Best freezer / fridge for corny kegs?

[DragonAsh]

Hello oracle of beer wisdom. I'm going to be buying some corny kegs, but before I do that, I obviously need a chiller of some sort. Can anyone recommend a mini-freezer or mini-refrigerator that would hold two corny kegs and a 5lb CO2 tank?

At this point I'm not (necessarily) looking to go the kegerator route just yet.

TIA!


-S

 

[Spoon]

Under counter or a tall/larder fridge?

The former is possible, but not in many models.

The latter just look on ebay and pick up one that's cheap and local for <���£20. Added bonus (on top of holding more kegs) is plenty of space for shelves of bottles too.

Depends how much you want to spend and how much space you have though. The ultimate solution would be the biggest chest freezer you can find, a collar to fit it, and 10+ kegs to fill it.

At the other end there's something to be said for a separate chiller, means the kegs and live wherever, and the chiller/taps go in/on 'the bar' wherever that is (there's one on ebay at the moment for �£50).

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
The smaller freezers don't have enough height for a cornie keg because of the space needed for the compressor.
There are two freezers at our local working men's club, both about 2ft square on the top, and you'd be lucky to get one keg in, much less two.
Colin

 

[Sonnal]

I have this one.
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/househ...e-white-12272069-pdt.html?intcmpid=display~RR

It fits 2 kegs but my co2 goes in the cupboard next to the fridge. Works out quite well as it's easier to get at the regulator. There is also room for a mini keg and some bottles behind the kegs.

 

[DragonAsh]

I have this one.
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/househ...e-white-12272069-pdt.html?intcmpid=display~RR

It fits 2 kegs but my co2 goes in the cupboard next to the fridge. Works out quite well as it's easier to get at the regulator. There is also room for a mini keg and some bottles behind the kegs.

Thanks for this - apologies if this is a silly question, but....but how do you connect the CO2 tank if it's in the cupboard next to the fridge?

I assume you needed to take off the door shelves to get everything to fit, but did you need to do any further surgery to get the two cornies to fit?

TIA!

 

[Sonnal]

Standard size kitchen cupboard with shelf removed to fit 3kg bottle. 3/8 gas line run from regulator through hole drilled in side of cupboard and hole drilled in side of fridge. Y-shaped splitter in fridge to two gas lines and into kegs.

I had to move the fridge control unit around by 90 degrees (there's only a couple of self-tapping screws holding it in place) so that the keg would go in but that was it apart from taking the door shelves out. They are snug but there is a little bit of wiggle room.

 

[Snoot]

I bought one of these but my kegs don't fit :-(.
Guess your kegs are smaller than 21.5 cm in diameter. I thought new ones were around 22cm, so it would be OK.

Maybe the fridge is slightly smaller these days.

Back it goes...

 

[Nick Scope]

After using a fridge for over a year, I would go freezer. Here is why, moving out an empty with 3 full kegs in front is a total PIA! When you have a freezer and you have an empty, lift, remove, and replace. Fridge, move kegs while being bent over, pull empty, and replace while being bent over. Then while being bent over, attach in and out fittings while being bent over. Did I say bent over? I'm looking for the right freezer to make a keezer now. I have everything except all my taps. I got screwed by Vent-Matic and didn't get my taps before they went under.......$300 loss...nice. Go freezer, a fridge is for bottles and lagering!The other option is to look for the Edgestar / Haier / Sanyo / Danby fridges https://coolerexp.com/best-beverage-cooler-review/ that get made into kegerators for the low end consumer market. Avoid Nostalgia. Buy the unit, and build it out yourself, or go to one of the resellers like Beveragefactory.com where you configure it yourself. A build like this with a cold plate unit will take some patience and some tweaking to make it work nicely - you will need to add a tower cooler at the very least. If you build it out yourself you can order good quality components from the get go - stainless and name brand is what you want (Perlick / Kegoco / Taprite). The crappy parts that come with the low end units are half of the problem.