February 2003
I've just taken the first steps toward kegging - picking up salvage beverage equipment from a local bar that closed down a while back.
A pair of 20lb CO2 cylinders, one with a single gauge regulator and the other with dual regulators;
a 2-way manifold on a bracket and another
2-way manifold without a bracket which also shows one of a handful of Sankey taps for tapping commercial kegs.
There is also a dual guage regulator and a bunch of taps
in various stages of stuck.
The regulators were connected to the tanks with just these little squashed O-rings. The
end view and profile
give a fair view. Is there supposed to be some other sort of washer in there, or is that pitiful
little O-ring all it takes? The sealing face on both tanks is just smooth brass.
Just need to buy some fresh line and some soda keg disconnects. Check back soon!
March 2003
The first iteration of my kegerator is built! All that's left in this first phase is some sort of hanger for the picnic taps. Right now they just stay coiled up on top of the kegs.
The fridge is in a built-in fridge-sized alcove in the laundry room, so there is no space for a CO2 bottle right there. There is a closet to the immediate left of the fridge alcove, so the CO2 bottle and dual regulators are mounted in the closet. Since there are two regulators, I can run two different pressures, and thus have two braided 1/4" ID lines running through the drywall and into the side of the fridge.
This is a side-buy-side fridge/freezer. It is not the ideal configuration for this project, but it is what is available in my house so it is what will have to work. The space for the bottle and regulators is on the wrong side of the fridge, so in order to keep the lines as neat as possible on the outside of the fridge, I chose to go in through the upper freezer compartment rather than draping the lines over the top or laying them on the floor behind where they might get kinked or crushed should the fridge ever get moved. The result was this pair of lines traversing the upper freezer compartment.
After passing through the wall between the freezer and fridge, one line goes down the middle back of the fridge to a "T," which then connects to a pair of 2-way manifolds with pressure relief valves. The right-side manifold has short tubes for connecting to two kegs in the back of the fridge, and the left-side manifold has longer tubes, one of which has a quick disconnect for replacing the soda keg disconnect with an air chuck or other appliance, usually to help with counterpressure bottle filling.
The second line terminates in a quick disconnect, so it can be used for charging either a soda keg or a plastic bottle using the homemade carbonator cap. When looking at the inside of the whole fridge, with kegs loaded you can see a bottle of grapes (with tropical juice) being fizzed up at 30psi while the two kegs gently carbonate at their serving pressure of about 12psi.
Last updated March 12, 2003
