I’ve been searching Craigslist for a fridge or deep freeze to make a kegerator or keezer out of. I see a lot of tall mini-fridges out there and I’m wondering how small I’d be able to go and still have room for two cornys and a 5 pound co2 tank.
I’m also contemplating building a keezer or getting a full-size fridge. Then I’d have room to expand. I guess it just depends on what comes up for cheap on Craigslist. I know I’d have to buy a temperature controller for the keezer, but besides that, is there any benefit of one over the other?
If you are looking to go with a minifridge, I wouldn’t go much smaller than 4.5 cubic ft. But, do yourself a favor and go bigger. You will be wanting to add more kegs in the near future.
One big thing to consider besides the extra room is the ease of loading kegs into keezers. In many fridges you will find yourself having to move things around a lot. With a keezer its pretty easy to pull out a keg and slide in a new, access distributors, etc.
I went a full size freezerless fridge first. It’s pretty big (16cuft +/-), but can only hold 3 kegs. Then I went with a 14.8 cuft freezer and can hold 9 kegs.
I bought a small chest freezer that can hold three kegs plus the gas bottle and some beer on the shelf where the compressor is. I can also fit a fermentor and two kegs, that gives me the ability to ferment lagers and drink ales at the same time since 50F is OK for ales. I kind of wish I had a bigger chest freezer but this one is economical.
Be carefull on Craig’s list, something cheap at the start can end up being a complete waste of money, which makes it very expensive.
Get the biggest one you can afford that will fit in the space you have for it.
[quote=“Rookie L A”]Be carefull on Craig’s list, something cheap at the start can end up being a complete waste of money, which makes it very expensive.
Get the biggest one you can afford that will fit in the space you have for it.[/quote]
Best advice. You will soon find out that you will want more beers kegged. More advice. Save up for a new freezer. Buying an used one is risky. The compressors are fragile and do not tolerate rough handling. I got a 14.8 cu ft from Sears for $350. It will hold 7 ball locks and a 15 lb tank of CO2.
Yet another reason to go bigger is that you can lager/cold crash/condition beers next to ones you are serving. I have space constraints in my no-yard city rowhouse, so I had to get a smaller chest freezer. But if you have a garage or somewhere where a few more feet of freezer aren’t going to cramp your style, definitely go bigger and be done with it.
Full kegs are heavy to lift and difficult to gently place, as are full carboys.
Once you add gas & liquid hoses, the “room to spare” dwindles shockingly.
Make sure the lid opens up more than 45 degrees.
Size it to hold 1-2 kegs MORE than the number kegs you plan on storing inside of it, to ensure enough open space.
Also, be aware of where your shank placement will be, as the barbs will take up valuable depth (4-6", including hose). If you don’t plan appropriately, that depth loss can make it a real hassle to insert and remove single kegs amongst an otherwise-full keezer. If I had to do it again, I’d cluster them all over the compressor hump, as opposed to spaced evenly right in the middle.
I went with a 7.2 cf chest freezer. I lucked out because with the additional height of the wood collar (2x8), I can barely fit 4 ball locks in the main chamber + 2 more on the compressor hump, but my gas tank is outside the kegerator. It’s pretty energy efficient. I have three taps, so room for those three kegs plus three more that are either on deck or hooked up with picnic tap.
This is just right for me.
I know that some 7.2 cf freezers won’t hold that many kegs, and highly doubtful with a 7.0 cf freezer.
