Beer Tap Heatsink

[Kramer]

My beer tap here in QLD keeps getting too hot on the outside of the fridge so I thought I might make a heatsink for it to keep it cooler, I will also insulate the outside stem.

Have a look at my crude drawing and tell me what u think, the heatsink will be alloy and be as big as possible inside the fridge!

 

[shmick]

Hi Kramer
The heatsink would be worth a try.
Would you make your own? The large manufactured version can be quite pricey ($30 - $50).
Might be cheaper to develop a flooded font type system with a small pond pump etc. I noticed a few threads elsewhere on this site in the past.
Best of luck.

 

[Kramer]

No will make my own from some alloy i have at home also that way I can modify it to make it as big as possible, also my tap can't be cooled its just a tap out of the fridge door!

 

[shmick]

Attaching the heatsink properly is the trick - at least with electronic equipment which uses the same principal.
You'll need as much heatsink area in hard direct contact with the tap as possible.
Attaching it thru a hole with a nut to the back of the tap may not have a low enough thermal resistance. ie the heat gained thru the front of the tap may not be passed to the heatsink quickly enough.
Use a bit of heatsink compound and give it a go. Cant hurt :beer: