Crazy cooling fan idea

[woody]

Hi All,

Looking back on what I went through, this was a crazy idea, but it ended up working verrrrry well.

My second kegerator is a chest freezer conversion. 2 half barrels!! After all the plumbing was done, it definitely needed a cooling fan for the tower. There's a local construction supply warehouse (the one that starts with a "G") that I go to for work every now and again. They had a Dayton fan on sale, but it was about 60 cfm and lacked the cool mounting flange like the one sold on Micromatic's website. Less than 1/4 the cost though.

I mounted it up to some 2x4 scrap with some steel strap, got a 1 3/4" to 1 1/4" reducer and some 1" flex hose from the plumbing department, sat the whole thing on the compressor hump, hooked it up with hose clamps and duct tape, ran it up the beer tower and was in business. That thing pretty much blew cap off the tower!

Now many of you are saying "the fan motor puts out too much heat" which it definitely did - it was hot to the touch - when I had the reducer and hose on it. So the next thing I did was to take the reducer and hose off. With just the air blowing around inside, the kegerator definitely got much colder without additional compressor cycling and the beer in the tower would stay nicely chilled, but not as much as I like. The benefit of the air circulation in the freezer was obvious though.

OK, third round of hacking - NO reducer this time, just drove a screw through the hose (to keep it in place) into the wood that the fan is mounted to, with about 1" of the hose sticking into the fan outlet. Now there is plenty of circulation to the tower (way more than 12 cfm by my estimate) and plenty of circulation in the freezer. Best of both worlds, even with the "inefficient coupling" of the hose to the fan. The motor does get warm - but barely warm - not nearly as much as with the reducer.

Kind of a happy accident, but the compressor hardly ever cycles and everything is delicious. First pour of the night - and second and tenth - is always perfect.

YMMV, but this works for me. I'm 4 kegs into the converted freezer, and about two get two more for a Halloween party. All my drinking buddies (uhhh...leeches) are amazed at how delicious draft beer served through a clean system with proper temperature and carbonation truly is. As was I! I can post pics if anyone wants.

Oh yeah, I love this site! And many thanks to everyone for all the expert tips and advice.

Cheers!

[psychodad]

Now many of you are saying "the fan motor puts out too much heat" which it definitely did - it was hot to the touch - when I had the reducer and hose on it. So the next thing I did was to take the reducer and hose off. With just the air blowing around inside, the kegerator definitely got much colder without additional compressor cycling and the beer in the tower would stay nicely chilled, but not as much as I like. The benefit of the air circulation in the freezer was obvious though.

These motors get hot because 90% of the people who install them don't realize that if they reduce the outlet, they need to reduce the inlet as well.

[DCullender]

Pictures are always welcome!

Love seeing other's rigs cuz it will come in handing later when I'm up against a problem I can't figure out.

D

[woody]

you want some pics? sure thing mates! thanks psychodad for the advice on regulating the intake. i shoulda known that from using the rower at the gym!

[pvs6]

Hello Woody well done. Must assume you wired the fan to run full time since you said compressor doesn't cycle a lot. What is the noise out put of your fan set up with the unit closed up? I see you like I went with the can coolers on the outside of tower for insulation, did you remove the 1/4" foam sheet insulation inside the tower too for added air flow insdie? But with the kind of air flow push I suppect that fan gives you proably won't make a differences.

[lunkhead]

Crazy cooling fan idea??? No, not crazy at all. Trying to run a 30+ cfm 115vac blower full force into a tower that's only .05 cubic ft, now that's crazy. Glad to see someone else has figured out how to make a single blower do double duty, (air circulation & tower cooling) AND the blower makes less heat doing it.

[psychodad]

Cool. I didn't even notice in the OP that the fan was doing double duty.

[woody]

PVS6 - the fan is wired to a timer that, depending on the day of the week, only runs for a 1/2 hour here and there and then between 4 - 10 pm weeknights or 2 - midnight weekends. For parties the timer has an override mode that leaves it on.

Actually I did leave the 1/4" foam in the tower because I figured every bit of insulation helps reduce tower sweat. I even hot-glued some foam bottoms that I cut out of the beer coolers (koozies, cozies, etc.) to the inside of the tower cap. Wish there was a way to flip the top cooler over and still fit it over the shanks without ripping it because it would be nice to have the beer cooler upside down over the cap because the top still sweats. (Ehh that's OK, it lets me know it's working!) Maybe next time I take it apart to clean I'll buy a few extra coolers and experiment....

When the fan is on you hear a slight hum, but nothing major. The lid keeps it quiet in the room. The lid is the standard chest freezer lid topped with 3/4" oak that a buddy from work made for me. The kegerator is in the basement, and usually when we're down there drinking the music or the game is on loud enough that you don't hear the fan at all.

The single fan doing double-duty definitely works great. The key is to secure the hose with a screw or something because the hose can jam up the fan. I'd certainly recommend it to all.

Thanks all for the kind words.