I am looking to buy a kegerator. I do not want to purchase a commercial grade one due to costs and I am not interested in a conversion kit for a refrigerator. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where and/or what brand/model to purchase? There seems to be many options but can't seem to find any real guidance. Thanks.
Most of the lower end cold plate units will take a little DIY to make them perfect, but they are perfectly capable of getting you a nice cold beer. I have a Haier two tap model from Beverage Factory that I'm happy with. I had to add a tower cooler and longer beer lines, but other than that it is great. The Beverage Factory site will also tell you exactly what each unit will hold. Although mine is set up as a two tap, Haier sells the same unit with either one, two or three taps. It will hold three logs to two slim quarters. Other brands to check are Sanyo, Edgestar, Danby.
I just bought this: http://beermeisters.com/product/dual-tower-with-stainless-door-value-line Upgrade to perlick faucets. I haven't tapped a key yet, but it is solid, quiet and cooled down to 32 degrees in about 3 hours. I looked for quite a while on Craigslist and multiple sites, and thought this was the best, within my price range.
mine was a whim buy at walmart in 2007. $382 for a nostalgia electrics that came with with sankey tap, lines and all but a filled co2 bottle and beer in the barrel, still going strong and keeps beer at any temp I want no problem. The original regulator was shite breathing therapy style regulator...the only upgrade was a welding shop low-pressure regulator for under 100 bucks, so for under 500 I am a happy camper and I can enjoy bbl's instead of bottles. This setup has seen no less than 60 bbls of beer over the last 6 years and is going strong. if it fails at some point, i will probably replace it with a built-in custom setup but this was a decent investment. if you do not want to go custom, Haier is not bad from what I hear.
