Kegerator build - a couple of questions

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Permalink Reply by Peter Smith on April 10, 2015 at 9:10am

Most modern fridges allow you to flip the door making LHS or RHS opening therefore no active components in the door...   cant say I have ever seen an old fridge with active door cooling either,  older kelvinator style def do not.    The coolant is under pressure and pumped around solid coils radiators etc,  no way to move it in and out of door easily as the door assembly hinges.

this is a good guide to hacking fridges   http://www.brewpi.com/fridge-hacking-guide/

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Permalink Reply by CamT on April 10, 2015 at 9:17am

That makes a lot of sense, cheers. I will inspect the hinges closely

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Permalink Reply by Samuel Loader on April 10, 2015 at 10:09am

also it should be in the users manual which will be available online. also yes you do want a controller or at least a thermometer to see and adjust what temperature you are keeping your beer. most fridges internal temperature is about 3-4C which is only really suitable for serving light lagers and pale ales  

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Permalink Reply by Cain Harland on April 10, 2015 at 1:21pm

I was thinking the same thing re controller. To start with I will just stick thermometer in a bottle of water and see how it goes on the least cold setting. I mostly brew pale ales of one kind or another so slightly cold is fine with me. I do do the odd stout and prefer it warmer but its easier to give it a few minutes to warm up before drinking than it is to make the IPA it shares the fridge with colder.

I got 5 thermometers for US$8.5 from ali express so happy to leave one in the fridge permanently. They actually sent me 6 that made it all the way from china in perfect condition only for me to drop one about a minute after opening the box. Good to have spares with butter fingers and a 18 month old that thinks they are drum sticks.

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Permalink Reply by CamT on April 10, 2015 at 1:49pm

Thanks for the thermometer link, cheaper than I've seen in NZ so may buy some. Yeah, "level 5" doesn't exactly say how cold it is in there, but with a bit of trial and error I'm hoping to figure it out. 

Once this is out of the way I am thinking of a ferm chamber build as well...my wife is going to love all these fridges in the garage! 

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Permalink Reply by Cain Harland on April 10, 2015 at 2:44pm

Yeah mine was stoked that I just bought another gigantic old kelvinator to go next to my matching kelvinator fermentation chamber, vertical freezer and bar fridge. At least this one replaces a pile of swappa crates.

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Permalink Reply by Cain Harland on April 11, 2015 at 12:45pm

I left a thermometer in a rum bottle of water in my telman bar fridge on warmest setting it recons 6 degrees. So that would be sweet. Moved bottle to future kegerator hopefully get similar result.

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Permalink Reply by Cain Harland on April 12, 2015 at 11:36am

same same on big kelvenator 6 degrees on warmest setting. I'll take that because even if I have a stout or triple in there it will be shearing it with some kind of pale ale or pilsner.

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Permalink Reply by Crusader-Rob on April 13, 2015 at 12:08pm

I just removed the link in the fridge thermostat and fitted an STC-1000 nice and easy.

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