Hey, I tried to look through the topics already posted and didn’t see what I was looking for. I am trying to get together my first kegging system and need to decide on a fridge. I heard that its a good idea to find one without a freezer. I have been to 4 different stores and cant seem to find one. I looked online and cant seem to find one. does anyone have any suggestions on a mini fridge I should look at? I’d like to keep it under $200. It might be a bit of a stretch but if anyone can point me in the right direction I would really appreciate it.
Or if someone knows a similar thread could you point it out to me?
Yeah, mine has a freezer and that’s a big plus for me. I have several pounds of hops in there, plus a few packets of “emergency” dry yeast, some brewing spices and six one-liter bottles of frozen water for my fermentation control tub.
I have an identical setup to the one in this thread:
I got the upright freezer from craigslist for $200, and its been working great for more than 3 years. Just had to override the temperature controller with an STC-1000.
I’m a chest freezer guy. We have three, one 14 CF fermentation chamber, second 14 CF is carbing/conditioning/bottle storage, third is a 7 CF 4 tap kegerator. I think the only real disadvantage, and it can be significant, is all the lifting of the kegs.
It sounds like you are looking for a mini-fridge. I made a two tap kegerator out of this Danby from Walmart http://www.walmart.com/ip/Danby-Designer-4.4-cu.ft.-All-Refrigerator/40487632. Currently $193 with free shipping. You have to modify the door to get two ball-lock corny kegs to fit, but it works great.
I bought the same fridge (though I haven’t converted the door – I have the newer model where the door is glued in, and for various reasons I just never had a need to embark on this project). If you’re a CostCo member, I see them in stock quite a bit in-store and they’re about $50 less than WalMart.
If you are looking for a full size upright fridge, I purchased one new from SEARS a few years ago. Kenmore model #70722, now around $630. 16.7 cu ft freezerless refrigerator in white. They also have a 16.2 cu ft version that is probably cheaper, but could not find the price for it.
Other manufacturers may offer the same, only cheaper. May be a bit tough to find one on Craig’s list…
It’s been a great kegerator…with the door shelves removed, it holds 6 corny kegs.
Go with a chest freezer. You can skip buying a temp controller by the coarse adjustment screw located on the temperature control. I fit 4 kegs in my 5cf chest freezer then you can do cool things like this
In my experience a lot of the mini fridges Are not tall enough to fit a 5 gallon keg in, so what I did was cut out the freezer and then tape it off with insulation and duct tape. Works pretty well and room for full 5g kegs. I have since moved onto a keezer and wish I would have use started there, but I’m keeping my mini as a fermentation chamber now.
I have the 4.4 Danby. I drilled two holes through the left and right back upper corners. I passed the co2 lines through these two holes and keep the canister outside of the unit.
This frees up the back area for bottles and hops. I can easily fit two 5 gallon kegs and at least one six pack inside the fridge. I plan on making a little self that will almost double this storage area.
I use picnic taps that I keep inside the kegerator. I might install a tower or two taps through the front door.
Be really careful with your measurements regarding the reinforced floor. I didn’t take that extra quarter inch into account and now sometimes struggle to squeeze two 2.5G Torpedo Kegs on top of each other in the Danby model with the reinforced floor.
Hey Euge, I just bought a Magic Chef chest freezer and did this. It’s behind the temp control knob and I think this is true for most if not all models. I removed the housing that holds it which I could access OK by removing the vent cover. I needed a very small Phillips head “00”. I started by turning a little but that didn’t get to fridge temps. Last night I set the temp control to “1”, the warmest setting and cranked the screw all the way in. It was at 54 this morning so I set it to “2” and will see when I get home. I like that the warmest setting is warmer than I want because that should give me good control via the knob.
