1.
Location. The most crucial step of assembling
your beer kegerator will be to find the appropriate
location
in your home or apartment for the beer kegerator.
Advice:
Remember you'll have to carry the kegs from your
car to the kegerator. This is no small task however
two guys or one guy (or girl) with a hand cart
(?) can easily do the job. In any event, if possible,
keep the kegerator on the first floor of the house.e.
Also,
keep in mind that "distinguished guests"
have the tendency to drop in unannounced. Try
and use a back room that can be closed off if
mom and dad decided to stop on by and check up
on your college education.
2.
Decorate Your Refrigerator. At this point
you get to customize the outside of your keg refrigerator
with paint, posters and pictures. If you purchased
a used refrigerator clean out the keg refrigerator
well and get it ready for the keg. We recommend
a light bleach solution.
Advice:
Be creative. You can always
paint over your previous paint job if you don't
like it.
3. The Keg Shelf. Next determine
if you will need to create a platform at the bottom
of your keg refrigerator. Most refrigerators have
a motor compartment in the back that will need to
be accounted for in order to make enough room for
the beer keg to fit height
wise into the refrigerator. And remember to
keep an additional five inches of clearance for
the coupler.
Advice:
Keep one of the old shelves from the refrigerator
and use bricks or lumber to prop it up. Be careful
you'll have a lot of weight on the shelf, so secure
it well.
4.
Drilling The Hole. You've
done it! You are in the home stretch! You have now
come to perhaps the most difficult procedure in
the entire beer kegerator building process and that
is drilling a neat hole in the front of the keg
refrigerator for the shank
to slip through. The procedure is not really
that hard, but take your time and remember to think
first. At this point it is a necessity to ensure
your refrigerator does NOT have any cooling coils
where you will be drilling. Almost ALL refrigerators
have cooling coils on the side walls thus, don't
drill there. Most NEW refrigerators and high end
refrigerators have cooling coils in the door thus,
don't drill there. However, most old refrigerators
you buy have no cooling coils in the door so check
the owner’s manual and investigate before
you drill or you run the risk of ruining your refrigerator.
First,
you'll want to measure out where you want the faucet.
We recommend about 4 or 5 inches down front the
top of the door. Here you'll want to use the 3/4"
hole saw to make the hole through the door for
the shank to fit through. Now go SLOW and take your
time while drilling and wear a pair of safety glasses.
The process of drilling the whole in the refrigerator
door will sound like hell but is worth it. Just
keep at it.
Keep
in mind that you have a
2 1/8 inch flange to put around this hole to
completely hide the outer edges of the opening if
it gets a little gnarled. If it doesn’t turn
out perfect don’t worry about it. So now your
beer kegerator should be located in the perfect
party spot – have a hole drilled in the front
and be ready for the complete keg beer conversion
kit.
Advice:
Don't for get the most important piece of this puzzle...
the keg of beer. Send your buddies to go pick up
a keg while you are working on the kegerator so
you have something nice and cold to slip into your
new kegerator when the construction is finished.
And while it will be tempting please keep power
tools and alcohol separate.
5.
Assembly. Follow the steps in Step
2 that detail the items you will need for construction.
First,
beginbyassembling
the shank through the door and attaching the flange,
faucet and handle on the exterior of the kegerator.
Next, attach the CO2 hose and beer line to the sankey
paying VERY CLOSE attention to the "IN"
(the CO2) and the "OUT" pressure (the
beer). If you hook this up backwards the keg could
explode.
Next,
assemble the regulator and you are now within seconds
of enjoying ice cold beer at pennies per glass.
Carefully place the keg on your new shelf and attach
the coupler. You may have to wait a bit while the
keg settles if your buddies rough housed it out
of the truck and into the house.
Advice:
Place a thermometer inside the kegerator and keep
close eye on the temperature. When asking the
keg distributor about the P.S.I. recommended by
the brewer also ask him about the temperature
to keep the keg at. These are both vital to maintaining
good tasting draft beer.
Have a question? We'll help out if we can.
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