Curiosity is getting the best of me...

[Dogzbone]

Or maybe it's my OCD kicking in but I just gotta know. Looking through all these keezer threads I notice a vast majority of them have taps that are "off centered". Is there a reason for this? I'm not criticizing, just curious as to the reasoning behind the designs.

 

[iijakii]

A lot of people have the collar attached to the base. That makes putting in / taking out kegs quite difficult since you'll have faucet, shanks and tonnes of beer lines in the way. A lot of people put them off to the side to have room.

 

[DMartin]

Is it better then to attach the collar to the lid? Or is there a different set of downsides to that?

 

[Bobby_M]

I put my collar on the lid and will likely do the same again.

 

[Lucky_Chicken]

Is it better then to attach the collar to the lid? Or is there a different set of downsides to that?

the downside would be that your lid then has to have a prop to hold it open.

 

[LandoLincoln]

the downside would be that your lid then has to have a prop to hold it open.

And it either has to be sitting further away from the wall, or be on casters so it can be moved away from the wall temporarily.

 

[JasonG]

Also, many people want to put a drip tray on their keezer. You can put a much smaller drip tray if you put all of the taps next to each other than having them spread out over the whole front. This latter way makes using a drip tray pretty difficult.

 

[billtzk]

I double hinged my collar. I can open just the lid without disturbing the collar with all the shanks and beer lines, or I can open both lid and collar. If I'm removing an empty keg or cleaning beer lines or doing maintenance, I just lift the lid and leave the collar down. If I'm putting a full keg in the keezer, I lift lid and collar so I don't have to lift the full keg so high. I do have to prop it open if I lift top and collar.

 

[adamensis]

I have a 12" collar attached to the freezer and I have no problems lifting full kegs and putting them in. However, this would be much more difficult without offset taps...

 

[NWMOBrewer]

I put my taps on the side so I think it looks better, and can be accessed from my couch. (Lazy drunkness FTW!!!) Also, My 4'' collar is attached to the base. Would do same way if I built another keezer.

 

[emjay]

I double hinged my collar. I can open just the lid without disturbing the collar with all the shanks and beer lines, or I can open both lid and collar. If I'm removing an empty keg or cleaning beer lines or doing maintenance, I just lift the lid and leave the collar down. If I'm putting a full keg in the keezer, I lift lid and collar so I don't have to lift the full keg so high. I do have to prop it open if I lift top and collar.

I thought about doing this, but getting replacement freezer hinges is not only expensive, but difficult.

Or do you use some other type of hinges? If so, what kind are they, and are they actually strong enough? And do you use the actual freezer hinges to open the lid, or the collar?

 

[TomSD]

I can't speak for others but mine is how it is because of where I planned to put it. I needed all the taps to the left so it could slide behind my water cooler. Everything is mounted to the lid and moves up out of the way when I need to get inside so the taps could be mounted anywhere really.

 

[billtzk]

I thought about doing this, but getting replacement freezer hinges is not only expensive, but difficult.

Or do you use some other type of hinges? If so, what kind are they, and are they actually strong enough? And do you use the actual freezer hinges to open the lid, or the collar?

I left the original hinges in place on the freezer itself, disconnected the lid from the top half of each hinge, and then screwed the top hinges into my collar. (I bought an extra door gasket and screwed that to the bottom of my collar to make a proper seal and to maintain the normal spacing.) Then I attached the lid to the top of the collar with regular unsprung 3.5 inch door hinges. It's all quite sturdy.

So, when I open the lid only, it is unsprung, so I just rest it against the wall behind the keezer. When I open the collar and lid, I have to prop it up with a stick. Even though it is using the original sprung hinges, they aren't strong enough to hold up all that weight.

 

[cricky101]

Or maybe it's my OCD kicking in but I just gotta know. Looking through all these keezer threads I notice a vast majority of them have taps that are "off centered". Is there a reason for this? I'm not criticizing, just curious as to the reasoning behind the designs.

I've got a 5.3 cubic foot freezer with a 12" collar holding four kegs. I had to put my four taps in the left half of the collar because the shanks would have hit the front keg sitting on the compressor hump on the right side.

I wish it would have been swapped around since my couch sits to the right of the keezer.

 

[Dogzbone]

I double hinged my collar. I can open just the lid without disturbing the collar with all the shanks and beer lines, or I can open both lid and collar. If I'm removing an empty keg or cleaning beer lines or doing maintenance, I just lift the lid and leave the collar down. If I'm putting a full keg in the keezer, I lift lid and collar so I don't have to lift the full keg so high. I do have to prop it open if I lift top and collar.

Interesting. If I ever get around to actually building my keezer, (I have the freezer, just a serious lack of motivation at the moment), I may use this idea. That is to say if I can actually make up my mind as to which design I want to build: collared or tower. So many choices!

 

[corkybstewart]

I put my taps on the left above the compressor humps so they won't interfere with me moving kegs in and out.
I started with a tower but got tired of having to pull the keezer away from the wall to open it. My garage floor is always dirty with wind blown debris like leaves, and it doesn't take much to block the casters from rolling forward. Plus, moving it can slosh the beer in the kegs stirring up the sediment. So after a year I took the tower off and built the collar.

 

[billtzk]

Interesting. If I ever get around to actually building my keezer, (I have the freezer, just a serious lack of motivation at the moment), I may use this idea. That is to say if I can actually make up my mind as to which design I want to build: collared or tower. So many choices!

I got the idea from previous builders here on the forum. There were a number of people who had built the double hinged door that way. Search the forum for "dual hinge" and you'll find most of them.

Here is a thread that has good pictures.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/my-new-keezer-dual-hinge-114314/

I did my hinges just like the OP depicts in that thread. I used a replacement door gasket on the bottom of the collar and got the spacing right before I attached the bottom hinges to my collar, so mine seals evenly and well just by its own weight.