DIY - My new kegerator!

Last night I finally converted a small 4.4 cubic foot refrigerator into a two faucet kegerator with a tower. I used the Frigidaire model widely available at Lowe's. I picked the stainless steel look. The process was fairly easy and Rene and I had a few homebrews while doing this little project.



When converting compact refrigerators you have to be aware of where the coolant lines for the evaporator run so that you don't inadvertently drill a hole through one and instantly kill your refrigerator and project. Unfortunately our digi camera was charging so these are all iPhone pics...they seem to capture the process well enough.

Here's a pic of the inside and you can see that on the inside of the fridge there is a lip on the top, that's where the evaporator and coolant lines run so if you drill in the front you don't have to worry about hitting any lines. You'll also notice that I had to unscrew and reposition the thermostat controller. This fridge will fit exactly two 5 gallon soda kegs (Cornelius variety) and one 5 lb CO2 tank on the back shelf.




So the first order of business was to measure and mark the "safe" zone's to drill on this fridge. The third piece of tape represents the furthest back I could safely drill without potentially hitting any coolant lines.



The view from above (view is at 90 degrees). The four "x's" represent where the securing screws will go to hold the tower in place. You can see that two are near the 'do not drill' area, but still safe.




Now right before drilling I lined up the gasket to make sure everything was ok...



Ok, decided to drill one test hole. My brother had the idea to subsequently bend a wire coat hanger about 2" and stick it in there to feel around for any coolant lines before drilling the big hole. We didn't find any evidence of coolant lines.



View from inside the fridge. You can see the small hole poke through just on the left side of the spotlight. Note the condensation on the coolant area.




Hole drilled through!! Yay, no coolant lines damaged! I decided to just line the hole with some duct tape before proceeding to the next step.



View from inside the fridge...




Now the four mounting holes were drilled for the tower and the surrounding tape was removed before mounting the tower.



Ok...now we're almost there!! The tower is installed...but still the fridge is empty.



Oh yes...those are Perlick faucets! :)



All the good stuff in the fridge with a pint of homebrew poured from the tap!




On draft:

* Left faucet, an American style Pale Ale 5.4% abv, 41 IBUs (bittered with Magnum and Perle, flavored with Cascade)
* Right faucet, an American style Pale Ale 4.6% abv, 41 IBUs (bittered with Magnum and Perle, flavored with Cascade)