Show us your upright refrigerator "Kegerator" conversion.

[Huaco]

I am looking for ideas. I have a small 16.5 cu. ft. apartment top freezer refrigerator and I want to see what you guys have come up with.

 

[UofMontanaAlum]

My old keg fridge...

I painted it black with a rattle can of appliance epoxy. The handle is off of a commercial range. I wanted both the freezer and refrigerator door to open at the same time so I pinned the two doors together. The logo was made on Photoshop and then printed on vinyl at a local sign shop.

I've since sold that fridge and converted a Gladiator Garageworks Chillerator into a keg fridge.

 

[Huaco]

Thanks for posting.
How did you "pin" the doors together? I was just thinking about screwing a piece of angle to the door, as i want both of mine to open at the same time too.

 

[UofMontanaAlum]

Most top freezer refrigerators have reversible doors. Because of this, there are mounting points (holes) for the center hinge on the bottom side of the freezer door/top side of the refrigerator door on both sides of each door. To pin them together, pull the freezer door off, put a short section of threaded rod with two nuts on it into the hole on the top of the refrigerator door (on the side you will have the handle on), put the freezer door back on making sure the threaded rod is seated in the hole on the bottom side of the freezer door, tighten the nuts on the threaded rod up against the doors to prevent wobbling and your done.

 

[Dan]

Here's a pic of my old kegerator. Not the best picture quality.

 

[rwagner23]

Ultimately I think I should have stopped at five kegs. Getting six in there is a tight fit and I have to fight to get hoses from being pinched.

More pics: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/116663256079420482910/albums/5706268535769955057

 

[Huaco]

So you are serving through the side? How did you make sure you did not hit gas lines?

 

[rwagner23]

I did my best to find what I could about my fridge online. From what I could tell there were no cooling lines on the sides. Though I did hit the wiring for door light

 

[SpartyParty]

This should be a great thread to follow! I'm hoping to find a large enough upright freezer to hold 6 kegs and a CO2 tank. I plan on running a trunk line from the basement to my six tap brass tower in the dining room. It will be cooled by an submersible pump. Anyone used an upright freezer rather than a fridge?

 

[BeerSawks]

Craig, I know you have already seen mine but figured I show it off anyway.

 

[krazydave]

Here's mine, with secondary regulators for each keg. Co2 tank lives outside the fridge (as it should).
Those are pin lock kegs in the pic, but ball locks do fit as well.
I also had my doors pinned together but removed the pin after the first time I needed the door open for a while to clean the lines. My wife stores food in the freezer and I didn't want it all melting anymore. Plus, since I never use any taller tap handles, I don't have any problem with hitting them if I only open the freezer.

If you want better pics, let me know. These were taken some time ago on a crappy phone.

 

[JSGT09]

I just picked up a smaller upright fridge that I want to do this to. Right now I'm just using the picnic taps. I see some of you have taken the racks and such off the inside of the door and filled it with insulation, and others have just left that portion in place. What is the best option here?

 

[krazydave]

I was originally planning to re-skin the inside of the door. But to be honest, those shelves have been invaluable for storing bottles, yeast, hops, etc.

 

[StainlessBrewing]

Craig, I know you have already seen mine but figured I show it off anyway.

Very nice! Great idea!

 

[Huaco]

Here's mine, with secondary regulators for each keg. Co2 tank lives outside the fridge (as it should).
Those are pin lock kegs in the pic, but ball locks do fit as well.
I also had my doors pinned together but removed the pin after the first time I needed the door open for a while to clean the lines. My wife stores food in the freezer and I didn't want it all melting anymore. Plus, since I never use any taller tap handles, I don't have any problem with hitting them if I only open the freezer.

If you want better pics, let me know. These were taken some time ago on a crappy phone.

Yeah, show some better pix of the regulators and what you used as a bulkhead for the gas.

I will probably just run with short tap handles too... but like the idea of the doors being pinned together.

Also... If you can take a look at the info tag on the fridge to see what volume it is. ex. mine is a 16.5 cu. ft. fridge.

 

[krazydave]

I didn't really use a bulkhead for the gas, just drilled a hole and ran the hose through. Then I sealed that up with some silicone. On the inside of the fridge I have a tee right where the gas comes in (right rear). That sends one line to each set of secondaries. The red line in the pic is the higher pressure line coming off the tank reg, then I ran clear from the secondaries to the kegs.
I'll try to get some better pics and get the size of the fridge tonight when I get home from work.

 

[krazydave]

Here's some more pics. Still phone pics, but if you need more detail, let me know.

 

[JSGT09]

I was originally planning to re-skin the inside of the door. But to be honest, those shelves have been invaluable for storing bottles, yeast, hops, etc.

Another reason I'm thinking about just leaving the shelves and such, they will prove nice for storing small stuff.

I've also heard of issues about drilling through the sidewall due to possibly hitting refrigerant lines. Is this true?

 

[PA49erFan21]

Another reason I'm thinking about just leaving the shelves and such, they will prove nice for storing small stuff.

I've also heard of issues about drilling through the sidewall due to possibly hitting refrigerant lines. Is this true?

This is one of the reasons I want to upgrade to an upright refrigerator from my kegerator. I have enough room for 2 corny kegs and I would love to have some extra storage for a few select bottles and possibly 1 or 2 more kegs.

I'm also curious about the drilling part and the refrigerant lines.

 

[krazydave]

I've also heard of issues about drilling through the sidewall due to possibly hitting refrigerant lines. Is this true?

Depends on the fridge. On mine the coolant lines run up the back on the right side to the freezer. There are none on the sides of the lower portion.
I was able to tell that by looking at the cooling system diagram in the manual.
It doesn't mean all are like that though, obviously.

 

[BeerSawks]

Very nice! Great idea!

Thanks!!

 

[mheiseyjr]

I was originally planning to re-skin the inside of the door. But to be honest, those shelves have been invaluable for storing bottles, yeast, hops, etc.

I re-skinned mine with a dry erase board...looks clean and is great for keeping notes. (forgive the Miller on the shelf, it's a work in progress)

 

[PA49erFan21]

^^^ Can't believe you took that picture with Miller Lite in it.

 

[mheiseyjr]

I do my best to avoid the big boys (hence the 10gal on tap under the Miller) but I can't talk my mother out of drinking it. Would you tell your mother she can't store her beer in your fridge to drink when she's over? Haha

Oh, and the most I've done with the Miller is use it to keep my picnic taps off the floor (see pic) until I get my taps installed.

 

[PA49erFan21]

I would tell the Pope himself he couldn't keep Miller Lite in my fridge. At least you are finding alternative uses for Miller Lite. I'll give you credit for that!

 

[jafo28]

Here's mine, will hold five ball locks. I keep the co2 outside. Five Perlicks in the door.

 

[Brewer4]

How about on the outside of a boathouse. Kid not included. ;-)

 

[microbusbrewery]

Depends on the fridge. On mine the coolant lines run up the back on the right side to the freezer. There are none on the sides of the lower portion.
I was able to tell that by looking at the cooling system diagram in the manual.
It doesn't mean all are like that though, obviously.

+1 what krazydave said, kind of depends on the fridge. I don't have my taps mounted on the side, but I did drill through the side for my gas line. I used a small bit and very carefully drilled it until I was just through the outer sheet metal. I then took some thin solid wire and poked it in the hole and felt around to see if there where any lines. I repeated these steps with slightly bigger dril bits until I was pretty confident in drilling a big enough hole for the gase line. That method seemed to work pretty well for drilling one hole but it'd be a pain for multiple taps...especially if you found a coolant line. There's the corn starch trick but I've heard of people having mixed results.

 

[Huaco]

I finally was able to move my ferm fridge into the utility room and put my old (bigger) fridge in the garage to use as my ferm fridge. It fit where I hoped it would with no less than a quarter inch to spare. The top of the fridge actually rubs on the overhead cabinetry, but it fit!
I think I had more beer on hand than I actually realized. With exception of the bombers on the top shelf, I have organized the bottles into Homebrew on the left and store bought beer on the right. The bombers are about half and half just mixed right now. Also, I am trying to sort them by color darker beer on top to lighter beer on bottom with ambers and reds in the middle.
This picture does not include the 5 gallons of IPA that are conditioning right now and the 5 gallons of Brown from last weekend. Hmm... Hope it all fits.

 

[cbebgb]

Ta-Da!