I am making some changes in my bar area and I’m taking my large serving fridge and turning it into a lager/on-deck-keg fridge. Instead, I’ll be using two Danby 4.4cf fridges for serving. I will build a platform to raise them up so they’re lined up with the shanks that are already there and then I was going to drill holes in the sides of these (2 in each) for the beer lines. But I found a drawing in one of the manuals and also found THIS
http://www.thegatesofdawn.ca/wordpress/homebrewing/kegerator/
page (under PREPARING THE FRIDGE) where the guys says not to drill holes in the side because there are “condenser coils”. I happen to know that the cooling capillaries on these fridges are on the back wall but I have no idea what the deal is with the condenser coils. The drawing makes it look like you could easily miss them and I’m guessing that if I were careful, I could cut away the plastic and look into the wall to make sure I don’t hit anything important. Does anybody have any insight here? I planned on doing this Friday or Saturday this week but now I’m a little jumpy! Thoughts?
Hmm. * Rubs chin *
I think I may go in a different direction and just bring the lines out the top of the fridge. One of these Danby fridges was already drilled out on top from when I had a tower (there’s duct tape over that hole now). I could just drill the other Danby in the same spot, raise the fridges up so that the top of the fridge is at the same height as the shanks and just run the lines (wrapped in insulated tubing) to the shanks. The most they would be out of the fridge would be maybe 4 to 5 inches. I would hate to ruin a perfectly good fridge. Of course, I did rip all the molded plastic off the inside of the door and replace it with a flat door liner.
I’ve been thinking about this for awhile and I finally had the chance to do it. In the below pic, the large white fridge used to be my serving fridge and the small fridge with the stainless door used to be my “on-deck” fridge. I was looking for a way to get some cold storage space for “lagering” and I think I found the right equation.
I found a good price on another 4.4cf Danby fridge (the small white one) and I turned the big white fridge into the “keg-carbing and lagering” fridge. Then I used the old Danby and the new Danby for the serving fridges. This is much nicer because inside that big old fridge used to be 4 kegs, 2 CO2 tanks and a gaggle of gas and beer lines. Now the 2 Danbys have 2 kegs and one Co2 tank each and swapping something out is much easier. I built a small platform that raised the small fridges up about 13" to where the shanks were set into the wall.
I was originally going to drill through the sides of these fridges but it looked like the schematic showed condenser coils in the side walls of the fridge. The one Danby had already had the top drilled out for a tower awhile back (it now had duct tape over it) so I just decided to drill through the top and run the lines through some insulated tubing to the shanks. The small black fridge in the pic is my lager primary fridge. I can still keep yeast and hops in the big fridge and it appears that I can fit four “things” into this on-deck fridge whether it be 2 kegs and 2 secondaries, 3 kegs and one secondary, etc. There’s a CO2 tank in there too for force carbing.
I also made a change in my bar. I have been on a mission to rid my house of ALL old-school TVs and I had an old 13" Philips TV in the bar and it was just embarrassing. Found a nice, new Vizio 22" LCD/LED model along with an articulating arm mount and an HDMI cable for under $225. Took out the old tube and put the new flatscreen up and hooked it up to a Comcast HD box. Much nicer.
I think I’m done with mods for the moment. I can ferment lagers in a fridge and lager them in a colder fridge, keep 7 or 8 kegs cold, carbed, etc. and the best part is that the beer bunker has a much more efficient use of space now. There’s more stuff in there but it’s easier to move around and the extra shelving provides a bunch of extra storage. That BIG FRIDGE used to be right in the middle of the room (where the 2 Danbys are now) which made things very cramped. Cheers Beerheads.
Nice set up Ken. How many cornies can you fit in those 4.4 cf fridges?
Very nice set up. In my garage, I have a lager chest, 2 regular fridges (one for serving from 4 taps mounted on the door, the other for lagering and carbing as an on-deck location). I bet the smaller fridges would be more energy efficient, but I am hesitant to give up the freezer space totally (the freezer for the serving fridge holds my hops and dry extract, I use the freezer for the on-deck for freezing water bottles for swamp cooler use).
I love the thru-wall tap handles you have there, too. Well done, Ken.
:cheers:
If you take all of the molded plastic off the door, you can fit 2 cornies plus a Co2 tank sitting on the compressor. So there are 4 kegs and 2 Co2 tanks there plus the on-deck space which (as of this morning) is holding 3 kegs, a secondary of German Lager and a CO2 tank.
I was getting a little concerned about that. The yellow energy tag on the small ones says $25 to $35 per year in electricity so I’m not concerned about that. But that big white fridge is as old as the hills and I’d bet it sucks some juice. It was a hassle getting that thing down the basement stairs and into my beer bunker so I’m not looking forward to hauling it back out… but one day it will probably happen. Cheers Beerheads.
“beerbunker”
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