# Ice Bank Chillers



## Crusty (28/4/11)

Hi all,
Just wondering who out there is using an ice bank chiller instead of the usual kegerator setups.
I looked into glycol systems but too exxy for me.
Bottling most of my beers but still have a small bar idea in the pipework sometime down the track.
Cheers


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## felon (28/4/11)

I use one in my bar setup. Have only been using it for about a month so far and I am happy with it so far.


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## Crusty (28/4/11)

felon said:


> I use one in my bar setup. Have only been using it for about a month so far and I am happy with it so far.



Cheers felon,
Do you have your kegs @ room temp & just fire the chiller up when you are going to have a few beers?
How many kegs can you run from yours & do you find when switched off, the beer remaining in your lines will get to room temperature & maybe go stale or pour really foamy at first?
Some details about which one you have would be great.
Cheers


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## thesunsettree (28/4/11)

Crusty said:


> Cheers felon,
> Do you have your kegs @ room temp & just fire the chiller up when you are going to have a few beers?
> How many kegs can you run from yours & do you find when switched off, the beer remaining in your lines will get to room temperature & maybe go stale or pour really foamy at first?
> Some details about which one you have would be great.
> Cheers


I thought you sold all your kegs and solely bottled now because it was distinctly better to do so??


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## Crusty (28/4/11)

thesunsettree said:


> I thought you sold all your kegs and solely bottled now because it was distinctly better to do so??



Bottle most of my beers as stated in my first post but would still like to set up a small bar one day.
Still have my reg & a bit of kegging gear as well.
Looking to put my lawn mower beers, lighter ABV on tap & continue bottling the rest.
Probably looking to just do two or three on tap.
My opinion on bottle conditioned beers has not waivered, most are better bottled IMO.


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## felon (29/4/11)

My ice bank can ran 6 kegs but I only have a 4 tap font. I usually only have one to two kegs hooked up to it unless I have friends around and I'll hook up 4 kegs. I keep my kegs warm under the bench with the unit.
My other kegs I keep in a chesty in the garage to prevent them from going stale. I haven't noticed to much deterioration in flavour over time but my kegs wouldn't be around for much more than 3 - 4 weeks.
I don't run the unit all the time as it a commercial unit and a bit noisy in a quiet house, so I turn it off before I go to bed. I usually turn it back on about 2 hours before I'm going to use it again. This is plenty of time to chill the beer lines and font. I don't have a problem with foaming.
The unit is a Celli TE65


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## hockadays (29/4/11)

What did tgat unit set you back felon?


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## felon (29/4/11)

Picked it up ages ago, but have only just built the bar so I could use it. It was a couple of thousand dollars from memory. A lot more than the Chinese units on ebay. It's Italian made so I expect it is of better quality. I'm sure the Chinese ones would work fine, but I have never seen one up close.


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## Crusty (29/4/11)

felon said:


> My ice bank can ran 6 kegs but I only have a 4 tap font. I usually only have one to two kegs hooked up to it unless I have friends around and I'll hook up 4 kegs. I keep my kegs warm under the bench with the unit.
> My other kegs I keep in a chesty in the garage to prevent them from going stale. I haven't noticed to much deterioration in flavour over time but my kegs wouldn't be around for much more than 3 - 4 weeks.
> I don't run the unit all the time as it a commercial unit and a bit noisy in a quiet house, so I turn it off before I go to bed. I usually turn it back on about 2 hours before I'm going to use it again. This is plenty of time to chill the beer lines and font. I don't have a problem with foaming.
> The unit is a Celli TE65
> ...



Cheers for that felon,
The bar setup looks really good. I was wondering about long term storage & a spare fridge for your ready kegs would be a good idea.
Hook up a couple for drinking & consume within the month sounds like a good way to do it.


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## felon (29/4/11)

I also gas my kegs cold in my other fridge before I hook them up to my ice bank. As you know it's too hard to gas a warm keg. To help you with your setup, if you use a line pressure calculator you will see you need about 300kpa pouring pressure at 25 degc. you will need a lot of restriction in the system to slow it down so you can pour at this pressure. My font has 4mm riser lines from the chiller to the taps. I have left these at 2 metres long from the bottom of the font. I think the chiller unit has 9 meters of 5mm stainless beer coil inside it. From the chiller back to the kegs, I use about 3 metres of 6mm line. This allows my to dispense beer at just over 300kpa without it foaming in the warm beer lines before the chiller. The kegs haven't been over carbonating yet but as winter is approaching and the keg temps will drop, they might start over carbonating. If this starts to happen I will drop my pressure back. It stills pours o.k at 150 kpa.
Hope this helps.


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## ArnieW (29/4/11)

I've got one of the cheap Chinese units from Pinnacle Wholesalers. Not sure how they compare to the Italian units, but mine seems to work ok.

One way around the warm keg issue is to pump cold water from the ice bank through a PC cooling radiator (the type that overclockers use) and then use a fan on the radiator to blow cold air into your keg storage area. A tempmate or similar controller makes the whole setup work well. Felon, if you insulate that area under the bar where the kegs are you could keep them cool easily.

I've also been using this type of setup to regulate cooling in my fermentation chamber for a couple of years now.


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## felon (29/4/11)

Good idea. :icon_cheers: What temp do you regulate your underbench area to?


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## ArnieW (29/4/11)

felon said:


> Good idea. :icon_cheers: What temp do you regulate your underbench area to?


It depends what you want to achieve. My main motivation was to have a 'cellar' for my beer engine. About 10C is good for that. For the record, my beer engine is mounted in an irish coffin that is attached to the 'cellar' part. This way I can keep the whole of the beer engine at cellar temps. (It is how I keep my perlick taps cold as well).

If you just wanted to keep your kegs in reasonable condition (ie. not too warm and at a constant temp), you could probably do about 15C without trouble.

One last thing to keep in mind is condensation. It is worth incorporating a drain hole with this arrangement.

cheers, Arnie


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## asis (29/4/11)

ArnieW said:


> I've got one of the cheap Chinese units from Pinnacle Wholesalers. Not sure how they compare to the Italian units, but mine seems to work ok.
> 
> One way around the warm keg issue is to pump cold water from the ice bank through a PC cooling radiator (the type that overclockers use) and then use a fan on the radiator to blow cold air into your keg storage area. A tempmate or similar controller makes the whole setup work well. Felon, if you insulate that area under the bar where the kegs are you could keep them cool easily.
> 
> I've also been using this type of setup to regulate cooling in my fermentation chamber for a couple of years now.



Arnie do you use a radiator set up? 

I have an icebank, fonts and taps sitting in the shed waiting for me to build a bar. I intend to build an insulated cupboard under the bar with some cooling lines but hadn't thought of a radiator.


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## ArnieW (29/4/11)

asis said:


> Arnie do you use a radiator set up?
> 
> I have an icebank, fonts and taps sitting in the shed waiting for me to build a bar. I intend to build an insulated cupboard under the bar with some cooling lines but hadn't thought of a radiator.


I've been using the radiator setup for a couple of years. I am so happy with it that I now run two radiators - one for a fermenting space, and one for under bar.


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## asis (29/4/11)

ArnieW said:


> I've been using the radiator setup for a couple of years. I am so happy with it that I now run two radiators - one for a fermenting space, and one for under bar.



So it it as simple as running the font return lines through the pc cooling radiator with the appropriate fan blowing/sucking air through it? 

Sounds like it could be a pretty simple and effective method of keeping kegs at a more suitable temperature which is someting that has been concerning me a little in relation to an ice bank set up. :icon_cheers:


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## ArnieW (29/4/11)

asis said:


> So it it as simple as running the font return lines through the pc cooling radiator with the appropriate fan blowing/sucking air through it?
> 
> Sounds like it could be a pretty simple and effective method of keeping kegs at a more suitable temperature which is someting that has been concerning me a little in relation to an ice bank set up. :icon_cheers:


Yes, it is that simple. I'm using the font pump with mine. While I don't use it to flood a font, I'm sure it could do both without trouble.


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## ArnieW (30/4/11)

I did a quick check this afternoon, and my cellar radiator is putting out 9C air with the ice bank at 4C. The ice bank can go down to 0, so a radiator hanging off it is easily capable of fermenting a lager. :icon_chickcheers:


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## asis (30/4/11)

That seems cool enough to keep the beer in good condition for quite a while. Might have to look for a hand pump too.


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## mckenry (24/3/15)

Hi All,
I'm in th eposition of advising my local rugby club on a draught system. The beers will flow on Friday nights and every other saturday. A bit of googling tells me an icebank might be the way to go. There is no cool room for a glycol system and besides, they are a bit exy for a small club. While I can find all the pros from the sellers, but what are the cons?
For example;
Can you leave it switched on from Friday to Friday?
Would beer in the line freeze?
Would commercial kegs go stale (if tapped and only half finished) in a week?

Some questions on operation;
How long do they take to cool if it is turned off after each use?
How often do the lines need to be cleaned?

Any other advise?
Best / worst / avoid brands?

Cheers all.


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## H0U5ECAT (24/3/15)

I helped a mate set up his Temprite in his bar.
Hope this helps:



mckenry said:


> Can you leave it switched on from Friday to Friday?* You can, but if it's not being used and you're paying the electricity bills, why not hook up a timer? Set it to turn on about 10am on Fridays, and power down after closing Sat*
> Would beer in the line freeze? *Depending upon the dia of the lines and you know the lines are well insulated, setting it at 3 deg will be fine.*
> Would commercial kegs go stale (if tapped and only half finished) in a week? *No, it's all under pressure and void of any oxygen*
> 
> ...


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## booargy (24/3/15)

I had one tired to modify the tank and broke the coolant line. Once the ice bank develops it will stay iced until you heat it up. the beer lines sit in iced water and are not surrounded by ice so the lines won't freeze. The coolant is in contact with the evaporatorso they cool down fast. The "cheap" chinese one that I got has polish compressor and Italian electrical components.


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## mckenry (27/3/15)

H0U5ECAT said:


> I helped a mate set up his Temprite in his bar.
> Hope this helps:





booargy said:


> I had one tired to modify the tank and broke the coolant line. Once the ice bank develops it will stay iced until you heat it up. the beer lines sit in iced water and are not surrounded by ice so the lines won't freeze. The coolant is in contact with the evaporatorso they cool down fast. The "cheap" chinese one that I got has polish compressor and Italian electrical components.



Thanks for the replies. I have had a good long chat with Andale and went over these points. Looks like we'll go with a $5000 unit installed. 
The reno to the clubhouse includes a power system that can turn individual circuits on/off by email or SMS, so that puts to rest any worry about turning off / on, leaving running etc.
This particular unit will not freeze beer lines even if left on. The ice doesnt touch the lines.


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