Tap tower cooling with air?

[cederbusch]

I've built myself a keezer with an old porcelain tap tower. It had a copper pipe cooling circuit, in which I pumped regular water from a 5 liter keg. This cools the beer alright. BUT! I can't stand the constant noise from the pump.

Is pumping air through this circuit effective enough? Or remove insulation and just pump air up the tower?

Rather not spend more money on another pump

 

[Brooothru]

I attached a computer CPU fan to a 1" diameter semi-rigid plastic tube. The fan draws in cold air from the bottom of the kegerator and discharges it into the tower. It certainly does the job in helping to serve up cold beer and keep down foaming, especially in the warm summer months. The CPU fan runs off stepped-down AC power from a "wall wart" type plug-in and thin gauge wire which I strung through the hole where the CO2 line enters into the kegerator.

The power draw and the noise are insignificant (fan runs continuously). The only downside is the condensation that forms on the outside of the tower, but it's not a significant problem.

 

[cabron99]

Ditto Brooothru

 

[cederbusch]

I attached a computer CPU fan to a 1" diameter semi-rigid plastic tube. The fan draws in cold air from the bottom of the kegerator and discharges it into the tower. It certainly does the job in helping to serve up cold beer and keep down foaming, especially in the warm summer months. The CPU fan runs off stepped-down AC power from a "wall wart" type plug-in and thin gauge wire which I strung through the hole where the CO2 line enters into the kegerator.

The power draw and the noise are insignificant (fan runs continuously). The only downside is the condensation that forms on the outside of the tower, but it's not a significant problem.

So no insulation in the tower? Doesn't it warm up the keezer a lot?

 

[Alex4mula]

I have seen people use like a coozie to insulate the tower. They sell them.

 

[cederbusch]

I have seen people use like a coozie to insulate the tower. They sell them.

That would defeat much of the purpose of my beautiful tap tower. It's made from porcelain and beautifully painted.

 

[Alex4mula]

That would defeat much of the purpose of my beautiful tap tower. It's made from porcelain and beautifully painted.

Totally agree!

 

[Brooothru]

So no insulation in the tower? Doesn't it warm up the keezer a lot?

The tower does have some thin sheet foam plastic around the inside, plus some under the tower cap, but that's it. I'm sure that the tower acts like a radiator (heat sink) to the ambient room air, though it doesn't seem to overburden the inside refrigeration as far as I can tell.

 

[day_trippr]

Similar to Brother @Brooothru, I run a fan-based tower cooler, this one using a 12VDC 40mm peecee fan.

The 1" ID pvc tube ends about an inch above the insulation in the t-box. There are enough gaps along the way inside the column to allow for enough circulation to keep the t-box within 10°F of the cabinet air temperature on the hottest days, closer in the dead o' winter.

The tower column is lined with 1/4" neoprene, and the T-box is lined with 1" closed cell poly-u foam. And the faucet bases will bead up with moisture on humid days (our 1st story level is only incidentally air conditioned via the open stairwell to the 2nd level). I actually consider that sweating to be goodness

Cheers!

 

[odie]

I run the beer lines in the tower thru copper pipe. the copper pipe extends down into cold area. kinda acts like a heat sink and draws cold up into the tower. Not ideal but an improvement over nothing.

 

[cederbusch]

I solved this with a aquarium pump I had. Just dropped it into 5 liter container with glycol solution. Completely silent!!

 

[Brooothru]

I solved this with a aquarium pump I had. Just dropped it into 5 liter container with glycol solution. Completely silent!!

"Cool" solution! So you just placed the glycol reservoir inside the keezer? Except for loosing some space inside the keezer, great idea. Elegant in its simplicity.

 

[odie]

need some pics of that aquarium pump set up