Kegerator Cross roads

[mh-brews]

Cheers everyone!

I would like some advice/thoughts on what I should do about my Kegerator situation.

Long story short, about 2 years ago I bought a Continental NC69 kegerator off Craig’s list. Here are is what I have spent on it. This is a large 2 door model (69 inches). The unit is now 12 years old.
$100 purchase price
$500 replaced compressor
$100 wheels
$300 6 taprite CO2 regulators
$30 new tower insulation
$150 6 stainless tower shanks
$200 5 stainless sanke couplers
$1380 total

So I have far less into it than a new one would be and there is superior hardware in this one.

My only real complaint about the unit is the ac usage. This thing costs 1 to 2 bucks a day to run. It always draws 3 amps to power the fans, when the compressor fires up it draws 10 amps. I have it in my detached garage which has a separate electric meter. Last month the garage was 73 bucks my house was 90. The only other things I have n the garage is a computer, 36 inch tube TV and a regular fridge.

Well something has happened and the compressor isn’t working. I can hear the relay click to activate it but it never fires.I realize that it might just be low on Freon.

I am trying to figure out if I want to fix it or convert my full size fridge and then sell the extra parts. With how much the thing costs to run it might be better to convert my fridge and then start saving my pennies for a new one. I have seen some of them even run on 220 which would draw about 1/ 2 the amps. I also have figured out that 3 to 4 on tap is plenty. 6 was insane, lol
thanks for inpit

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

Ouch man, you have far more money into that then I would be willing to put into it... Here is my suggestion. Get a chest freezer and control it with a Johnson controller or a Love Controller. You can pick up a similar sized one on CL or if you want to buy a new one for far less than what it would cost to repair that one.

Also my old kegerator chest freezer was SUPER efficient and drew very little energy that I honestly could not say that it impacted my electrical bill to a significantly relevant degree.

I would salvage all the parts, lines and currently invested materials that you have and put it into that. For $300 you probably could have the keezer and controller and be happy with something that will draw significantly less power. Put the kegerator on CL for $100 and I bet someone will buy it if at all for the scrap value.

Up front costs may seem like a lot ($300 now) but if you calculate out how much you will save in the long term through energy, you will recoup your money (if you want to look at it that way) in a few months.

BTW i'm in a similar boat as you regarding a Beverage Air fridge that I am replacing... The costs to run mine are roughly $30 a month and its only 4.6 cuft!

 

[mh-brews]

Agreed, i already have a johnson a419 controller i used for something else. So i really only need to buy 3 fridge shanks, if I use that full sized fridge that is in there . Only thing i don't like about a freezer is I usually have a 1/2 barrel kegs on tap. I am unsure if i can lift one that high without one of the dolly things i have seen.

 

[Doed]

... Only thing i don't like about a freezer is I usually have a 1/2 barrel kegs on tap. I am unsure if i can lift one that high without one of the dolly things i have seen.

I have a ½ barrel in my keezer, here is what I do. I know you may not have the same setup, this is more of a FYI. My keezer is on wheels. I also have a pickup truck ('91 Ranger), I pick up the keg in the truck, back the truck into the garage and roll the keezer up to the back of the tailgate. My swmbo and myself then lower the keg into the keezer. Probably not the most "back" friendly process in the world but it works for me.

 

[Bowtiebrewery]

I also used to put some 1/2 barrels in there for mine and i was doing this by myself (youth and strength sure do help)

However you can certainly can construct a ramp which you could roll it onto or buy a crane lol... Either way its not like you are going to be moving 1/2 kegs that often... Well unless you are a party animal! lol