DIY fridge?

[dutch dave]

i could be completely and utterly wrong, but i'm fairly certain that i saw a diagram on how to "expand" a fridge in Dave Miller's Homebrewing Guide. To get right to the point, I was wondering if anyone has had any experience building or expanding their own fridge to house a few more homebrew kegs, instead of trying to find a crapped out old fridge that smells like meat and then still having to convert it to use it properly...

after a ton of google searches and countless wasted hours :o) i found a link to something similar.

http://www.brewrats.org/walkin.cfm

although i don't know if i'm ready to take on a project quite that big, i'd love to make myself a fridge that can handle a handful of homebrew kegs and i would like to assume that the same theories that these guys used (namely plywood and styrofoam) can just be scaled down for my own purposes.

i figured that i could just build my fridge and throw a mini-fridge (i have too many lying around the house) inside to power it... am i an idiot?

p.s. i haven't read a large amount of brewing books yet, but where does dave miller's rank in the big scheme of things... just curious...

[BrewDog]

Dave Miller's book is a very good one.

Yes, you can scale it down and use plywood and styrofoam insulation. I've seen pics that were built that way.

Good luck-

[dutch dave]

have you ever taken a stab at the ol' diy fridge b'dawg?

do you think styrofoam is the best insulator?
any suggestions for sealing the fridge door?

thanks for the help so far!

slange,
dave

[BrewDog]

Kinda, but my kegerator is pretty big already, so I didn't add much in terms of volume:

here (http://www.west-point.org/users/usma1986/42894/kegerator.htm)

Here's another thread (http://www.realbeer.com/discussions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2743&highlight=styrofoam) on the topic.

HTH-

[HogieWan]

I almost did that exact thing to a mini-fridge, but i found a side-by-side to fit my conical for cheap. Yes, I think it would work

[Quin]

Originally posted by dutch dave
i figured that i could just build my fridge and throw a mini-fridge (i have too many lying around the house) inside to power it... am i an idiot?

You can't just put a dorm fridge inside a bigger box. Fridges, air conditioners, freezers, etc generate more exhaust heat than cold air.

I found this link. He used a room AC also.
http://www.mrmalty.com/brewstuff.php

[HarkJohnny]

Originally posted by Quin
You can't just put a dorm fridge inside a bigger box. Fridges, air conditioners, freezers, etc generate more exhaust heat than cold air.


the reason they generate more exhaust heat than cold air is that they don't produce cold air. they remove heat from the closed space causing it to become colder than the air outside the space.

[dutch dave]

so if i built the bigger fridge around my dorm fridge (with the back of the dorm fridge sticking out) would the project be more feasible?

[Mill Rat]

Originally posted by dutch dave
so if i built the bigger fridge around my dorm fridge (with the back of the dorm fridge sticking out) would the project be more feasible? Feasible, yes, but limited. Keep in mind that when you make thousands of fridges, you're going to want to put in the smallest compressor that'll do the job for the size of the box you're making, just to keep your costs competitive. Since we tend to keep our kegerators a little warmer than a standard food box, we have a little extra margin, but it's not really that much. Don't get greedy and expect a dorm fridge to keep a space the size of a clothes closet chilled down.

[MrNate]

I've been trying to figure out something like this myself. I want to build a bar in the basement of my new house, which means I want a draft tower on the bar. Which means a front-opening cool box under 42" high, big enough to fit several kegs and a case of bottles.

Seems like a tough order to fill, and I don't want to worry about drilling through a coil. Has anyone built a coolbox using the plans here (http://www.bar-gear.com/index.htm) or by building a little insulated room with a dorm fridge attached as a cooling unit? I'm trying to figure out the best way of approaching this, but I keep running into more questions than answers.

[Payson]

Has anyone built a coolbox using the plans here or by building a little insulated room with a dorm fridge attached as a cooling unit? I'm trying to figure out the best way of approaching this, but I keep running into more questions than answers.

I've attached a dorm fridge to an insulated box successfully. I basically built a large wooden box, insulated it with thick styrofoam and attached a dorm fridge to the top. I then used 4" PVC pipe to pipe cold air into the box below. I used two of these pipes. One is directly below the mini freezer segment and the other is on the other side. A computer pancake fan is atop the pipe below the freezer element. The box works well as a lager cabinet and I can control the temp pretty accurately. The only drawback is that it's not very efficient and a keg would take forever to cool. It's minimum temp is about 45 degrees F. I'll see if I can did up some pics and send them your way if you're interested though.

[corkybstewart]

Nate, if I was you I would look into used bar equipment for a keg cooler with sliding doors. They're built to fit underneath a standard height bar and used you could probably get one reasonably priced.

[MrNate]

Yeah, I'm definitely interested - post 'em up, man!

[MrNate]

Originally posted by corkybstewart
Nate, if I was you I would look into used bar equipment for a keg cooler with sliding doors. They're built to fit underneath a standard height bar and used you could probably get one reasonably priced.

That's a good idea too, but my problem is that I don't know what those are actually called. Makes it hard to Google something when you don't know the name of it!

[corkybstewart]

Originally posted by MrNate
That's a good idea too, but my problem is that I don't know what those are actually called. Makes it hard to Google something when you don't know the name of it!

Here's a link to a site that sells new ones. Pretty expensive but it'll give you an idea what to look for.

http://www.bigtray.com/productlist.asp!catid.10311.html

[MrNate]

That's what I've been seeing in my searches, but the draft tower is always attached directly to the unit... Is there some kind of generally accepted method of moving the tower up to the bar?

[hooky]

I've been over at b_rad's old place. He built a keg cooler by enclosing the area underneath a wooden work bench and cooling it with a window A/C unit. It's a similar concept to the Jamil link above. It seems to work well. Maybe he'll see this and chime in.

I've also seen a retail pepsi cooler with the glass sliding doors converted . There was an example recently in BYO or Zymurgy.like this (http://www.bigtray.com/productdetails.asp!sku.TRUT49GA,catid.10050.html)

[Payson]

Lager Cabinet (http://www.flickr.com/gp/37149465@N00/92N3H2)

These pics should be pretty self explanatory. Notice the pipe on the interior. One is plain PVC. The other has a collar on the PVC with a pancake fan inside it. Another thing you'll notice is the ice build up on the cooling element. A fan doesn't help matters! Like I said, not the most efficient thing as a kegorator (in fact, I built another for serving out of a standard fridge) but it is great for lagering. It's insulated with about 3" of styrofoam. Once it gets cool it stays there pretty well. The temp control for the dorm fridge also controls the box. The door is sealed with tight latches and an extra piece of weatherstripping.

[MrNate]

I think I'm starting to get it now. It seems like the options are:

1. Commercial Kegorator or keg box converted from direct draw to short draw with a short length of PVC and a PC fan to push cold air up into the draft tower.

2. Homemade keg box using a complete dorm fridge (a la payson) or salvaged cooling units (a la bar-gear.com). Short draw tower as described above.

Now if I were to scrap the idea of mounting the tower on the bar itself, the following options would also come into play:

1. Converted direct draw chest freezer (back bar or front) or refrigerator of any sort (back bar).

2. Direct draw built-in reefer as back bar. I really like this idea, but something tells me the wife might object. Heh.

[kilkil]

The other option is to use a chest freezer and decorate it so it looks like part of the bar or have it under the bar on wheels.

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by kilkil
The other option is to use a chest freezer and decorate it so it looks like part of the bar or have it under the bar on wheels.

my kegerator is a converted chest freezer and it works great. The freezer's lid is easy to cut through and there are no lines.

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by kilkil
The other option is to use a chest freezer and decorate it so it looks like part of the bar or have it under the bar on wheels.

my kegerator is a converted chest freezer and it works great. The freezer's lid is easy to cut through and there are no lines.