My friend and I are about to tag team a kegerator/keezer build and I'm just trying to get as smart as possible on it prior to beginning. We will probably try and keep it simple/cheap for this first one to get our mistakes out of the way and probably turn around and sell it to help fund our dream machines. Any suggestions? I'm looking for sites/stores which sell the parts I need to convert a freezer/fridge/mini fridge. I would also appreciate a rough estimate of total investment but honestly anything would be useful. Thank you everyone.
from my experience... think about how much you homebrew and how much your beer disappears. When I had 2 kegs max on my fridge I thought it would be a small amount... turns out my beer goes quick enough I rarely have both kegs populated at the same time. Also with co2 ran outside I got 3 kegs in.
also consider the other side uses of the fridge. I use my fridge to also hold spare hops and occasionally yeast. I use it also for cold crashing. I modified mine to add a simple programmable temperature relay control. I see a lot of folks doing that, and I get it. It does make life easier.
One big tip... I learned the hard way. Invest in Perlicks. 40 bucks for the faucets... but you'll have to buy em in the end anyways no matter what you do.
Over all costs are basically,
shanks, faucets, drip tray, drill bits, relay / controller ( pricy and you can avoid this for now ), fridge itself, co2 tank, regulator, tubes / lines / electrical ( depending ).
I started thinking I'd sink maybe 300 on my fridge and another 200 in parts. I've probably sunk 800 total on the thing. Just to get it to where I am happy with it. I'll probably sink some more on it just for the enjoyment of working on it.