First Time Buying a Kegerator Questions

Watching this thread for answers. I've been debating buying the exact same one from Costco OP.

 

You don't buy your own keg unless you are homebrewing. You pick up full commercial kegs and leave a deposit, when you bring back the empty you get your money back. Usually around $30. Most if not all US kegs use a Sankey D coupler. Imports use others. The Danby is a common unit in the lower tier of home use kegerators. It cools with a cold plate as do all the others in this category. In this price range you may find that you need to do some DIY tinkering to get perfect pours. The things you need to address are circulation within the box, as well as forcing cold air up the tower the the shank / faucet. That can be done for about $40 and an hour or two). On the more expensive commercial grade units ($1200-$1500) you will see they have circulating fans and tower coolers already built in. They also cool like a refrigerator or freezer and do not use a cold plate.

 

They don't expect the kegs back right away. The beer will generally stay fresh for 3-5 months so there is no need to rush.
People who build PC fan blowers, me included, use an old cell phone charger. Depending on the brand of kegerator, some have drain holes that you can snake the wire through. The Haier kegerator has a drain hole.

 

Danby is a iffy unit. Some people it works for other people thinks its garbage.From what I seen on the Danby they require a resistor mod to tsat aolt of times along with the tooling around with fans.
IMO save up some more for a better quality unit. But not sure if your willing to spend $1,300 + on a unit.
As far as your questions:
-You can find most craft and more popular brews in the 1/6 keg now a days.
-Your $30 d/p will be refunded don't worry. Or just think of it as a buy in If you keep swapping out with a new one when empty.
- a party store wont refill your Co2 having to go to a welding supply, fire saftey guy, or some keg guys will swap a co2 out for filled ones.
-go over to micromatics website and look at there forums on the danby fan conversions.

 

I just don't understand spending $375 on something that I have to do all this extra work too. So question...do these things HAVE to be done, or are they just done to maximize the unit? Are these done because people are over-thinking everything?

 

They usually have to be done.. All the "Cheaper" units use a gravity coil to cool unit.(meaning cold air just rolls off coil to lowest point)Nothing to circulate the air.Other problem is the cheap "Energey effecient" compressors the lower end units use just can't work hard enough to get units below 40F without playing with them.

 

So is there an 'out-of-the-box' unit that's worth a damn? I'm not the kind of guy to screw with stuff; I'd rather just buy it right the first time...lol.

Edit: That doesn't cost a fortune.

 

Said it in another thread. "Buy once, cry once" Any commercial unit will almost work right out of the box.
I tell people to save. Because you will just be dumping all you money in beer down the drain in foam toying around with the lower end units.

 

Really appreciate all the info! Cheers.

 

Keep you eyes out on Craigslist. Lots of times you can pick up a diamond in the rough.
If you do have the guy put a 5 gal bucket of water in unit 24hrs prior to looking at to make sure it can get down to the right temps.

 

I don't really agree with that. With a little understanding, some patience and a few extra dollars you can get a very serviceable low end unit. After a month of tinkering almost three years ago my Haier has been great. If it is easier to throw an extra $800 at it to avoid that, by all means do it. If you are good at DIY a chest freezer conversion would be another way to go.

 

He said he didn't want to screw around with a unit. Lol a month of tinkering....

 

Ain't nobody got time fo that.

 

I guess I should have been more clear. It was a few hours of tinkering that a month later got me to good pours. To each his own. I was pointing out that you don't need to go high end to get good results.

 

Its only money though....

 

The kings are Beverage Air (BM23), True (TDD-1) and Summit's professional line.

 

Easy for you to say, you got yours for free. I think most would take a free high end kegerator if asked.