New home kegerator / vertical rise issue

[Turbo]

Hey everybody,

After seeing my home keg setup (small fridge, beer tower mounted on bar directly above), my dad decided he wanted a setup for his house.

His house is a little trickier - he doesn't have a bar, and wants the beer tower installed on his kitchen counter. The refrigerator would be located in the basement directly underneath, and I estimate the total distance from the beer fridge to the counter to be about 12-ft.

I don't think that 12-ft should be a problem for the beer line, but since it's 12-ft UP I think there might be an issue with balancing the system.

Has anybody attempted this type of arrangement?

I'm wondering what diameter of beer line should be used (as well as length, but I'm guessing keeping it as short as possible will probably work best in this case), and also whether we'll need to go with water/glycol cooling for the lines.

[Scott Zuhse]

No sense of going through all of the trouble only to find out that the refrigerator is incapable of keeping the beer line at the same temperature from the keg to the faucet. Or in trying to do so, it is incapable of maintaining less than 40 F.

I you are confident that it will, then run piping for cold air and beer line to the faucet and for the air to return. Possibly 1" inch flex tube (with beer line) inside 2" PVC (return air) insulated on the outside. Attach a blower to the flex and then cut small hole in flex for routing tubing. Tape this entry point to prevent cold air from leaking.

The line itself should be around 12' of 5/16" ID vinyl attached to 3' of 3/16" ID vinyl. 3/16" must be attached to shank behind faucet. If you can maintain 38 F beer temp., set PSIG to keg at 14 PSIG if at sea level. This will get you started.

[Turbo]

Hey Scott,

Thanks for the reply. After doing some reading, I had assumed that it would be almost impossible to push cold air through 15' of 1' tube. It seems to me the options are "no cooling" and see if it's OK (mine is, after the first pour) or glycol/water? I guess if there's a chance that air cooling will work at that distance I might experiment with that.

But it sounds like you're saying there shouldn't be a problem with dispensing the beer from the floor above? I was afraid I'd need some crazy CO2 pressure or something

[timg]

Originally Posted by Turbo

Hey Scott,

Thanks for the reply. After doing some reading, I had assumed that it would be almost impossible to push cold air through 15' of 1' tube. It seems to me the options are "no cooling" and see if it's OK (mine is, after the first pour) or glycol/water? I guess if there's a chance that air cooling will work at that distance I might experiment with that.

But it sounds like you're saying there shouldn't be a problem with dispensing the beer from the floor above? I was afraid I'd need some crazy CO2 pressure or something

Turbo, There was a post where somebody was doing the same thing about a month ago. I found it on page 2 in the troubleshooting section under "Anybody done this successfully". I thought there were pictures posted of his project, but I can't seem to find them.

After seeing that post, I wish I could get the ***** to try and run a tap through the wall to have a faucet on my deck, but see too many issues to deal with.

[tappa kegga bud]

that was me,... I was meaning to take the pic's, but have been away from the boards awhile (remodeling kitchen). Now that I see someone else trying the same thing, I'll put them up tonite while I'm thinking about it. The system's been working great, a steady 30-32* all the way to the faucet. Pics coming shortly......

[tappa kegga bud]

here's the pictures as promised (no work tonite, but the kegs are empty so nothing else to do, haha) Hope they help. Vertical rise is about 6 to 7 feet from middle of kegs to faucets. Temp holds in low 30's at fridge's middle setting, and pressure is ~14psi. Roughly 20 feet of 1/4" beer line is coiled up in there. Blower fan mounted in freezer compartment, routes up through the ventilation port into the fridge, then adapts to 3/4" pvc for the rest of the run up to the tower to provide more return airflow space. The pvc stops about 3" short of the top of the tower.P4030241.jpg

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[tappa kegga bud]

looks like I might have to do this in a couple of posts, I'll be darned if I'm leaving any out after taking the time to resize them all......P4030246.jpg

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[tappa kegga bud]

What do you guys think of my wooden countertop (ha ha) like I said the kitchen is getting re-done (although the plywood is taking on a nice beer-stained patina.....)P4030254.jpg

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[BIGDOGG8590]

nice setup

[tappa kegga bud]

Thanks! If it weren't for this forum none of it ever would have been done. It took a lot of tweaking to get it working right, but (knock on wood) it's all frosty pints from here on out........

[Turbo]

Hey tappa kegga bud thanks for posting the pics!

We ordered a tap from micromatic and got an upright deep freezer locally. It should hold 4 sixtels or 3 tall 1/4s.

The tap is installed and the fridge is in place and we're getting ready to order the tubing and stuff. The total run from the kegs all the way to the counter is 12'

I started snapping some pics and I'll post them after it's done!

[tappa kegga bud]

be careful that you don't cut through a coolant line when cutting the freezer for the tower run. I've heard that some of them have coolant lines in the sides of the cabinet, not just underneath. A good idea might be to try and cut just the metal skin, peel it off in the area to be cut, then very gently dig through the foam insulation to check for lines in there. A guy on this forum also said once that if your unit gets warm on the sides while running then it might not be safe to cut. I mention this because in college a friend ruined 3 chest freezers before getting it right. Good luck.

[THE ICEMAN]

Originally Posted by tappa kegga bud

be careful that you don't cut through a coolant line when cutting the freezer for the tower run. I've heard that some of them have coolant lines in the sides of the cabinet, not just underneath. A good idea might be to try and cut just the metal skin, peel it off in the area to be cut, then very gently dig through the foam insulation to check for lines in there. A guy on this forum also said once that if your unit gets warm on the sides while running then it might not be safe to cut. I mention this because in college a friend ruined 3 chest freezers before getting it right. Good luck.

That guy would be me.
Generally speaking, if the sides of the unit get warm then that is where the condenser coils are located, don't drill. If there are coils along the bottom or back of the unit it is safe to drill the sides.

THE ICEMAN