Looking for a small beer fridge

What a lot of people end up doing is just buying a normal upright freezer or fridge and an external temperature control. I bought a full size freezer on craigslist for only $75, plus $50 for the temp control. $125 for a 53° fridge that holds about 150 bottles is a pretty good deal, I think.

 

You got lucky cause I ended up spending $175 on an upright freezer plus the cost of a johnson controller for the temp control. Im sure if you stick it out, you can find it cheaper, especially if your have a bigger market than OKC on craigs list. Even with what I have spent, Its worth it.

 

Yeah, my freezer is old (1991), and that's probably why it was so cheap, but it still gets the job done.

 

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...on-controls-a419-digital-temp-controller.html

here's one from northern brewer

 

i bought a nice 40ish bottle holding mini wine fridge for $40. patience is virtue, there are some good deals up there. wine fridges are nice as they have the correct humidity levels.

 

Some people might not like that a wine fridge would hold their beer bottles sideways instead of upright. That was one of my main selling points for the normal upright freezer.

 

handyman work! i rigged both mine to also hold bottles vertical.

 

I have one of these:
http://www.edgestar.com/BWC120SS-Ed...default,pd.html?cgid=Appliances-Refrigerators
(Same unit, lower price)
http://www.amazon.com/EdgeStar-Bott...9?s=appliances&ie=UTF8&qid=1348096506&sr=1-19

You can re-arrange the shelves to accommodate things that aren't Miller Lite. The way I have it set up, I can lay down 5 large bottles in the top rack, put 10-15 large bottles (22oz or 750mL) standing in the bottom and about 30 or so 12 oz bottles in the middle rack.

The only complaint I have is that the compressor occasionally makes a high-pitched noise, it's not too bad, but it can be pretty annoying when it persists. The reviews on Amazon weren't to great, but it seemed like all the negative reviews were based on compressor failures and temperature issues which I haven't experienced. YMMV, I suppose.

 

I have a Kenmore fridge that I got years ago from K-Mart for probably around $50...it's really nice and works perfectly.

 

I use a kegerator that I retro-fitted a shelf to give me 2 levels. The temp control is perfect (52-55 degrees year round) and I would say I could probably fit 40-45 bombers at capacity. Plus if you upgrade to a full fridge no big deal...now you can drop keg in your kegerator.

 

remember your fridge will have to work significantly harder which could result in it dying quicker, also depending on if it has a true compressor. also, some wine fridges specifically say NOT to put them in a garage or very warm area.

 

I've gone through two wine refrigerators in five years, both indoors; they just don't seem to last very long. I came to this thread looking for information about converting a regular refrigerator and was pleased at how easily I found the information.