I am beginning my foray into the kegging world and am looking into pre made kegerators. Has anyone purchased a commercial kegerator/keezer before and have any recommendations? Ideally I can fit 2 kegs in there and it has two taps to serve both at the same time.
I know a lot of people build theirs and I'd be willing to do so if the cost savings is that much better than the premade. I have a budget of about $400-$550 and already have 2 corny kegs. Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Jay
you can generally get a lot better deal building your own. I was just at costco and they have a small chest freezer on sale for like $116. Pickup up some wood and insulation and make a collar, buy a tap or two, perlick are the toppest of notches, get a temp controller like the johnson A19. Gas/regulator/lines/fittings I got at NFC on the north side. you can find better deals online, but these dudes really stand behind their stuff, and they'll tape it all up and assemble it for you too for free, all the fittings and stuff add up pretty quick though. that'll get you up and running. Then to really fine tune my system I got an EVA Dry dehumidifer to get rid of condensation. It's basically a reusuable silca gel dessicant packet. once it changes color you plug it in and it heats up and dries out again. You can get silca gel packs to and just toss them in the oven for a bit to dry out. I also got a little computer fan with a USB jack that I would plug in to a wall adapter, that would help circulate cold air and increase system efficiency and also I had it pointed at the dehumidifier pack to help direct moisture there. All that is kinda luxury fine tuning stuff though. you can get a fridge and build a collar and toss in cheap faucets and get off the ground for less than your budget though.
Go up to L&L appliance. Go to the one on Lawrence. They have multiple locations. He usually has tons of them available. You can also barter on price with the guy. His won't have a 2 tap tower but you can buy that almost anywhere and just screw it into the top. I also had to drill a second hole in the back for a second gas line but it is the cheapest place I've seen to buy one and almost zero work, holds 2 kegs, and has lasted over 5 years without any issues for around $250 all in.
Jay, I'm in the market to build one as well since mine took a shit this summer. I'm pretty confident with building kegerators and and happy to help with yours, show you mine or whatever. Northern Brewer has a good vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHWy_Vlw3J4
Yeah I opted to build my own. HH Gregg is going out of business and has really good deals. The one on Cicero was out of chest freezers though. I'm waiting to see what Lowe's, Sears, etc. do for their memorial day sales and order a chest freezer online. Debating collar or tap tower. Collar seems to make the most sense as you aren't going directly into the freezer and voiding its warranty.
Here's a keezer on craigslist for $250 that can hold 6 kegs - in Logan Square https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/app/6133860386.html
Also I will have a chest freezer avaialble from Naperville for cheap soon, probably around $75 if someone wants a project to build their own keezer
Reed how big is your chest freezer? I'm looking in the 5 cu ft range to fit in my apartment.
I've never used jet.com before and they are having a 15% off your first 3 orders. They sell the Taprite T752HP for $87 and with the 15% off its $74. They have the Perlick 630SS as well but the price is the same as you would find elsewhere. Ends up being about $42 per but with Free shipping!
With the temp controller it seems like the easiest option here is you plug the freezer into the temp controller and temp controller into wall. Set your temps and variance and the controller powers on the freezer when need be. What I'm wondering is, isnt this bad for the compressor in the long run? I feel like constantly yanking the power while the compressor is running has to be bad for the machine. Am I wrong? How long have people had these things last? Only other option here is wiring your temp controller to the compressor directly and I'm no electrician so I feel like the easiest option is best, but wondering what the longer term effects might be.
Not really an issue. same thing as switching a light on and off, I'd imagine. Mine lasted years and many years before it was mine. Died due to a move and sitting for a year.
Putting the probe into a jar of water + setting the +/- variance in the 2 degree range will put a little more ease on the compressor.