Chest Freezer Kegerator Conversion Has Six Beers On Tap

keg-freezer-conversion

Drawing a pitcher of frosty cold beer out of your own keg fridge is a liberating feeling which [Danodemano2] can enjoy all the time since he pulled off this 6-tap chest freezer conversion. You won’t have to kill yourself to get it done, this image shows the custom cuff sitting between the chest freezer body and lid which is where all the added hardware is anchored.

Chest freezers are popular because they’re efficient. And let’s face it, if you’re going to devote an appliance to storing cold beer you better make certain it doesn’t drive up utility bills. That’s the reason for the rigid foam insulation around the ring, with the spray foam to ensure energy isn’t lost around the openings in the wooden frame.

This design goes above and beyond the functionality from the last offering we looked at. That one had a pretty nice tile job, but the finished wood contrasts the black freezer very nicely on this one. It’s the PC fan used for circulation and the properly terminated wiring that we really like. The one thing we wonder about is the feasibility of fitting all six corneilus kegs and the carbon dioxide tank into this beast.

[via Reddit]

17 thoughts on “Chest Freezer Kegerator Conversion Has Six Beers On Tap

  1. Do you really want to put the CO2 inside the cooler? Won’t that reduce the available pressure? Or does this somehow make carbing the kegs easier or better? Maybe a brewmeister can chime in here, ’cause I would go with an external CO2 tank, personally…

    1. I actually had the CO2 tank in my kegerator for a year or so with no functional problems, but the condensation started to corrode the fittings. In the future, it will be external for that reason and it will give me a little more space for more beer!

    2. Gotta remember that gas pressures vary with temperature on the Kelvin scale. The difference between the outside of the kegerator (298 K, nominal RT, but a bit warm for most people’s comfort) and the inside (275 K or so) is not even an 8% difference.

  2. If by ‘available pressure’ you mean less than the 800psi that the vapor pressure exists at in your C02 tank at room temperature, then yes. Still way more than you will need to push or carbonate beer. Your gauges are more likely to be off, because they operate in a certain temperature range, but once you account for that, you can dial things in nicely. I personally have my C02 tank outside my kegerator purely as a space issue so that I can fit 4 cornelius kegs in there, and have a manifold of secondary C02 regulators mounted there so I can keep my different beers at different pressures.

  3. A CO2 tank contains liquid under pressure, which is the vapor pressure of the liquid at that temperature. You can see by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_data that the vapor pressure is much different at 5C than at 20C. That will make the gauge measuring the primary pressure, the one with the red zone saying “time to refill”, unreliable. However, the regulator adjustment should still work reasonably well and the secondary gauge(s) should be fairly accurate, and that is what counts. Even so, I like my CO2 tank outside the keezer.

  4. Hey guys, I’m the one that built this. Couple of things. The pressure on the CO2 tank isn’t an issue but as Asymtote pointed out the gauges are a little off. Nothing major though. As for fitting all 6 kegs and the CO2 we did a test fit (not pictures) and it all fits without an issue. This particular freezer only had a small “hump” where the compressor was instead of the usual “shelf” so the CO2 fits between it and the front. You can see that here: http://i.imgur.com/Fsz7NrBh.jpg

    Additionally if anyone wants to see the full album of 261 pictures it’s located here: http://www.bunyardpics.com/Other/Keezer-Build/29913260_zRWFvz#!i=2566900243&k=pfjBL7M

    Finally thanks for featuring this! I can’t believe I made it to Hack A Day!!!

    1. Believe it. This is a great hack I’m hoping to pull off myself some day. I’d love to hear how much you think it costs to run the chest freezer? That, and the fact that we’d need to get one down the stairs into my basement are what has prevented me from taking the plunge up to this point. We also need more freezer space for our garden vegetables so I may go with an upright fridge (with freezer) instead to kill two birds with one stone.

      1. Honestly I’m not sure the cost to run it. I with throw my kill-a-watt on it when I get a chance and see. It’s a brand new freezer though and is running about 20 minutes on 60 minutes off so that should give you some idea. I still have some tweaking to do for this though. The reasons for going with the chest freezer rather than something upright was easier to get to kegs in the back plus less lost cool air when opening it up. It was originally planned for the basement but if we had put it there that’s where it would have stayed. There is a landing and after installing the collar it wouldn’t not have fit. My folks are building a garage/barn later in the year with a temperature controlled room so this will end up out there along with all our brewing stuff.

    1. Thanks! As for condensation a little bit after a pour but nothing very substantial and not enough to drip. Almost as soon as you pour the beer right at the tap warms up and the condensation goes away. And that little bit of warmish beer is such a small amount that it’s not a problem for the next pour as everything leading right up to the tap is good and cold.

  5. Here is my keezer (the specific term for a chest freezer-based kegerator)…
    http://wardiesworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/keezer_driptray.jpg

    (And build details… http://wardiesworld.wordpress.com/category/brewing/keezer/)

    I posted this because I was a bit confused quite why HaD is fixating on such low-end examples of keezers and kegerators – a simple search of a brew forum such as homebrewtalk will bring up hundreds of builds that are quite simply staggering in their craftsmanship. I recommend anyone who has an interest in this sort of thing and a spare moment to while away to check them out. You’ll be pretty impressed!

  6. Great keezer project! I’m seeing more of these all the time here in upstate NY. The keezer is a great combination of cost and efficiency and having a choice of several brews on tap is just every beer drinker’s dream! I would have trimmed the top edge with metal or plastic for a really tight seal but other than that, well done!

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