So after a few years of always bottling my home brew I was getting fairly bored with cleaning out multiple bottles each time. After toying with the idea of a king keg I decided to spend a bit more and go for a Cornelius keg. It then snow balled a bit and I decided to build a kegerator. This was my first kegerator and not the easiest of things to build partly because of a few of the mistakes I made and partly because of me being fussy with the parts I wanted. I also spent over the odds for some parts of it and I could have done it cheaper looking back on it. Anyway I thought I would post the build process and costs and where I got my parts from on here so that other people can avoid the mistakes I made or use the suppliers I used if they are looking for parts.
Parts list
1. The Cornelius keg was a refurbished one and cost me £60 from here http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk/
2. Gas in disconnect and beer out disconnect both with John Guest fittings and 1m 3.8â beer line. Disconnects were £7.34 each beer line was 64p from here http://www.brewuk.co.uk
3. Co2 cylinder 5ltr refurbished test date till 2015 and posted empty £67.14 from here http://gascylindersuk.co.uk/shop/index.php?_a=product&product_id=95
4. Co2 tank filled for £5 by these guys http://www.m-s-fireprotection.co.uk/ if your in the Glasgow area and looking for a co2 refill these are the people to go and see. They offer a great service.
5. The fridge black whirlpool (im not 100% sure on the model number I think itâs ARC â 103) £67 quid off ebay and a trip to sunny Troon to pick it up.
6. CO2 single stage2 gauge regulator and adaptor pipe £28.75 off e-bay.
7. New O rings for the keg as I snapped one by accident £4.50 from Norm on ebay.
8. Carling beer font £38.99 off e-bay.
9. Odd tools including a hole saw, starting bit, spanner that fits the corni posts, new spanner for the regulator, new cutting disks for a dremel I would say about 15 â 20 quid give or take.
The build
So to start with the tap this was a fairly major fail on my part and I would encourage everyone to avoid ebay when you have a had a few jars. Here it is clamped to my table
I posted a thread here http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=40161
about the tap when I first got it and took it to bits. Darcey very kindly gave me some advice on the line sizes and a few other points.
Firstly the thing was for lack of a better description manky and in desperate need of a good clean out. Taking it to bits was not too much of a problem each screw was held in place and needed Alan keys to remove them. The clamp base had 3 screws holding it in place hidden under the cushioned bit
it had some handy cleaning tips too
It had 4 lines in it one beer, one to work the LEDâs on the carling sign at the top and two cooling lines. The cooling lines where dripping what I believe was anti freeze all over the place so I blocked them off not permanently. It also came with a flow control john guest adapter to go from a larger beer line to the one used on the tap.
From the above pictures you can probably see my first failure. The base of the chrome tap part was not level and was curved. This caused me no end of problems when it came to attaching this to the fridge. Also because of the curve the three screws in the base would all be at different locations depending on how straight I held the tap tower in place.
The fridge
This fridge had loads more space than I thought it would. I think it can hold two cornies fairly easily but I would need to have the gas outside and because of space constraints I needed the full thing to be self contained. This model of fridge has a door that you can take off and move the hinge from one side to the other. The top plastics are only held on by 2 screws at the back and 2 plastic clips at the front. The inside of the fridge needed no alterations to accommodate the keg and cylinder.
Under the top plastics I was faced with a solid foam insulation stuff. From all the research I had done on building a kegerator I knew I needed to try and locate or avoid any cables running along the top of the fridge. The methods I had seen to do this were to turn the fridge on full toot and leave it for an hour or so then spray water over the top and watch where itâs drying. The other idea was a paste of corn flour and rubbing alcohol. Both of these methods failed for me and I had a fridge covered in messy stuff
So after that failed I worked out where I would want the tap to sit and just went through the insulation very slowly and carefully. I created a small pilot hole using a small screwdriver to scrape at the insulation and blasted the hole out with the air duster.
When I got to the bottom and hit plastic with no signs of any lines I used the hole saw by hand to take out the rest of the insulation. The hole saw was 20MM and attached to a 9.5MM arbor. You can see here the plastic of the inner fridge and no cables in the way
When I first got the fridge I took off the light fitting inside and noted that the cables running from the thermostat where gray. If I had seen that when making the pilot hole then I would have stopped and chose another pilot hole but I got lucky first time. Using the drill and the hole saw attachment I just went right through the fridge plastics. The hole was just big enough that it could fit all 4 of the cables from my tap.
Top plastics
So the bit in red was right where the hole was going to be so using the dremel and a cutting disc I removed that and sanded it down. The bit in green I found a bit of wood that went the length of this and was about an inch and a bit thick. It fitted perfectly and would take the base of the tap no problem.
At this stage I hit problems thanks to the curve on the base of the tap. It would not sit flat on the plastics and this caused the measurements for the back screw to be off each time I tried. I should point out I had picked up 3 much larger screws to go through the wood and into the base of the tower. After a great deal of farting about I realised I could get away with just using the 2 screws to secure it and the back of the tap sits fairly flush. To counter the curve at the front of the tap an old bit of laminate flooring cut to size filled the gap. It is my intention to silicon seal the full base to the plastics.
Problem 2 was the pipes although they would fit through the hole, the 2 cooling ones had very little give in them. Where they met the bottom of the tower they had about 2â apart and with the space I had under the tap and including the plastics of the fridge I just couldnât fit them in. So going against the advice of Darcey I had to cut them back. I have done so though in such a way that they could be re connected and extended using speed fittings if needs be but for now they are sealed off and cut back.
So here is the almost finished kegerator
It was used in anger this weekend pumping out a batch of on the rocks cider I had available. Nice and cold but flat this time round. It still needs some work though I have a leak at the tap that should be easily fixed. The main problem I have is that itâs not holding co2 so I have a leak somewhere. I think I am right in that without the tap connected on the beer line out, if I hit the corni with co2 it should hold that pressure if I turn the co2 tank off??? At the moment if I push it to 30 then turn off the gas cylinder the regulator drops within about 30 min to 0. I had thought it was the john guest fitting on the quick disconnect so I replaced it with a barb but it still drops. My next step was going to be to replace all the O rings and use keg lube/KY on each of the seals. I am also going to wait until itâs empty and then I can use soapy liquid and see if I can find the problem. As mentioned the tap will be getting silicon sealed. The LEDâs on the top of the tap still work I think so I may well toy with the idea of getting a battery linked up to them and replacing the carling logo with something custom. I am going to get a decent drip tray for it too.
Sorry for the long thread and all the pics here but I hope this helps anyone else planning a similar build. I did my homework on this build before starting but as expected somethingâs went wrong and well if this helps someone else then itâs worth this post. It could have been done cheaper but things like "I really want a black fridge instead of a white one" ended up costing me more than I origonaly planned. Any questions or anything please just ask.
Parts list
1. The Cornelius keg was a refurbished one and cost me £60 from here http://www.hamstead-brewing-centre.co.uk/
2. Gas in disconnect and beer out disconnect both with John Guest fittings and 1m 3.8â beer line. Disconnects were £7.34 each beer line was 64p from here http://www.brewuk.co.uk
3. Co2 cylinder 5ltr refurbished test date till 2015 and posted empty £67.14 from here http://gascylindersuk.co.uk/shop/index.php?_a=product&product_id=95
4. Co2 tank filled for £5 by these guys http://www.m-s-fireprotection.co.uk/ if your in the Glasgow area and looking for a co2 refill these are the people to go and see. They offer a great service.
5. The fridge black whirlpool (im not 100% sure on the model number I think itâs ARC â 103) £67 quid off ebay and a trip to sunny Troon to pick it up.
6. CO2 single stage2 gauge regulator and adaptor pipe £28.75 off e-bay.
7. New O rings for the keg as I snapped one by accident £4.50 from Norm on ebay.
8. Carling beer font £38.99 off e-bay.
9. Odd tools including a hole saw, starting bit, spanner that fits the corni posts, new spanner for the regulator, new cutting disks for a dremel I would say about 15 â 20 quid give or take.
The build
So to start with the tap this was a fairly major fail on my part and I would encourage everyone to avoid ebay when you have a had a few jars. Here it is clamped to my table
I posted a thread here http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=40161
about the tap when I first got it and took it to bits. Darcey very kindly gave me some advice on the line sizes and a few other points.
Firstly the thing was for lack of a better description manky and in desperate need of a good clean out. Taking it to bits was not too much of a problem each screw was held in place and needed Alan keys to remove them. The clamp base had 3 screws holding it in place hidden under the cushioned bit
It had 4 lines in it one beer, one to work the LEDâs on the carling sign at the top and two cooling lines. The cooling lines where dripping what I believe was anti freeze all over the place so I blocked them off not permanently. It also came with a flow control john guest adapter to go from a larger beer line to the one used on the tap.
From the above pictures you can probably see my first failure. The base of the chrome tap part was not level and was curved. This caused me no end of problems when it came to attaching this to the fridge. Also because of the curve the three screws in the base would all be at different locations depending on how straight I held the tap tower in place.
The fridge
This fridge had loads more space than I thought it would. I think it can hold two cornies fairly easily but I would need to have the gas outside and because of space constraints I needed the full thing to be self contained. This model of fridge has a door that you can take off and move the hinge from one side to the other. The top plastics are only held on by 2 screws at the back and 2 plastic clips at the front. The inside of the fridge needed no alterations to accommodate the keg and cylinder.
Under the top plastics I was faced with a solid foam insulation stuff. From all the research I had done on building a kegerator I knew I needed to try and locate or avoid any cables running along the top of the fridge. The methods I had seen to do this were to turn the fridge on full toot and leave it for an hour or so then spray water over the top and watch where itâs drying. The other idea was a paste of corn flour and rubbing alcohol. Both of these methods failed for me and I had a fridge covered in messy stuff
So after that failed I worked out where I would want the tap to sit and just went through the insulation very slowly and carefully. I created a small pilot hole using a small screwdriver to scrape at the insulation and blasted the hole out with the air duster.
When I got to the bottom and hit plastic with no signs of any lines I used the hole saw by hand to take out the rest of the insulation. The hole saw was 20MM and attached to a 9.5MM arbor. You can see here the plastic of the inner fridge and no cables in the way
When I first got the fridge I took off the light fitting inside and noted that the cables running from the thermostat where gray. If I had seen that when making the pilot hole then I would have stopped and chose another pilot hole but I got lucky first time. Using the drill and the hole saw attachment I just went right through the fridge plastics. The hole was just big enough that it could fit all 4 of the cables from my tap.
Top plastics
So the bit in red was right where the hole was going to be so using the dremel and a cutting disc I removed that and sanded it down. The bit in green I found a bit of wood that went the length of this and was about an inch and a bit thick. It fitted perfectly and would take the base of the tap no problem.
At this stage I hit problems thanks to the curve on the base of the tap. It would not sit flat on the plastics and this caused the measurements for the back screw to be off each time I tried. I should point out I had picked up 3 much larger screws to go through the wood and into the base of the tower. After a great deal of farting about I realised I could get away with just using the 2 screws to secure it and the back of the tap sits fairly flush. To counter the curve at the front of the tap an old bit of laminate flooring cut to size filled the gap. It is my intention to silicon seal the full base to the plastics.
Problem 2 was the pipes although they would fit through the hole, the 2 cooling ones had very little give in them. Where they met the bottom of the tower they had about 2â apart and with the space I had under the tap and including the plastics of the fridge I just couldnât fit them in. So going against the advice of Darcey I had to cut them back. I have done so though in such a way that they could be re connected and extended using speed fittings if needs be but for now they are sealed off and cut back.
So here is the almost finished kegerator
It was used in anger this weekend pumping out a batch of on the rocks cider I had available. Nice and cold but flat this time round. It still needs some work though I have a leak at the tap that should be easily fixed. The main problem I have is that itâs not holding co2 so I have a leak somewhere. I think I am right in that without the tap connected on the beer line out, if I hit the corni with co2 it should hold that pressure if I turn the co2 tank off??? At the moment if I push it to 30 then turn off the gas cylinder the regulator drops within about 30 min to 0. I had thought it was the john guest fitting on the quick disconnect so I replaced it with a barb but it still drops. My next step was going to be to replace all the O rings and use keg lube/KY on each of the seals. I am also going to wait until itâs empty and then I can use soapy liquid and see if I can find the problem. As mentioned the tap will be getting silicon sealed. The LEDâs on the top of the tap still work I think so I may well toy with the idea of getting a battery linked up to them and replacing the carling logo with something custom. I am going to get a decent drip tray for it too.
Sorry for the long thread and all the pics here but I hope this helps anyone else planning a similar build. I did my homework on this build before starting but as expected somethingâs went wrong and well if this helps someone else then itâs worth this post. It could have been done cheaper but things like "I really want a black fridge instead of a white one" ended up costing me more than I origonaly planned. Any questions or anything please just ask.
