BUILDING A MINI-FRIDGE KEGERATOR
WITH TWO TAP TOWER

By: Tom Meier

An easy way to get beer on tap in the house, without an extra full sized fridge, is to buy an inexpensive mini-fridge, and fit it with a draft tower. This article is specific to one style of minifridge, which is well suited to fit corny kegs. Even so, most of this article would apply to any minifridge that is large enough to house the size kegs you use.

Many homebrewers have had success converting 4.9 cuft Sanyo and Kenmore model minifridges for keggerators. These are the kind without the "freezer" compartment, but have the evaporator coil oriented vertically at the back of the fridge.

These fridges will hold two tall (27" high x 8" diameter) ball lock kegs easily without altering anything. With 22"x9" ball locks, it will only fit one. However, one 22"x9" and one 27"x8" keg will both fit if the bottom door tray is removed.

I do not have pin locks, so I can't vouch for those, but I believe they are 22"x9", so two would not fit unless the plastic molded grooves for the crisper box are trimmed.

Before starting, acquire a 4.9 cuft minifridge, Sanyo Model SR-4910M (black with frosted metal front $199), 4.9 cuft Kenmore Model 93491 (white $199), 4.9 cuft Kenmore Model 91499 (black w/ stainless steel front $249).

I have read that the black Danby fridge available from Sam's for $130 is also capable of holding two kegs, but I would caution you to measure the interior before purchasing one, and also consider the height of the post connectors. There is a temp control box on this one that seems to hang low. Also realize that I do not know of any safe areas to drill through on this fridge, so there is a risk of piercing the refrigerant lines and ruining the fridge.

Also get a double tap draft tower that comes with serving lines, fittings, and taps. I recommend changing out the tap shafts to stainless if they don't already come with stainless.

ITEMS NEEDED:

-Mini-fridge

-Two-tap draft tower with faucets and hoses

-Four (4) long round-head bolts with nuts and washers

-Great Stuff (tm) crack-filling foam insulation in a can

-1/4" flare fittings for beer serving lines (2 flare barbs, 2 flare nuts, 2 hose clamps)

TOOLS NEEED:

-Bimetal Hole Saw (or dremel cutoff wheel and standard hole saw)

-Carbide or Ti drill bit (larger than bolts)

-drill

-measuring tape

-pencil

STEP 1: PREPARING TO CUT

Remove the crisper and internal shelving, wrap it and store it safely away if you foresee ever using this as a fridge again. Leave the door shelving, it will not be in the way.

Remove the black plastic fridge cover by taking out the screws in the front and back of the fridge. The front ones you will see only with the door open. Mark a hole on the metal top, the diameter of which is the right size for your double tap tower, which should already be purchased and delivered. Mark the hole directly in the center of the fridge, centered front-to-back and centered left-to-right.

The reason for putting the hole in the center, rather than towards the back of the fridge like most keggerators is due to the location of a refrigerant line which goes from inside the left wall of the fridge, and crosses over to the right wall of the fridge, it is located about 8 inches measured from the back edge of the metal top. Furthermore, do not drill on either the right, left or back sides of the fridge, as this model fridge has condenser coils welded onto the backside of its exterior skin, so even if you drilled very carefully, you could pierce the refrigerant line before you get through to insulation.

STEP 2: CUTTING THE HOLE

Use a bi-metal hole saw, or dremel tool or drill with a cutoff wheel to cut the hole you marked in Step 1. If you don't want to spend the money on a bi-metal hole saw, you can use a very small cut-off wheel on a dremel tool or on a drill to cut the fridge skin, but you will still need a cheap standard carbon steel holesaw or spaded bit to make a clean cut through the insulation and plastic interior. Grind off any burrs that could scratch your serving lines.

STEP 3: MOUNTING HOLES

Place your tower on the fridge, centered over the hole, and use a pencil to mark the centers of the four bolt holes on the tower base. Drill these holes out and through to the inside of the fridge, making the holes a good bit larger than necessary to fit the bolts through. Large holes will help with mis-alignment later.

STEP 4: DRILLING OUT THE COVER

Now that the metal part is taken care of, you need to re-mount the plastic fridge cover/lid that was removed in step 1. Be sure and vacuum off the top of the fridge before remounting the plastic cover. Once it is remounted, take a standard or bimetal holesaw and coming from inside the fridge, drill up and through the plastic to make a hole for the serving lines to go through.

Next place the tower on the plastic fridge cover and looking from below, line it up over the hole. Try to get the bolt holes in the draft tower centered over the ones you drilled in the metal earlier. This will take some eyeballing and guessing. Mark the holes, and drill them through the plastic, and hopefully when the bit comes through the plastic it will be lined up with holes in the metal skin. If not it will take some pursuasion to get the bolts in, or you can use a larger bit to ream out the lower holes by drilling up from inside the fridge.

STEP 5: INSULATING

Get some 'Great Stuff' foam crack filler at Home Depot, and spray it into the air gap between the plastic cover and the metal skin on the fridge. Let it setup for an hour or so, you can mist with water to speed up the setting. Redrill with the holesaw to clear any excess that has expanded into the round passageway.

STEP 6: BOLTING ON THE TOWER

You will need to find some long thin bolts to reach from the tower down to the interior of the fridge. I used zinc plated ones from Ace Hardware, with zinc washers and nuts to match. I could not find a stainless bolt long enough to work. The washers go on the inside of the fridge and spread out the clamping force of the nuts against the plastic interior. Your tower should have come with a rubber ring gasket to put under the tower before you bolt it down.

STEP 7: SERVING LINES

Cutoff the Sanke keg connector on the tap serving lines and install a 1/4" barbed flare fittings with nuts to mate up to your flared keg fittings. When you cut the lines, cut them a few inches from the sanke fitting, and save the fitting. With the extra hose, you can hookup the fitting (with the right parts) in the future should you ever need to serve a Sanke on draft.

Vacuum out the dust and foam and you are set!

Be careful with the fridge settings, this model will freeze kegs on its lowest setting. This is a bonus because it doubles as a lagering fridge.

Here's to fresh handcrafted beer on tap!

Tom Meier