Tower Screws

[mccarrom]

I am installing a home bar in my basement and recently purchased a Marvel 61HKBBF kegerator. The bar has a granite countertop that we will have the installers drill a 3" hole into and line the top of the kegerator up with the hole and seal it for cooling the tower. My problem is connecting the tower to the kegerator. The granite guys think it will crack the countertop if I secure directly to the granite. They suggested drilling four small holes around the larger hole and attaching the tower through the granite to the kegerator. My problem is that I can't find the right size screws. The ones that came with the tower kit fit the M5x0.8 hole at Lowes and HD but the M5 screws that I bought don't work in the kegerator tower holes (no idea how that is possible). Anyone have any suggestions? Really appreciate the help.

[spdbump]

Did an install like this recently, use bolts through the granite and then secure with a washer and nut. How thick is the granite piece? Is the granite directly on top of the kegerator?

[johnon]

Colin,

I noticed you commented about doing an install with granite on top of the kegerator. If you happen to know, do you know what they did to connect the fridge to the tower (chase)? I have a Marvel outdoor and the hole in the kegerator is 1 1/2 inch. I am putting a tower cooler in and I am finding I don't have much room for return air because I used gray conduit (pvc) pipe that has an 1 1/4 outside diameter with 1 inche inside diameter. Between the beer line, cooler line 3/4 outside diamerter, I have no room for return air from the tower. I am trying to find a pipe or something that has a larger inside diameter and that fits the 1 1/2 refrigerator better.

If you have any thoughts, I'd greatly appreciate it.

thanks,
john

San Rafael, CA

[DCullender]

I assume there is an air gap between the granite bar top and your kegerator for this answer.
Attaching tower to granite: The granite guys are correct, you can crack the granite if you mount directly to the granite with nuts and bolt. However, easy fix is to use a thin collar between the nut/washer and the granite. This way the pressure of the nut is not focused on a single point on the granite. I use 1/4" white plastic/nylon cheap cutting boards. Cut a 6" circle then cut a center hole to match the tower size, this gives a nylon "donut".

If the granite sits directly ontop of the kegerator, you can use 1/4" all thread with a nut cap on top and washer/nut inside the kegerator. The all thread lets you make bolt any length needed.

To seal air gap between top of kegerator and bottom of bar top, use 3" pvc and wrap the pvc with insulation tape.

[spdbump]

Johnon,
In the application that I was talking about I had a 3" hole for my tower. I was able to use a 2 1/2 in pvc coupler for my chase. Sounds like in your situiation you would have to switch out your tower to a 3" in tower and drill out your existing hole.

[Tom_Bon_Temps]

I went a different route

The granite guy is here today, but my tower (and installation instructions) was erroneously left out of the packaging of my kegerator, so I've had to improvise--and I'm not a handy, mechanically inclined guy. I've had the installer cut out a 4 1/2 inch circle to leave the 4 bolts in the top of the kegerator exposed for easy installation of the tower to its top. I guess I'll create the plastic "donut" out of a cutting board that another poster was talking about to cover the hole.

Any other suggestions?