Icebank Vs Fridge

[strubes]

Hello everyone,
I am in need of a new fridge and was wondering if maybe a icebank would be better. below is the link of the details. I have a few questions on it thou.

1. can I just turn it on 5 minutes before I want a nice cold beer?

2. do they need to be cleaned after each use or can I leave everything hooked up?

3. do they last as long as a fridge?

4. would I need a flooded font to keep the beer cold at the tap?

Any information about the pros and cons would be great. love to here from some of you out there that have one..


http://www.pinnaclewholesalers.com.au/prod...RITE%2C_ICEBANK

Cheers
Strubes

 

[matt white]

Dont know much about the ice bank but for $1300 I'd get a new big fridge so it could be used for other things as well...such as yeast starters, wine, soft drink etc.

Dont punish me for having wine and soft drink in the beer fridge.

 

[felon]

Ice banks work great. You need to turn them on about 2 hrs before your want to use it to give them a chance to start building a layer of ice around the refridgerent coils in the bath. Usually the have an inbuilt pump to for flooding your font, which is worth using to prevent foaming issues with warm beer lines. Clean your beer lines the same as if it was a fridge setup. They are built the same as a fridge as far as parts go so it should last for years.

 

[Frank]

If you have the space I would go a fridge over ice bank. For $1300 you could buy 2 kegerators and have 6 kegs cold.
Most home made (and small micro beers) benefit from staying cold all the time.

 

[srcossens]

A lot of guys over in the UK use these with a product coil through the lid of the fermenter to keep consistent fermenting temperatures, but for $1300 that's quite expensive. You may be able to see one in use down at your local pub.

If you ever saw one here on ebay for sale second hand, then you could be tempted. They go for well under 200 on ebay in UK and there's a lot of them, but shipping would be a killer as they are extremely heavy.

A fridge would be a much easier option.

 

[komodo]

is anyone ACTUALLY using one?
Im concidering getting one @ $700ea on fleebay (more for the benefit of chilling the font than anything) but i dont know how viable they are to use with homebrew being that home brew isnt pastureised.

 

[ArnieW]

is anyone ACTUALLY using one?
Im concidering getting one @ $700ea on fleebay (more for the benefit of chilling the font than anything) but i dont know how viable they are to use with homebrew being that home brew isnt pastureised.

Hi Komodo,

I have one of the pinnacle units and I'm pretty happy with it. They make it easy to chill the font and it takes less than an hour from switch on to cold. I use mine for more than serving. I have a tank of water for my chiller and at this time of the year use the ice bank to pre chill it. I'm brewing today and my chill liquor is at about 10C thanks to the ice bank. I just pump water into it, chill it, and then return the cool water to the tank and go again.

It can be an issue having kegs sit warm during a long summer, but I use the ice bank to cool an insulated box that holds my kegs at cellar temp. To do this I pump ice water through a PC cooling radiator and a fan then blows cold air into the box. Works really well.

And the final benefit ... it is very portable, much moreso than a fridge. For new year I had it out on the deck. Once ice builds up, I have a couple of days of cold water without needing to power it. Add a CO2 bottle and it makes a great portable setup.

I paid about $700 for mine for reference.


cheers, Arnie

 

[jasonmatthews]

Hi Komodo,

I have one of the pinnacle units and I'm pretty happy with it. They make it easy to chill the font and it takes less than an hour from switch on to cold. I use mine for more than serving. I have a tank of water for my chiller and at this time of the year use the ice bank to pre chill it. I'm brewing today and my chill liquor is at about 10C thanks to the ice bank. I just pump water into it, chill it, and then return the cool water to the tank and go again.

It can be an issue having kegs sit warm during a long summer, but I use the ice bank to cool an insulated box that holds my kegs at cellar temp. To do this I pump ice water through a PC cooling radiator and a fan then blows cold air into the box. Works really well.

And the final benefit ... it is very portable, much moreso than a fridge. For new year I had it out on the deck. Once ice builds up, I have a couple of days of cold water without needing to power it. Add a CO2 bottle and it makes a great portable setup.

I paid about $700 for mine for reference.


cheers, Arnie

Hi Arnie,

i just bought my husband one & we're looking at setting up, can you give us any info in how to set up, i haven't found any info as yet.

Thanks
Markeeta

 

[Markbeer]

If you have the space I would go a fridge over ice bank. For $1300 you could buy 2 kegerators and have 6 kegs cold.
Most home made (and small micro beers) benefit from staying cold all the time.

+1 If I can't continually cold condition my beer once it is carbed I would wait to brew until I have room. IMO, beer is cleaner, crisper, fresher and clearer from continual cold storage rather than leaving at room temp.

I have really noticed this since going all grain.