at about 55 degrees this morning. Not to bad. I think I will turn it all the way up and see how cold it gets.

 

[humpadilo]

So I am a little sad that it is not keeping tempurature like I need. It was staying at low 60's in my kitchen. It was frosting up on certain parts on the back panal where the cold coils are touching the back. It tells me that those parts are plenty cold and I have anissue of distributing the cold and absorbing the heat out of the unit. I was told that putting some heat sinks over the area that is frosting and putting my fan to blow over them will help absorb the hotter air in the unit and absorb it into the frosting area. I am going to order those and hopefully put them in soon. By the way my keg, regulator, and CO2 came in today. I have a oktoberfest that I am going to keg in about a week:mug. It will be my first keg!!!

 

[Howiedw]

I hate to see you have to take it completely apart, but on the fridge you sacrificed, were the cooling coils on the inside of the box? you may need to figure a way to put the cooling coils inside the cold box. On mine, the cold plate that formed the freezer are placed inside the cold box. Hopes for the best. Hopefully you do not need to completely re-engineer the whole thing.

 

[humpadilo]

I know exactly what you are talking about. My fridge didn't have a freezer so no cold plate. The cold coils were between the inner and outer shells. I am pretty confident it is the lack of air flow. The fan I put in there to begin with is at a bad spot spot. It's getting the specific area down to freezing temperatures I just need it to absorb all that heat in the unit. Hopefully the heat sinks will do it. I haven't ordered them yet so it will be a while before I get them in. By the way does anyone where I could get some thermal epoxy so I don't have to take the whole thing apart to screw the heat sinks in?

 

[humpadilo]

So I have some heat sinks that I am going to install. I am going to use a thermal glue to apply them where it is frosting up. They will go in like the pattern in the picture. I am going to make a housing out of sheet metal to go over them and have a fan blowing air in through the bottom. That way the air going in Is warm and the heat sinks absorb the heat and out comes the cold air.

 

[humpadilo]

So I got the heat sinks installed. I put three on the right side and two on the left side. I put them over where it keeps frosting up on the back wall. I covered it with some of the aluminum insulation I had left over and put fans on them. Here is the final product of what I did today.

 

[humpadilo]

I'm not to happy with my kegerator. It is not cooling very well. I think I am going to have to have to do some surgery. I was thinking about cutting the back out and move the cold coils to the inside and replace the sheet metal. Also I didn't get the hot coils to make contact with the outside shell. I am going to put this on the back burner for bit.

 

[Howiedw]

Sorry to hear that. If you plan surgery anyway, it may be worth it to look for a different sacrificial fridge. Here's hoping for the best!

 

[honreth]

Any updates on this?

 

[humpadilo]

I am disappointed with this. I think the problem is that I have a to small cooling unit. I think I need to get another minifrdge that is bigger and has a freezer in it. I modified it from the last pictures.
I cut the metal out of the inside back where the cold coils are. I pulled the coils forward and put two more sheets of insulation around the entire inside. I also rigged up a fan that blew air across the coils.
I can only get it to mid 50s while it is turned all the way down. The first few cold coils are freezing over. I put a stick on thermometer on the front of the keg and it reads at a constant 57. I had a bravarian beer in the keg and it was barely cold enough. I think this is going to sit on the back burner until I figure a good way to fix it. It is a lot of work taking it apart and I glued the insulation so I might not be able to reuse it. Also the wood is pretty old and taking it apart might tear it up worse.
It looks really awesome right now though. I am looking for a chest freezer I can just put a collar on for the time.

 

[firerat]

Sorry to hear man.

I had similar issues with my kegerator not getting cold enough. I turned it into a fermentation chamber instead.

I have much better luck using a chest freezer as a keezer.

 

[humpadilo]

I don't want to give up on this because I love having a kegerator that looks this cool. I do have a big chest freezer that i am using. It is pretty old so maybe I can talk SWMBO into wanting a new one and I can see if I can do anything with that one. It should have plenty of power for the kegerator.

 

[humpadilo]

I started reading Howiedw's thread on his radio conversion and it sparked an idea for me. Since the cooling unit is to small, maybe if I seperate the left half from the right were I keep the keg. Does anyone think that will work? Cutting down on the square footage? Also does anyone have any suggestions on the cold coils? I don't have a freezer plate. It is only the copper coils. How should I mount them? Should I tape them to the insulation on the inside with a piece of sheet metal on top? This is the second half to my problem since they keep icing over. Ill post a pic from my phone of the inside.

 

[humpadilo]

Here is the inside. I put a piece of sheet metal over the coils thinking a cold plate would help with the coils freezing over. Nope, they still freeze.

 

[Howiedw]

My suggestion is for you to try somethingon the inside of yours similar to what I did on the outside of mine.
Cut an aluminum plate to fit and metal tape the cold side coils to that. Attach it to the inside with some plastic spacers for air circulation. Here is a pict of what I did. It should work on the same principal but with the cold.

 

[humpadilo]

Howiedw, what did you line the inside with?

 

[Howiedw]

Howiedw, what did you line the inside with?

1" foam insulation board. It came with one side that was silver. I used metal duct tape to wrap the edges and seal the corners. You can find the foam board at Lowes for about $10 per 4x8 sheet. The more insulation you get, the better the result. I went with the 1" because if I went any thicker, I would not have been able to fit 2 kegs inside. With the 1", they both fit, but just barely.

 

[humpadilo]

Are you putting anything on the insulation to protect but against bumps and scratches? I went with the 3/4 inch and put a few layers on.

 

[Howiedw]

I did place a piece of 3/8 ply over the insulation on the bottom to set the kegs on. I wrapped it in the metal tape to protect it and reflect the cold. Other than that, just being careful works for me. I just swapped out both kegs and did not have an issue. If you want, I can post more detailed pictures in the next couple of days. I am always willing to help. All I have left to do is find a chalkboard/ whiteboard to put where the radio was and better weather seal the door. I seem to be getting a fair amount of ice buildup on the cold plate. Once again, nothing to bad for a one of a kind kegarator.

 

[humpadilo]

I would love to see pics. I mostly interested about how to keep it from icing over. Thank you so much for the advice.

 

[humpadilo]

Ok, I feel a little silly. I ave been putting the cold plate on the wrong side of the coils. I was thinking it would help protect the coils and it would transfer the heat, but it was only blocking the cold. So I put the cold plate behind the coils and bam!! It is around 42 and only on about 1/3 of the way up. Here is what it looks like now.

Also I separated the keg compartment so it is the only cold area. It also frees up space so I can fit my CO2 in the left compartment and not have to have it out side.