New under-counter kegerator - mounting tower to granite

[burtmacklin]

I'm a kegerator newbie, but we're building a new house and I got the green-light from management to install an under-counter kegerator in the kitchen. Hooray!

I'm so close to having this done. I just had the granite installers come out yesterday and drill a hole into the granite for the beer lines to run through. However, the guy told me that he wouldn't be able to drill the 4 screw holes I needed to mount the tower to the granite, because A) he didn't have a drill bit small enough, and B) even if he did, he was worried about the granite cracking with them being so close to the bigger hole. I didn't want to push him on it, because if he doesn't feel comfortable doing it, I don't want him to try.

I've done a lot of reading around several forums, and I've seen people say that drilling screw holes is no problem, and I've also seen people opt for a silicone adhesive instead, or even drill screw holes into a wooden plate which you then adhere to the granite using silicone. Plenty of options.

I've got a few questions regarding my specific install, being my first time installing one of these, that I would love some insight on. I also have pictures to go along with them so you can see what I'm working with.

1- Given the size of my main hole (roughly 1 6/16"), would anyone see a problem drilling 4 screw holes around it? In the picture I took with the rubber ring, you can see the screw holes would be just over 1" away from the edge of the bigger hole. This would be my preferred method of attaching to the counter, but I don't want to have to pay for a whole new slab and install if the risk of it cracking is pretty high. Otherwise, I'm happy to hire another guy to come out and drill them for me.

2- It's hard to see in the pictures, but I maybe have a 2/16" gap (if even that) between the top of the kegerator and the bottom of the granite. It's pretty snug, almost flush. If I do use screws for the tower, would it be smarter to just drill maybe halfway through the granite, and use epoxy to secure them? I fear if I have a nut on the bottom side of the granite, there won't be enough space for me to slide the kegerator in.

3- The main hole fits both of my beer lines just fine for my dual-tap tower. Would there be any reason for needing to go bigger to allow more air to come through?

4- With such a tiny gap in between the granite and kegerator unit, is there any need for me to run insulation in between them?

5- Are you sick of answering rookie questions like these?

Thanks in advance for your time and help. I couldn't be more excited to get this thing up and running. I took a picture of what it looks like with the tower actually sitting on top of the counter with the drip tray. I'm having my cabinet guy come in and attach a white panel to the front this weekend to match the rest of my cabinets. Although if it looks dumb because the door sticks out a couple inches, I may just try and swap doors and go with a stainless steel one instead.

[djc]

I don't want to be a kill joy, but with that size hole you are always going to have first beer foam because you won't be able to run a tower cooler line. You need 3-3 1/2" for that. You will also need to make a collar to span the gap between the kegerator and the underside of the counter or you will have every beer foam.

[THE ICEMAN]

In addition to what djc mentioned, you will definitely need to seal between the counter top & the kegerator. If you leave any air gap it will pull in moisture from the air & you will have a problem with condensation inside the unit.


THE ICEMAN

[ylenroc]

Hi Burt,

Your setup looks awesome! I was in the exact same spot three years ago. I was a total kegerator newbie and built a bar with a granite top. I just assumed that it would be easy to mount the tap on the granite (like yours, it's a twin tap system). Like DJC said, you need to ensure that the hole is big enough for both the two beer lines and a tower cooler (pick one up from Ebay or Amazon for about $50). My granite guy initially tried to convince me to use a silicon adhesive for the tap, but I had him drill the four holes for the screws. There was no cracking at all. The only change I made was to go with slightly larger screws than those that had come with my kegerator/tap setup to get a tigher fit (I initially used the supplied screws, but after a few weeks of pouring beers on a regular basis, they were coming loose).

After he drilled the holes, but before mounting the tap, I dropped a short piece of PVC pipe in the hole as a collar between the top of the kegerator and the bottom of the bar top - this keeps the cold air in. Maybe I've gotten lucky, but this has worked really well for me - I didn't put any other kind of seal in that space.

I did intially have some foaming problems, but after a lot of research on this forum and playing around with balancing, I swapped out the initial 5 foot beer lines with 9 foot lines (ordered here on Micromatic) and virtually all of my foam issues went away. Of course, you will want to study up on balancing (temperature, V/V, PSI settings) that is extremely well documented in this forum.



Best of luck!

Mike

[BigKutta]

Congratulations! Best mistake you ever made. LOL! I did the same thing 6 years ago and haven't looked back. I cant remember exactly but the hole in the stone was slightly bigger than in your set up, and I had them drill the 4 holes according to the template in the seal. There were no issues and they did it on site after installing the stone on the bar. Once the screw holes were drilled, we used anchors to screw the screws into and the tower has been solidly in place since then. I recall they were short screws too.

I have not installed a tower cooler and while I get some foam on first pour, I toss those 2-3 ounces out and then its all good. On the inside of the kegerator, I used some soft putty to close the hole out of the kegerator and it has worked great for me. It does start to hang for a bit but I stick it right back there.

[burtmacklin]

Thanks for all the help, guys! It's all been very insightful. Ylenroc and BigKutta your setups look damn good! It's good to know other people have had to figure out the same problems I'm facing now, so thank you for going before me so I can soak up all the benefits of your installation experiences, haha.

I do have a few follow-up questions after reading your replies.

-I definitely don't want to use an adhesive after reading your posts and seeing your setups. ylenroc it looks like your kegerator/granite gap is pretty tight also, how did you secure the screws once the holes were drilled? And did your screw holes go all the way through the granite, or do they not come out the under side? My gap is so small that I'm worried about screws bumping up against the top of the kegerator if they stick out much at the bottom.

-Forgive me if it's a dumb question, but a tower cooler is one of these right? https://www.amazon.com/Coldtower-ST-.../dp/B00IGBTZDI
So essentially it's just a tube that runs up into your tower, and the fan that you secure on the bottom will just blow cold air up through? I was thinking it'd be some crazy kind of installation where I have to splice tubes or something, but that sounds pretty easy and straightforward.

-Lastly, my kegerator came with what it calls a "tap cooled system" -- which is essentially just a thick metal pipe that attaches to the inside of the kegerator, and then the pipe runs up through the hole and slides into the tower. The hole itself is around 1 5/16" or so, which is enough to fit both my beer lines, but obviously not big enough to slide a tower cooler tube through there with them. I'm attaching pictures of the pipe as well. My hole in the granite is just barely too small to fit this, but if I have him come back out and shave a little more off, it'll fit just fine. I couldn't find much information on this part online, so my question is this: would this tube alone be enough since it solves my gap insulation/collar problem, and is metal so should stay relatively cool? Or would I be better off just sticking with PVC and a tower cooler?

Thanks again, guys! Really appreciate the help.

[djc]

Shaving a little off to just fit the pipe or tower cooler line in won't help, you need to allow for return air also - whatever you send up must come down. 3"- 3.5".

[BigKutta]

-I definitely don't want to use an adhesive after reading your posts and seeing your setups. ylenroc it looks like your kegerator/granite gap is pretty tight also, how did you secure the screws once the holes were drilled? And did your screw holes go all the way through the granite, or do they not come out the under side? My gap is so small that I'm worried about screws bumping up against the top of the kegerator if they stick out much at the bottom.

-Forgive me if it's a dumb question, but a tower cooler is one of these right? https://www.amazon.com/Coldtower-ST-.../dp/B00IGBTZDI
So essentially it's just a tube that runs up into your tower, and the fan that you secure on the bottom will just blow cold air up through? I was thinking it'd be some crazy kind of installation where I have to splice tubes or something, but that sounds pretty easy and straightforward.

-Lastly, my kegerator came with what it calls a "tap cooled system" -- which is essentially just a thick metal pipe that attaches to the inside of the kegerator, and then the pipe runs up through the hole and slides into the tower. The hole itself is around 1 5/16" or so, which is enough to fit both my beer lines, but obviously not big enough to slide a tower cooler tube through there with them. I'm attaching pictures of the pipe as well. My hole in the granite is just barely too small to fit this, but if I have him come back out and shave a little more off, it'll fit just fine. I couldn't find much information on this part online, so my question is this: would this tube alone be enough since it solves my gap insulation/collar problem, and is metal so should stay relatively cool? Or would I be better off just sticking with PVC and a tower cooler?

Thanks again, guys! Really appreciate the help.

Adhesive will always give way, you want to mount it the right way unless there are no other choices. How thick is the slab? You can get screws and anchors shorter than the thickness of the slab and it will hold well (due to the anchors)

Correct that is a tower cooler.

The only difference between your tower cooled system and the one from amazon is that the one from Amazon has a fan that blows air up the tower. Otherwise setup/concept is similar. Why not try your setup up first? Like I said, I never installed a tower cooler and at most waste 1-2 ounces at first pour. In the grand scheme of things thats not much. My advice would be to get your system set up and get it stabilized and start using it, and then make adjustments as you go along. There are a lot of challenges and learnings coming so take it one step at a time and enjoy your beer!

[burtmacklin]

Perfect, thank you guys! I'm getting in touch with a new granite company today and will ask them about anchoring the screws as well.

I'll give the whole setup a try with what I've got and keep this thread updated with how it all works once I've got it up and running.

[BigKutta]

Perfect, thank you guys! I'm getting in touch with a new granite company today and will ask them about anchoring the screws as well.

I'll give the whole setup a try with what I've got and keep this thread updated with how it all works once I've got it up and running.

Since you are thinking of a tower cooler in the future, you may want to have them increase the size of the hole to fit one one in the future.

[ylenroc]

Hi Burt,

Sorry for the delay, it's been crazy busy and I forgot to check back here. Like BigKutta mentioned, the screws holding my tower down are shorter than the thickness of the slab. Also, the tower cooler that you provided the link to is pretty much the same one that I have. It sits on the kegerator floor next to the kegs and the tube runs up into the tower. Nothing fancy at all, and if you happen to get that hole in granite widened, it will just sit up there. I've tie-wrapped the tube to one of the beer hoses so that it stays in place. Works really well - when the keg is properly balanced, there is no foam at all.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

Mike

[burtmacklin]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to post an update. I've finally got my kegerator installed, the granite figured out, and everything running. After being turned down by multiple granite installers, I bought some diamond core bits off Amazon and found a friend who has experience and was willing to help. We widened the main hole to about 3", and then he drilled my screw holes with a 1/4" bit down to about 1" depth. Instead of using a threaded insert, I just used silicone to adhere the screws inside the holes.

Between the screws and the tower-cooled pipe that's inserted from the kegerator into the tower, it's pretty sturdy and I don't think I need to silicone the tower itself -- so if I ever need to pull it off of the granite it won't be much of a hassle.

I'm still dialing it in, but after letting my kegs sit for a couple days and get down to 38 degrees, my pours aren't nearly as foamy as they were when I first hooked everything up. I currently have my CO2 at about 9 PSI, but will continue to play with that and try to find the ideal balance.

Hoping I can get away overall without installing a tower cooler and having to drill a hole through the back of the unit for power. Because of that metal pipe, even just feeling the bottom half of my tower it feels pretty cold, and seems to not lose much temp when it gets to the top.

Attaching a few pictures of my final setup. Thanks again to everyone who was so helpful!

[djc]

Looks good. There is no such thing as 'play with it'. You need to balance it. 9 psi is too low and will lead to flat beer over time. Granted you may drink it fast enough so it doesn't matter, but that's a different story.
Tower cooler is a must IMO, feeling cool isn't the thing. It needs to be the same temp as the beer essentially, and all the way up.

[michaeltukes581]

That looks nice. Better than those commercial frozen drink machine i see.

[Nico]

Hey guys,

I'm a newbie to Kegerators and recently purchased a EdgeStar KC2000SSTWIN Full Size Stainless Steel Dual Tap Kegerator & Draft Beer Dispenser - Stainless Steel

I plan to get this installed on top of a 1 and half inch granite bar top at my outside Bar and would like to know what additionally do I need for this installation? I have seen several articles on Tower Cooler Lines that I need for this installation. Can you please advise me what I need? Appreciate any advice.


Thanks in advance!


Nico