Kegerator advice.

[deadeye1]

Those Kegerators are nice, buta little pricey for what you get. I bougth a fridge off a neighbor for $50. A couple hundred in taps and hardware. A used Co2 tank for $20. I can fit four corneys or 1 sanke and two corneys. Plus I have a freezer to put hops in. I also have room to keep some cold ones on a shelf and yeast samples in the door. Of course it is a full sized fridge and it does take up room.

[devinjames]

Anyone i know whos built one for less seems to have gotten sweet deals on stuff. Ive been looking around for used fridges and there is nothing good in my local craigslist ads.

Also I cant afford to have a huge fridge. The keezer type seems pretty good but it seems like it takes a lot of power and would run up lots of bills to keep cold.

[pfooti]

Yeah, I've been pricing kegerators lately and it seems like a 4-tap system could easily cost you about a grand, once you factor in the tanks, kegs, beer line, and taps on top of the freezer itself. Any less and you're talking to someone who got a steal on a chest freezer (heh, steal). One thing to keep in mind as well is that the ancient chest freezers you can get for a song when they do show up on CL tend to cost a LOT to operate, whereas a continuous-duty 0F setting on a new chest freezer costs $35 a year with these new energy-star appliances. If you can get a newish freezer for cheap-ish, you've still got to invest in all the other parts. Taps aren't cheap, and you still need shanks, manifolds, blah blah blah.

I do get the sense that once you've put all that money in, you've got a sweet system that's the envy of all your friends. I just wish I could find some way to convince Northern Brewer to accept beer in barter or something.

[Quin]

Just keep your eye on craigs list. You can also check out a refrigerator repair place and pick one up for around $125. If you get a refrigerator, you won't need a temp controller. You can use picnic taps at first instead of stainless faucets. Throw in a regulator and CO2 bottle and you might have $200-250 total tied up.

[CPADRE]

Also, check out your local Scratch and Dent appliance place. You can sometimes find some really good deals there.

[Jgrundstad]

I just built mine out of a sanyo 4912M (shipped from Walmart to my door for $12 - total $250). Some people might think that's expensive, but I searched for something similar for a long time and never found anything that fit the bill like the 4912. It's large enough to fit 2 cornys and a 5lb tank without having to hack up the door panel, or worry about bending cooling manifolds just so... Plus, it looks sharp (which the wife insisted on) so we don't have to hide it away in the garage or basement.

Got the twin perlick 575 tower from beveragefactory.com via ebay for $150, shipped.

Then followed these instructions...

A few hours later I had this:


Totally, absolutely, worth it.
Jason

[snowcapt]

I just got a7.2 ft3 Sunbeam freezer. I can fit 4 cornies in there, as is. I am going to put a 2x8 collar on it to fit 2 more in it.
I payed $191 and I get a $30 mail in rebate to boot. As it sits now, I am using picnic faucets and opening it to fill beers.
As far as operating costs go, I got the temp controller from NB and the power is off most of the time. Rarely do I catch it running. As soon as I install taps and no longer need to bother opening it, it will run even less. The yellow operating cost sticker says it costs $30/year to run.(as a freezer) and I have a warranty for it in case it takes a dump.
I hope this helps.

[TrickyDRD]

So I got the used fridge off Craigslist, just got 2 kegs and a CO2 tank. 2 beers on tap and cold!!!! I love having a place for my beer that my wife won't Bi Cch about and a place to store my hops/yeast/etx.

Now the Kegerator conversion.... Where can I find a step-by-step conversion with a partslist I can take to my local shop?

Simple questions - What is the best temp to keep the fridge at?

How do I balance the tubing? Do I use line length and just coil it behind the tap?