building a home 100 ft system help

[cblzaccie]

I am installing a 2 line beer system in a home, I have designed my own cooling sysetm for the lines, however what Inside Diamiter beer lines should i use? i have a beer run of around 100FT for each line ?

thanks

[Divinity Draft]

I commend you for undertaking such a huge project for your house. I have a few questions about the project...what kind of chilling system have you constructed? and what is the lift or drop (in feet) between the bottom of your keg and the dispensing faucet? another factor in deciding which I.D. tubing to use is what hardware (tower, shank, faucet, reducers) is incorporated in the system. I can't stress enough the importance of making sure the temperature of the beer in the lines is kept at the optimum temperature: an ideal would be around 38 degrees at storage as well as all the way to the faucet. If you want to give me a call, we can talk more about it.
-Daniel Hardin
Divinity Draft Service
Asheville, NC ... the beer capitol of the south

[cblzaccie]

thanks so much. here is what i have made so far:

1x large chest freezer with external digital termostat set for 35 degrees ( thermosat probe site in a glass of glycol / water mix so it reads liquid temp rather than air temp

1x small chest freezer with the following inside it ...

3x 5 gallon gas cans plastic variety, filled 1 with glycol / water mix , filled the other 2 with water. then put about 6 ft of tubing into each of the water cans..

then attached one tube to the pump and the other into the glycol can. to have the glycol flowing out of the glycol can, though the 6ft tube in one of the water cans and out the coolant line, then on the return it flows though the 6 ft tube in the 2nd water can and back into the glycol can.

The idea of the water cans is that the water will freeze and will cool the glycol more before it hits the coolant lines and also pre cool the warmer returning glycol before it is dumped back into the main glycol tanks.

a line made of 4 x 3/8 diamiter tubing, 2 for beer and 2 for glycol, wrapped in aluminmum foil and then insulated in foam pipe insulation.

a shurflow pump 1.5 gpm to pump the glycol around

several digital thermometers with probes for freezer temp, glycol temp, and line temp.

the line run is about 75 ft from the garage to the kitchen

what pump shoudl i use? i know i need a contonous duty but what flow rate and psi ?

right now using a 1.2 gpm pump i am getting a 3 degree temp differnce between the glycol tank and the tap head ( is this good? )

[cblzaccie]

well i will admit when i am wrong. i didnt factor in the low btu's of cooling on the chest freezer, it cant keep the glycol cool long enougth and although it works for a while the temp slowly creaps up....

so i am upping the system. taking a ice chest and a 6000 btw window ac unit , removing the evaporator coil and mounting it in the bottom of the ice chest and putting the glycol in there with the pump. basically recreating the glycol power pack system. wish me luck

[cblzaccie]

ok the mk1 version was a failure however the mk2 version has been running for several days now and is working just great.

here is a you tube video showing it.

YouTube - Home made glycol beer cooling system

obviously i do NOT recommend this for any sort of commercial installation, you should use the micromatic systems for that but for a home user this can be made for about $300