Materials used for the inside plumbing connections:
- Double Gauge Co2 Regulator
- Aluminum 3-Way Air Distributor
- D System Keg Tap Coupler
- 5/16-inch air hose (blue)
- 3/16-inch Beer Line (clear)
- 5 lb. Aluminum Co2 Tank
- 4-1/8" Long Shank with Nipple Assembly and Beer Faucet
- Plastic clamps for tubing
- Brewer's Edge - Temperature Controller
One nice feature about the regulator is that the adjustment knob did not require a screwdriver - it has a hand control - unlike the regulator on the Danby kegerator which got kind of annoying when adjusting the PSI.
A small square of wood was attached to the collar for support and the 3-way air distributor was mounted to it. This allows three kegs to be connected to the same air source. 5/16-inch vinyl tubing is connected from the air tank to the distributor, and then each distributor is connected to the keg tap coupler. Plastic clamps secure the tubing in place.
The Brewers Edge temperature controller automatically regulates the temperature inside the freezer. Some people will open up the temperature controls inside the freezer and adjust the wires. I think having a controller is far easier - and if you ever wanted to covert the kegerator back to a freezer, you would simply unplug the temperature controller. Much simpler.
The temperature controller is connected between the power outlet and the freezer. Inside the freezer sits a small probe which monitors the temperature. The probe on this model is submersible, so I actually have it sitting in a bottle of water to help better target the liquid temperature (somewhat simulating what the beer would be within the keg). On the controller, a temperature is set - mine is 38-degrees. The unit will turn on and off the power to the freezer based upon this setting, essentially bypassing the freezer controls.
There is a default 5 degree differential. Even though the controller is set for 38-degrees, it will actually cool the unit down to 33-degrees. As it warms up and hits 38 again, it will turn itself on and start cooling. Apparently this helps prevent wear and tear on the compressor motor, reducing the number of times it has to turn on and off.
The 5 lb. CO2 tank sits inside the kegerator - for now. We may end up moving it outside to save space for other kegs. The process would be simply drilling a hole (just like the one for the temperature probe) into the wooden collar and running the vinyl tubing through to make the connections.
One keg so far. You can see how everything is connected here - blue lines are air hoses connected to the keg coupler from the air distributor. Clear lines are for beer connected from the keg to the shanks. The shanks are connected to the faucets. Obviously the kegerator can be used as a refrigerator storing bottled water and other beer.
With the kegerator design originally we were planning to include a 1x10 wood outter collar that would sit out and overhang down the front of the kegerator. I felt that with this design the 4-inch shank would be a better fit (even though a 3-inch shank would probably work too.) Since we scrapped the idea of an outter collar and because we already had the 4-inch shanks, we found they do stick out past the wood quite a bit. This probably doesn't make a whole lot of difference, but if we were doing it all over again I'd probably get a smaller shank.
Three taps and tap handles...
Every bar needs a blackboard to tell what's on tap. We painted a piece of wood with chalkboard paint and hung it next to three Ikea spice racks that happen to nicely fit pint glasses.
The finished product!
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