Kegerator in TV room: Approved! Need brainstorm on mess prevention.

[Coastarine]

Our new house has two "living rooms" which is great news for me. The one downstairs with laminate and a gas fireplace will be the formal living room and the "den" upstairs with carpet gets the 42" tv, comfy sofa, pub table, kegerator, and beer glassware collection. The only concern here is that when I moved the kegerator out of the old house where it was on tile, there was a rather nasty rust-crud spot where apparently the small amount of spilled beer/condensation that resides in the bottom of the kegerator had leaked through.

So far my best idea is to seal the seams and drain plug with silicone and make an under-kegerator drip tray with some 2x4s for feet and a big tupperware lid that can be pulled out and cleaned. I'd post some pictures but I won't have Internet here until tuesday. There is a link to my kegerator in my sig. It is big enough to hold 10 kegs and that is what concerns me. I worry about putting all that weight in there with it on 2x4s. Thoughts?

 

[BBBF]

Washing Machine drip pan
http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/ProductDetails.aspx?SKU=4063525

 

[DoubleFisted]

Thw washing machine drip pans would be too small for the keezer. Chest freezers were made for the intent to put them in the basements or garage where they would possibly condensate on cement. I would possible just look at putting wheels on it. or do something like Lonnie. You can look at his posts at his website alenuts.com Bobby M also has some good videos of how he put wheels on his. Then its portable and you could lay something underneath your keezer.

 

[EarthBound]

Hey Coastarine, I hate BMC.

Seriously though, I'm glad you started this thread because I was about to do the same! So I'm interested in what people come up with.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I use one of those entryway boot-mats.......it's like a deep dish rubbermaid plate....about 24" wide....it catches pretty much everything but you have to watch out for splatter. You can affix a drip tray about 10" below the taps....incorporate a drain with reservoir out of sight, and you've got it made. Splatter should be minimum with less distance...maybe you could throw down a sweet rug (with your brewery logo?) in front of it.

 

[milldoggy]

I have my kegerator on my hard wood mounted under my bar. I found a plastic serving tray that was wide enough and put that under the gasket on the door. Works awesome. Wish I remembered where I got the tray. It reminds me of something you would see a baker slide on a cooling rack. It is about 12 wide and wider than the keg. I can take a pic if you want.

At my wifes parents house, we just use two boot trays from Bed Bath and Beyond. They fit nicely and with two, they cover the entire keg
something like this
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&sku=10212839

Just notices you had Kreezer. Would about using some pool liner rubber fabric or something like that and glue it to some wood.

another option are Garage Floor mats, they protect your garage from oil
Motorcycle floor mat

 

[Egbert]

How about a drip try from the auto shop that used to keep dripping oil and fluids from hitting the floor. I know we had some at the San Diego auto museum back in the 80's.

I suspect you could find them in any of the car collector catalogues.

 

[EarthBound]

Brewmoor's pub has a nice trough. It sure is purty. I would like to build something similar. Would not you? I may not use copper if it's cost prohibitive. I would definitely DIY and not buy a pre-fab one. What do you think?

 

[Coastarine]

I thInk I may have thrown some of you by using the word kegerator. I have a very large keezer. Can hold TEN kegs. I don't have the measurements handy. I am not trying to catch drips from the taps, I am trying to catch drips from a leak in the middle of the chest freezer.

 

[shroomzofdoom]

How about a piece of EPDM roof membrane? I used to work in a roofing warehouse and this stuff seems pretty workable. You might have to build a wooden tray with a small lip, but you could then 'line' it with EPDM and cut the corners.

Only other thing I thought of was the large, cheap concrete mixing tubs at Lowed/Home Depot. They are 8-10" deep, but you can use a razor to cut them down to 'tray depth' I used these for liners in a planter box.

The problem is one of footprint, the largest prefab 'tray' I can think of is a washer pan but these would be too small.

 

[Coastarine]

OK knuckleheads, since I wasn't able to really adequately describe my idea, here is my best illustration. The offending drip comes from somewhere in the center of the underside of the freezer, so this tupperware lid drip tray should be plenty to catch it. My only concern is putting the keezer on 2x4's arranged like below and then putting ten kegs of varying fullness in the keezer. It could really add up to a lot of weight. I'm going to run a few numbers here...
Four full kegs @ 50lb ea = 200lb
One 85% full keg = 43lb
One 70% full keg = 37lb
One 55% full keg = 30lb
One 40% full keg = 24lb
One 25% full keg = 18 lb
One 10% full keg = 11 lb
-------------------------
GRAND TOTAL = 363 lb.

That's actually not as big of a number as I thought I might see once I tallied that up and that would be the most weight I'd ever have in there. I think I've found my plan.

 

[Coastarine]

I did a little more exploration of the underside of the keezer and found this. More good news IMO. First of all it looks like the freezer supports itself on four feet anyway so the weight clearly isn't an issue as it has been supporting itself on four points in a tile room all along. This means I really only need two 24" pieces of lumber since the rear piece wouldn't do anything anyway. Second, it is pretty obvious where the leak was coming from so I know where I need to catch drips from for sure. Hopefully using silicone sealer on the interior seams of the freezer will keep any drips from happening again anyway.

 

[Atl300zx]

since u turned the freezer on its side, i would let it sit upright for 24 hrs prior to plugging it back in.

 

[smokewater]

Since its going on carpet you might consider picking up a packet of cheap hardwood laminate flooring to place underneath it to protect the new carpet a little more. It just snaps together.

http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=sim&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

 

[Coastarine]

Atl, yeah I figured the silicone sealer I was about to use needs 24 hrs anyway.

Thanks for the idea smokewater, I hadn't thought of that but I think I'm going to stick with 2x4's and the plastic lid which will all stay nicely hidden.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

I have a 16cuft keezer and 6 taps.

I went with a screw on stainless steel "speed rail" from Rapids Wholesale clearance for $20. Basically it's a bolt oncubby for liquor bottles.

44" long x 6"wide x 6" deep. Ran a heavy bead of silicone around the inside seams and that fooking thing will hold nearly 2 gallons before it over flows.

Does a nice job of holding it's liquor too.

 

[Coastarine]

To review: at no point in this thread was I asking about something to catch the drips from the taps.

 

[smokewater]

Atl, yeah I figured the silicone sealer I was about to use needs 24 hrs anyway.

Thanks for the idea smokewater, I hadn't thought of that but I think I'm going to stick with 2x4's and the plastic lid which will all stay nicely hidden.

That's cool. Should work fine as long as the carpet and padding isn't so thick that it makes it difficult to get the lid out to empty it from the 2x4's sinking down into it from the weight.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Ahh. Well. Piss off then!

 

[Coastarine]

I figured you guys deserved an update. The keezer is purring away up there right now chilling the spiced cider and oktoberfest that I kept for the move. Nothing is hung on the walls yet because we are still settling in a bit from the move. And SWMBO isn't asleep, just caught her with her eyes closed.

 

[Flomaster]

I have similar stools but the taller version for my breakfast bar... scored them for $10 each on craigslist instead of the $40 Bed bath and Beyond was asking for them.

whats with that mini me door behind the table?


-=Jason=-

 

[Coastarine]

That's where the beer gnomes live. They clean the glassware at night.


Actually it's just a little storage area. The nook that the keezer is in is actually a dormer, so that sloping portion of the wall is because of the roof line.