Danby Kegerator Improvements

[psychodad]

It sounds like you got it.

As far as the three cornies, that isn't a problem. The three beer lines in the tower may be a problem though. If you opt to cool the tower, you may have to open up the ******* hole a bit.

[dubliner10]

Can anyone tell me if the Danby faucet and shank are separate parts? It seems like mine are all one piece- which would mean replacing the faucet requires a new shank as well. Any input?

With that in mind- for anyone who has replaced their tower- does a standard 3" work? or is this just another non-standard part by Danby?

thanks

[scoot1970]

My faucet was separate from the shank. I did however replace my tower with a 3" dual faucet tower.

[incutrav]

So I also just got a Danby off craiglist for $200. I want to do a few of these mod's before I put my first keg in it. Couple questions:

Will just adding the 33k resistor to the unit fix the cooling problems, or would I have to buy one of those external temp controllers too? It seems some people talk of only putting the new resistor in, and its good, but some are talking of adding the whole new temp controller, which I dont really have the money to do.


Also, is the main purpose of adding a fan to cool the tower, or the main box? How important is it to have the tower cool? Thanks for everyones help here!

[texasryleigh]

I unplugged my Danby for a few weeks while doing some work in the room it is located. I have plugged it back in now and it won't cool down. Any suggestions?

I bought the items for the mods but wanted to check the "standard" temp beofore changing anything to ensure the changes worked.

[mondoholocaust]

So I also just got a Danby off craiglist for $200. I want to do a few of these mod's before I put my first keg in it. Couple questions:

Will just adding the 33k resistor to the unit fix the cooling problems, or would I have to buy one of those external temp controllers too? It seems some people talk of only putting the new resistor in, and its good, but some are talking of adding the whole new temp controller, which I dont really have the money to do.


Also, is the main purpose of adding a fan to cool the tower, or the main box? How important is it to have the tower cool? Thanks for everyones help here!

just adding the resistor will cool the unit much more. you can do it without any soldering also, there is a thread about that. i bought one off craigslist a month or so ago without doing any research into kegerators and was pissed when i got a keg and put it in there and voila it was not cool enough. i put in the resistor and now its all good. the only complaint i have is the temp control set at 41 cools down to 28 and set at 42 it will go up to 40. i'm thinking about switching to a different resistor.

as far as cooling the tower goes i have yet to do so but i would suggest putting a better fan in your kegerator to circulate the air. radioshack has a 12v fan for 10 bucks or take one out of an old computer and hook it up to an ac adapter.

prost.

[incutrav]

Cool thanks. I bought a pack of 100k resistors, as some said the 33k actually got the unit to cold. Putting them in on saturday before i even fire up the unit for the first time!

[texasryleigh]

I unplugged my Danby for a few weeks while doing some work in the room it is located. I have plugged it back in now and it won't cool down. Any suggestions?

I bought the items for the mods but wanted to check the "standard" temp beofore changing anything to ensure the changes worked.

Update-

compressor didn't shut off and got pretty hot. I placed temp probe in ice water to see if it would shut off...nothing happened. I adjusted the temp setting up to max (46 F) and compressor shut off. I took it back down to 36 F and it still hasn't kicked back on.

Maybe small leak in freon?

[Cherrykegerator]

Guys,
Just got a new Danby DKC586BC, will I have to be makeing these modifications? Or are the modifications for older models? Or just problems with a few kegerators? It is still in the box should I exchange it for something else?
Any advice would be great?

[beerology101]

I have the Danby 586, and yes, you will probably need the resistor mod and the tower cooler mod. I used the 33K resistor $1 (3 pak), made my tower cooler with a pc fan $5, tupper ware container $.50, cell phone DC coverter $00 (old phone) and tubing from the hardware store $2. Total mods under $10. See threads for detail on how to do mods. Good luck!

[doug ellis]

So I also just got a Danby off craiglist for $200. I want to do a few of these mod's before I put my first keg in it. Couple questions:

Will just adding the 33k resistor to the unit fix the cooling problems, or would I have to buy one of those external temp controllers too? It seems some people talk of only putting the new resistor in, and its good, but some are talking of adding the whole new temp controller, which I dont really have the money to do.


Also, is the main purpose of adding a fan to cool the tower, or the main box? How important is it to have the tower cool? Thanks for everyones help here!

If you don't cool your tower, you will have a foam issue, especially on the first pour. After that beer is actually cooling your tower. Then when you go back to pour another the same old same old.

Good luck and don't get discouraged, it's all worth it

[dvandriesen]

just did the tower mod and wow you can feel awesome air coming right up to the tower. The whole tower is cold to the touch. I did the 100K resistor it defiantly gets cooler i however still have foam on the first pour then its perfect might be because of new keg though we will see.

[NiteOwlBrewing]

So I have an (apparently) older model 644 that I have completely modified. I got a controller and wired around the board with the red wire. Well, I've also got the brown wire and the motor on the diagram mentioned in a previous post. In pulling the rear lower panel off I discovered that this brown wire/motor are a fan for the condensor, which, on mine, is angled at the lower rear (when facing as if serving a beer). Mine had a bit of a different problem in that the compressor never shut off prior to the controller. Leaving the brown wire under the discretion of the board on mine leaves it run all the time...for a while. It seems after 24-48 hours there is some fail safe in the board (keep in mind it thinks the compressor is running the whole time) is shutting the fan off. This does not enable efficient cooling and warming occurs. I think I'm going to tie the brown wire in with the black one so that the fan runs with the compressor. Anyone see an issue with this?

I'm guessing the earlier models had the condensor under the back while maybe the later ones had the more common loops through the side?

Any thoughts?

[psychodad]

Running the condensor fan at the same time as the compressor is good. Just make sure of the voltage. If the condensor fan is DC and you hit it with the same source for the compressor you will let smoke out of it.

[guzzizzit]

Please keep us posted on what happens! I have the same model Danby and was looking for an answer to just this question before i mod mine.

Thanks

[dubliner10]

Please keep us posted on what happens! I have the same model Danby and was looking for an answer to just this question before i mod mine.

Thanks

DITTO!

I have the same 644 model Danby, keg just blew today, Ive been waiting on that to install the controller

[jgwatsonjg]

I know its not a Danby, but its an Avanti with the same types of problems. I purchased this kegerator about 3 years ago and had foamy beer all 3 years! But this year, I decided to finally do something about it. I replaced the Tower with a 3" MM Stainless Steel, Built a Passive Copper Cooling Tower that I ran the Beer Hose through and wrapped that with FrostKing Sticky Insulation! and VOILA No More FOAM I have poured half a keg of more of Bud light and EVERY SINGLE GLASS has been perfect, 1" of head, Nice Carbonation and taste! I've read MM all this time and wanted to thank all of you for the Mods that helped get my Avanti Working Perfect!

JW

[danbysucks]

So I have an (apparently) older model 644 that I have completely modified. I got a controller and wired around the board with the red wire. Well, I've also got the brown wire and the motor on the diagram mentioned in a previous post. In pulling the rear lower panel off I discovered that this brown wire/motor are a fan for the condensor, which, on mine, is angled at the lower rear (when facing as if serving a beer). Mine had a bit of a different problem in that the compressor never shut off prior to the controller. Leaving the brown wire under the discretion of the board on mine leaves it run all the time...for a while. It seems after 24-48 hours there is some fail safe in the board (keep in mind it thinks the compressor is running the whole time) is shutting the fan off. This does not enable efficient cooling and warming occurs. I think I'm going to tie the brown wire in with the black one so that the fan runs with the compressor. Anyone see an issue with this?

I'm guessing the earlier models had the condensor under the back while maybe the later ones had the more common loops through the side?

Any thoughts?

If you are wiring the kegerator with a controller you will need to wire nut the red, black and brown wires together in the kegerator control panel area. I have a post with pictures showing this on a thread called "keg won't shut off - danby" if you don't wire the brown wire in it won't be getting any power when your controller supplies power to the kegerator. I would suggest disconnecting your display too, but if you want to leave it on, lunkhead has a post that explains how to do it that way too.

[bjakers]

I just bought a new danby 646 dont know a lot about these things but read a lot of good info.just wandering if i need to do some mod. Before i go and get a keg of blue moon. Thats why i bought the kegerator for thanks.

[catnip_x07]

I recently purchased a Danby off Craigslist and am having problems with the beer being a little warm and foam on every first pour. Not a big problem most nights, as I just drink faster and get a quick refill to keep from foam recurring. This leads to somewhat quick side effects that usually took many hours.

I have read over every post on this thread the past two nights. THANK YOU to everyone for submitting their ideas, problems and solution. I understand the principles of these two mods I want to do: Resistor and tower cooling.

My question is on the specifics on the tower cooling. I have an old cell phone charger and will be running the wires into the kegerator via the CO2 opening. Hoping to attach to an old PC case fan.
Question one: (presuming tubing is installed into the tower) Is the PC case fan strong enough to force air up the tube, or should I buy a blower? On the PC case fan, there are three wires (red, black, yellow). I was planning on connecting only the red and black. Is this sufficient?
Question two: Is it possible to connect one PC case fan AND a blower/second PC case fan to the main DC wires from the cell charger? I would join the fan wires and blower/fan wires to the main wire input. Maybe overkill on the fans but want good circulation.

I'm not that advanced on electrical splicing and thought about experimenting with this, but didn't want to smoke a blower, pc fan, power charger and possibly the receptacle.

I'm a visual person and will more likely post pics and maybe a youtube "how to" once it's all complete....with assistance on knowing if it will work of course.

[jtrainer]

Nice thread guys.... I have a Sanyo and I've been given some good ideas here...

catnip_x07: The yellow wire is for fan rotation speed feed back to the PC... it's not needed. As for it being strong enough, I'm not sure.

[lucky1]

Hello,

My danby was consistently reading 43 degree beer temp (2nd pour) when the digital was set to 36. I soldered the 33k resistor in parallel to the sensor. After 24 hours the temp might have lowered a degree or two (most). Now the beer temp is 41 to 42 degrees set at 36. I was expecting a much bigger drop. Any suggestions on what I should do next. Should I try a different size resistor to get a bigger drop in temp?

Thanks!!

[bl4cksh4d0w]

Hi everyone I am new to this forum, I bought a Danby on Wednesday and tapped it with a Widmer 1/6 barrel about 5 min. ago (1:05am). I just wanted to say thanks, as I was worried about buying it. But after reading about the blower/fan mod and thermostat mod with the resistor it made up my mind. I am excited to be part of this group. Thanks for the great resources!

[PointPleasantNJBeerguy]

The amount of money you guys dump into these crappy kegerators you probally could of bought a bev air unit.LoL

[psychodad]

It isn't that mauch money. And it still comes in for about 1/2 the price of a Bev Air. That leaves more cash for beer.

[AirShark]

The amount of money you guys dump into these crappy kegerators you probally could of bought a bev air unit.LoL

Let's see in my case.

$ 399 from Costco for the Kegerator
$ 1 for a pack of 100k 1/4 watt resistors
$ Free ancient power supply living in my garage junk bin
$ 5 for an AC/DC adapter from HSC in Santa Clara, CA
$ 5 of hose to cool the tower
45 minutes of my time listening to music and having a bottle of beer in the garage to hook it all up.

=$11 additional for a perfect 38-39 degree pour and little to no foam on the first try.

I don't know if I would describe this as a lot of money or time ;-)

[PointPleasantNJBeerguy]

Ok sorry you guys got me on that one...Wasnt trying to b an a--hole or anything.

[cubby_swans]

Let's see in my case.

$ 399 from Costco for the Kegerator
$ 1 for a pack of 100k 1/4 watt resistors
$ Free ancient power supply living in my garage junk bin
$ 5 for an AC/DC adapter from HSC in Santa Clara, CA
$ 5 of hose to cool the tower
45 minutes of my time listening to music and having a bottle of beer in the garage to hook it all up.

=$11 additional for a perfect 38-39 degree pour and little to no foam on the first try.

I don't know if I would describe this as a lot of money or time ;-)

Same here.

$430 for kegerator
$1 for a pack of resistors
$free PC fan in caes from PC that I should have thrown away 5 years ago
$free DC power supply, I have a drawer full of old ones
$3 hose
$6 'caulking' to seal up the fan case

Grand total of $10 to mod a $430 kegerator, and 30 minutes of my time. It's been nearly 2 years, and it pours 36.5 degree beers perfectly.

Even if you had to go buy all new mods part, or paid for the rip off 'e-bay' tower cooler, you'd still come in under $50 for everything needed to mod a Danby, leaving in excess of $1000 to buy beer with.

[washingtonbc]

My Danby was $470 at Sam's + the 3 year extended warranty.

I bought the ebay tower cooling kit (works great).

$1.00 for the 33k resistor.

$9.00 for a spare temperature sensor from Danby. I put the resistor in this one, so the original would be untouched.

Roughly $515.00 for a kegerator that has performed flawlessly for nearly 6 months. Perfect, 36 degree pulls everytime. The Danby is set at 41. Still have 4 1/2 years of warranty too!

[AirShark]

On my second keg....doing well after the mods despite a few hiccups. Thought I'd share pictures of mine completed as I know seeing other's posted pics has helped me thus far.






Thermometer moved and modded with 100k resistor. Old power supply and 3/4 inch tubing to cool the tower. Separate fan and some brackets to help circulate air through the unit.

I hope this helps someone!

[dbacks1]

iIcould not believe all the trouble i was having after spending over 500 bucks for the danby DKC645BLS refrigerator! No matter what temperature or pressure setting would result in anything but foam. But then i found you guys. YOU ROCK! i made the first change to the kegerator by installling in parallel the 30k ohm resistor and it immediately made the improvement to the space temperature by lowering the set point by 6 degrees. Then i said to my self wtf lets do it right and go for the gusto and make this a truly AWSOME kegerator. I bought a 5'' muffin fan from Fry's electronics ( 120 volt ) and hooked it up to the line power so that it would run all the time. i disconnected the baby toy fan inside the refrigerator and pulled off the plug on the circuit board that controlled it. This 50-60 cfm fan cost $17.95 at Fry's. Oh no, i'm not done yet! Then i bought a 65 cfm blower fan from Graniger and put it down at the bottom of the evaporater so it would pull off the plate exchanger and blow it up the tower. By insulating the inside of the tower with 2-1/2 '' x 3/8 wall insulation i bought from my local plumbing supply house, this now keeps the air that is inside the kegerator the same temp as the tower. The one other thing i did that made the difference is i made the hole at the top of the kegerator where the tower hooks to larger.
i made the opening 3'' so that when the blower is on, it circulates the air much better. All in all i spent about $70 dollars in the fan / blower / insulation / resistor /misc tube and i have THE most awsome kegerator in town. I don't buy beer anymore when i go out because the cost and the taste just isn't the same as to what i can get at home. The beer is the coldest and the taste is great. No foam problems anymore,no matter what pull, time of day. I currently have Coors light in the keg but i am going to venture out now ( since i wasted the first keg with the foaming problem ) and try the other smoother styles of beer. My THANKS to all who have posted on here to give their thoughts and ideas of how to make the Danby a much better product. Be patient; make the repairs as i did and your life ( and wife ! ) will be much happier.

[psychodad]

Be patient; make the repairs as i did and your life ( and wife ! ) will be much happier.

If momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

[BeerOclock]

We have a Danby maybe around 2 years old. Recently the temperature slowly started to rise. Danby suggested we replace the temperature sensor. Did it...same problem. It does cool down into the 30's, but then the temp. rises up to 70. Any suggestions on what to try next? Thanks!

[psychodad]

Bypass the temperature control with one of the methods described here. I wouldn't bother trying to go cheap and use a resistor. The resistor is only useful if the temperature is off a few degrees. These temperature swings you describe are a different problem.

[BeerOclock]

Yeah, I didn't think the resistor would do it. I've been looking through the posts. I have been reading all these posts again. Can you just bypass the temperature control, or do you have to install an external control also?

[lunkhead]

The external control is what bypasses the internal temperature control. If you hard wire bypass the internal without external control than the compressor will never shut off. Plenty of posts here on the subject, search external control.

[BeerOclock]

Thanks! (I'm the wife here who likes to find fixes to avoid calling the repair man! Not to mention buying beer by the case is getting old.)

[horne]

I too just bought a danby and am planning on using it to ferment in as well as a kegerator. I bought the brewers edge temp controller to override the danby thermostat and control the temp better. I am planning on cooling the tower and adding a fan to circulate the air but am not sure what I need to do this. I was wondering what size and model blower I need in order to run the air thru the tubing to the tower. I am planning on making the hole to the tower 3" and was wondering what size and kind of tubing I need. Lastly, I saw that a simple radio shack fan is useful for circualting the air--does this fan run off a d/c charger or does someone recommend a different kind of fan. I apologize ahead of time for any inconvenience and appreciate any input.

[jeremyo]

Just completed a simple tower cooling unit, works quite well. Used a small project box, cut a hole for a 12v computer fan mounted inside, and a 3/4 (id)1 (od) hose. Wired it all up to a 12v power converter and ive got a pretty chilled tower. I think using a blower type fan would really help, but this seems to get the job done. Looking forward to doing the resistor mod. Thanks for all the tips on here guys.

[bkbohnert]

Relevant info...5 gal keg of Four Peaks Kiltlifter (Arizona microbrew) at 12 psi, 5.5 ft of 1/4" tubing. Kegerator is shaded in outside BBQ area, with daytime summer temps ~100 degrees...elevation ~2400 ft.

I was really getting tired of warm beer, so I successfully tried the resistor mod this weekend with the following results using a kitchen digital thermometer:

Danby display/Water in glass inside/2nd cup of beer
Before 41 40 48
100K 41 36 43
33K 41 32 37

Now to my questions...

1) An analog kitchen thermometer inside the kegerator shows inside temp ~26 degrees. So long as the beer temp stays well above 28 the next few days (since the temp inside the keg may still be dropping), will I still need to worry about the beer in my keg freezing?

2) I am unable to change the temp setting on the outside Danby temp control panel...when I push the arrow buttons to enter "SET" mode, nothing happens. Any suggestions? If not, would I be better off having this fixed thru Danby or going to external temp control with the Brewer's Edge?

3) Lowering the temp via the resistor mod definitely helped with the foam problem, but I still get nearly half a cup of foam on my second pour (will work on tower cooling issue soon). From what I've read my tubing sounds OK, but I'm wondering if I need to lengthen it. Any ideas?

Thanks to all for the fantastic info on how to make the Danby sort of work like it's supposed to...