Mini fridge expansion for undercounter keg box

[or31acres]

I am building a bar in the playroom at my ski house (SnoPlace).

Looking for a way to dispense homebrew in a classy way I was inspired by the page at this link: Building a kegerator

I bought a Danby undercounter fridge (no freezer; basically the model that is the foundation for their Kegerator) with the intent of marrying it to an insulated box to hold two corny kegs -- this amounts to a "keezer on its side" with a large collar.

Now I'm wondering whether the compressor in the Danby has the oomph to cool twice the volume of the original fridge. Does anyone have experience with a setup like this? Any advice will be welcome!

[TomK]

I remember running across that same site when I was researching my options. I had the same concern as you about doubling the volume of the box that the little fridge was supposed to cool. Unfortunately, the guy never said how well it worked out. I have a feeling he likes his beer on the warm side and puts up with a lot of foam.

[or31acres]

I also sent him a query on this through the webmaster link on his site, so hopefully we'll find out!

[TomK]

Let me know what you find out. The guy has one heck of a nice setup, that's for sure.

[shuggy]

Originally Posted by or31acres

I bought a Danby undercounter fridge (no freezer; basically the model that is the foundation for their Kegerator) with the intent of marrying it to an insulated box to hold two corny kegs -- this amounts to a "keezer on its side" with a large collar.

Two corny kegs should fit into the mini-fridge without too much modification. Likely just remove the door storage panel and replace it with something flat. Look up info on the Sanyo 4912 as this was likely the most popular mini to convert into a homebrew kegerator. There is no way that doubling the cubic feet for that fridge to cool is gonna work out alright.

[or31acres]

Yup. I've done the research on that, and it's very straightforward. I was trying to get more space, and to preserve the door storage so I'd have some convenient fridge space in my little bar area. Probably asking for too much. As I said, I was inspired by the atlantabeer site before I got educated by all the generous posts on this forum.

It seems like another possibility is to add a collar to the little fridge, ala "keezer", to give a bit more space without killing the door. My counter depth is 30", so I've got room for this.

[shuggy]

Originally Posted by or31acres

It seems like another possibility is to add a collar to the little fridge, ala "keezer", to give a bit more space without killing the door. My counter depth is 30", so I've got room for this.

It's a lot more difficult to put a collar on an upright appliance. You are most likely going to lose the magnetic ability of the door seal so you will have to devise a latching mechanism to keep the door tight against your collar. Any air leaks will not only cause the compressor to work harder but your fridge is going to start accumulating ice on the cooling plate. Good luck.

[or31acres]

Here is a reply from KP, the owner of this the inspiring site: Building a kegerator

> Subject: Re: Kegerator
>
> It works just OK. The main problem is keeping beer cold enough. I have
> a friend that used the same approach but used a small dorm sized
> freezer instead of a fridge and he gets better results. Not sure where
> he found the small freezer, though.

And he adds:

I'm on my 2nd fridge since the first one died after a couple of years.
The second time around I changed it up where I removed the back of the fridge and gently bent the small freezer unit (which is really the cooling unit on these small guys) backwards so that it is outside the main compartment. I then backed up the unit to my cold box so that the metal colling unit is inside the kegerator while the rest of the unit is outside. This way all it is cooling is the kegerator and not the original area of the fridge. This works better than trying to cool double the space.

It works well to keep the beer in the 50s which is perfect for the styles of beer that I like (stouts and barley wines). Foaming is not an issue as you can adjust the CO2 to work at most any temperature (less pressure for the higher temps).

[shuggy]

Originally Posted by or31acres

Foaming is not an issue as you can adjust the CO2 to work at most any temperature (less pressure for the higher temps).

This sentence is all the more reason not to do anything this fellow has done. It is completely backwards. He must enjoy flat stouts and barleywines.

[TomK]

Wow, 50's? That's plenty warm all right. Thanks for the follow up.