Where's your tap?

[Zymurgrafi]

This is directed at all of you folks with regular full size fridges or upright freezers for kegerators.

I am planning my kegerator. I have a full size fridge in the basement and I store my brew in there. I know most folks put the handles on the front door. I have some good shelves for storing bottles and other stuff on the door and I do not really want to get rid of them. They do not prevent me from storing the kegs either. I could easily fit 5 and the CO2. Right now I have 4 and a carboy and the CO2. They would be in the way of evenly spacing faucets though. Also, I have some cool long tap handles so they would have to be low so I the freezer can still open. SWMBO doesn't like that idea as she is afraid the little one will be able to reach (even though he is not really supposed to go in the basement.)

Anyway, the side seems like a good idea. I suppose it doesn't "look as cool" or something. Also, I am not sure if there is any problems associated with this. So, what do you folks think. What should I consider?

It will be a while before I have the faucets. For now I am just stoked to have kegs at all and I don't mind opening and pouring from the cobra taps! :rockin:

In fact I may be drinking a bit more than necessary just cause it's so cool!

 

[krispy d]

While I have a pro style kegerator I have helped build a number of fridge conversions for / with friends. In my opinion taps out the side of the fridge are easier to deal with. It keeps it simple when opening the door to swap kegs or get at stored bottles to not have the lines pulling out with the door.

 

[blefferd]

i didnt read the post before i voted, i have a chest freezer with a collar that my taps/faucets are mounted to


i always wanted to turn a fridge with water/ice on the door, into beer/beer in the door! that would be sweet

 

[rdwj]

I like the side taps. If you have a freezer top, and it sounds like you do, you'd have to keep your taps pretty low to avoid potential spills when opening the freezer. On the side, I put them as high as they could go and they're still pretty low.

 

[missing link]

I have a normal kegerator but the tower and taps are now on top of my bar. Works great.

 

[david_42]

New kegger (chest freezer) has taps in a collar on the side. Old refrigerator kegger had them on the front just low enough to clear the top door.

 

[pjj2ba]

I started with one in the door of my fridge/freezer. Now I've got a built in bar that the fridge is next to and I have 4' chilled lines going to a ceramic tower with two taps. One thing to watch out for with a door installation is to make sure the tap is low enough that the tap handle(s) don't get hit by the freezer door.

 

[drunkatuw]

For my old kegerator which was a normal fridge with freezer on top, I put the taps on the door as high as I could and it blocked the freezer, but it didn't bother me, because I didn't use the freezer.

I'd be nervous about drilling into the side of the fridge because you could hit a coolant line. No coolant runs through the door, so nothing to worry about.

 

[Brewsmith]

In the door. Mine has the freezer inside, so no door to mess with, other than making sure the lines clear the freezer on the inside.

 

[Zymurgrafi]

I'd be nervous about drilling into the side of the fridge because you could hit a coolant line. No coolant runs through the door, so nothing to worry about.

Why would there be coolant running in the sides?

How would you be able to tell? This is a modern fridge only a couple of years old and we bought it new.

 

[pjj2ba]

I was easy for me as all of the coils are exposed on the outside in back. Just in case to be safe when I was drilling through the side, I drilled a small hole just through the outside and then took an ice pick and stuck it in the hole and wiggled it all around and felt nothing. I still used progressively larger bits and kept checking just to be safe. It might be safer to start on the inside as it is less likely that any tubing would be attched to the plasitc, while if there were tubing in the wall it could be directly next to the outer wall - but still not likely.