I've spent hours upon hours reading these forums over the last month - thank you to everyone else's posts who've got me going on building my first kegerator!
My objective is a kegerator that is capable of keeping cold either 1 full 1/2 barrel commercial keg or two 1/4 barrel kegs. My local grocery store only carries the 17.5" rubber-sided kegs which is part of my pain in finding a working solution! It's been very difficult to find a fridge or small freezer that will fit two of those things!
I have an outside bar on my second story deck which is where the dual-tap tower is getting installed. Since it's outside in the Midwest, line cooling is going to be a must. I bought a Kegco conversion kit on Amazon for the "starter kit" of tower, shanks, tappers, CO2 tank, and gas lines. The original plan was to convert a mini fridge and park it right under the bar on the deck.
After considering and abandoning many different mini fridges and one small deep freeze that just weren't big enough (at one point I even considered buying a real kegerator until I read the dimensions that even that wasn't going to be big enough either), I decided to re-task my old green JC Penny (hence the name) 7.5 cubic foot deep freeze that came out of the 60s and is somehow still running! The freezer will sit below the deck which is somewhat enclosed for shade and rain protection. I bought a Johnson Controls adapter to control the temperature.
There will be an approximately 12-foot run from the freezer to the taps. I'm building a custom 4" collar to run the lines through, including gas to the outside CO2 tank. The two 3/16 beer lines and two 3/8" cooling lines will be wrapped in aluminum tape and ran through an insulated 4" PVC pipe up through the deck floor and bar to the tower. The cooling system will run RV Antifreeze with a 550GPH pond pump in a closed circuit. BSBrewer's post was very helpful in figuring that part out!! I'm still deciding how to setup the reservoir in the keezer for the antifreeze, I'm debating between a bucket of some type, coiled copper line, or both.
I'll post some pictures as soon as I figure out how. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!
My objective is a kegerator that is capable of keeping cold either 1 full 1/2 barrel commercial keg or two 1/4 barrel kegs. My local grocery store only carries the 17.5" rubber-sided kegs which is part of my pain in finding a working solution! It's been very difficult to find a fridge or small freezer that will fit two of those things!
I have an outside bar on my second story deck which is where the dual-tap tower is getting installed. Since it's outside in the Midwest, line cooling is going to be a must. I bought a Kegco conversion kit on Amazon for the "starter kit" of tower, shanks, tappers, CO2 tank, and gas lines. The original plan was to convert a mini fridge and park it right under the bar on the deck.
After considering and abandoning many different mini fridges and one small deep freeze that just weren't big enough (at one point I even considered buying a real kegerator until I read the dimensions that even that wasn't going to be big enough either), I decided to re-task my old green JC Penny (hence the name) 7.5 cubic foot deep freeze that came out of the 60s and is somehow still running! The freezer will sit below the deck which is somewhat enclosed for shade and rain protection. I bought a Johnson Controls adapter to control the temperature.
There will be an approximately 12-foot run from the freezer to the taps. I'm building a custom 4" collar to run the lines through, including gas to the outside CO2 tank. The two 3/16 beer lines and two 3/8" cooling lines will be wrapped in aluminum tape and ran through an insulated 4" PVC pipe up through the deck floor and bar to the tower. The cooling system will run RV Antifreeze with a 550GPH pond pump in a closed circuit. BSBrewer's post was very helpful in figuring that part out!! I'm still deciding how to setup the reservoir in the keezer for the antifreeze, I'm debating between a bucket of some type, coiled copper line, or both.
I'll post some pictures as soon as I figure out how. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated!