Kegerator for Indoors (quiet)

[Caelum]

Hi Crew,

Been considering getting myself a kegerator, however as i'll be using it in the dining room, which is close to both the lounge and master bedroom, i'm wanting one that is as quiet as possible.

Are there any models/brands better than others in this regard?

If need be, i could build it into a small cabinet (think flat-pack kitchen style), but i dare say that needing to access the front to load/unload the fridge and to allow ventilation around the unit, the sound reduction of doing that would be minimal, compared to just getting a quiet fridge to begin with.

Thoughts, suggestions?


Cheers!

 

[sp0rk]

My keezer is right outside my bedroom door and never keeps me awake, I'm a fairly light sleeper
Modern chest freezers are quiet as, can't comment on commercially available kegerators tho

 

[timmi9191]

My keezer is right outside my bedroom door and never keeps me awake, I'm a fairly light sleeper
Modern chest freezers are quiet as, can't comment on commercially available kegerators tho

Why have it so far from your bed?

 

[sp0rk]

That's what I told my wife!

 

[micbrew]

My keg king , gurgles intermittently
Which may distract you from bedroom activities

 

[damoninja]

I have one of those old kelvinator freezers, it's in my kitchen and makes nearly no noise.

 

[lost at sea]

my brand new keg king V4 makes plenty of gurgling noises. probably refrigerant boiling off, which is strange considering none of my other fermenting fridges or non beer related fridge/freezers do it..... anyway its defiantly the noisiest fridge i own, but its in the dining room so im not too fazed.

 

[peteru]

KK4 not quiet enough. About as noisy as a full size Whirlpool fridge.

 

[Mall]

My KK is a bit noisy when compressor kicks in but no worse than any of my other fridges...sits too conveniently in kitchen. :chug:

 

[Caelum]

Thanks all... May just need to bite the bullet.

 

[malt junkie]

There are also those bigger kegerators from keg king and others, they were also criticised for noisy compressor. I'm just wondering if anyone has looked into quietening them down, by remounting with rubber, using silent fans ect. The gurgling should be reduced with a fan on the compressor.

 

[Phoney]

I have mine in my dining room. I have a digital timer set to only run from 10am to 3pm each weekday & till 6pm on Fridays & Saturdays.

So my kegs warm up to about 8C by 10am each morning, but....who cares? If I'm still up drinking by 10am an 8C beer is the least of my problems But seriously, for me it's more about using power during the day while the sun is shining and the solar panels are generating free power.

Though if your kegerator is within earshot of your bedroom, ask yourself if you actually need to keep your beer chilled @ 2C 24/7 or only during reasonable drinking hours. If the latter, then get yourself a timer son!

 

[Moad]

My keg king , gurgles intermittently
Which may distract you from bedroom activities

"The fridge is gurgling, why don't you...baby"

 

[Bribie G]

Glad mine's not the only one that gurgles. Fridge that is.

 

[Caelum]

I have mine in my dining room. I have a digital timer set to only run from 10am to 3pm each weekday & till 6pm on Fridays & Saturdays.

...

ask yourself if you actually need to keep your beer chilled @ 2C 24/7 or only during reasonable drinking hours. If the latter, then get yourself a timer son!

Yeah, i've been thinking this is the right strategy too.

 

[Mall]

I have mine in my dining room. I have a digital timer set to only run from 10am to 3pm each weekday & till 6pm on Fridays & Saturdays.

So my kegs warm up to about 8C by 10am each morning, but....who cares? If I'm still up drinking by 10am an 8C beer is the least of my problems But seriously, for me it's more about using power during the day while the sun is shining and the solar panels are generating free power.

Though if your kegerator is within earshot of your bedroom, ask yourself if you actually need to keep your beer chilled @ 2C 24/7 or only during reasonable drinking hours. If the latter, then get yourself a timer son!

I'd never considered this....any recommendations digital timer wise??

 

[damoninja]

I have mine in my dining room. I have a digital timer set to only run from 10am to 3pm each weekday & till 6pm on Fridays & Saturdays.

So my kegs warm up to about 8C by 10am each morning, but....who cares? If I'm still up drinking by 10am an 8C beer is the least of my problems But seriously, for me it's more about using power during the day while the sun is shining and the solar panels are generating free power.

Though if your kegerator is within earshot of your bedroom, ask yourself if you actually need to keep your beer chilled @ 2C 24/7 or only during reasonable drinking hours. If the latter, then get yourself a timer son!

Have you measured the energy consumption in both situations? Just curious, I like to see actual numbers.

In theory your fridge/freezer just needs to work harder when it comes back on, though overall there will be less heat absorbed since it's non-linear as it warms up the rate of warming will slow.

My guess is there would be savings, likely minor.

I have a(n analogue) timer and have been meaning to benchmark my keezer anyway, I might try a similar configuration and see what kind of impact it has...

 

[Phoney]

I'd never considered this....any recommendations digital timer wise??

I use this one: http://hpm.com.au/products/slimline-digital-timer

It's got a battery which means it won't lose it's settings in a blackout. It's not intuitive to use, you need to keep the manual and you need to be sober when programming it otherwise it'll do your head in.

Interestingly, I bought it 12 months or so ago from bunnings, but when I went searching for them just now I couldnt find any timers on their website. I found this thread on whirlpool that says that bunnings have withdrawn all sales of timers back in June this year. I only had time to skim over it, but from what I gather there is some upcoming changing govt regulations or something. Not a product recall. Weird huh!

https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2539868

Have you measured the energy consumption in both situations? Just curious, I like to see actual numbers.

No, ive never measured energy consumption of anything. My smart meter doesn't do that unfortunately. This is my power generation on an almost completely overcast day. From 10am - 5pm I'm still generating around 500 - 1100W, so for most days it would be running at almost no cost.

 

[Rocker1986]

Mine stays on all the time and makes little noise, and although it's outside, at night time it's very quiet out there and I still can't hear it make much noise. It's a KK series 3 kegerator. I only drink in the evenings during the week but if I left it off for long periods of time, the beer wouldn't chill down in time, plus there's the CO2 going in and out of the beer as the temp changes... **** that, it's easier just to keep it at constant temp.

 

[damoninja]

No, ive never measured energy consumption of anything. My smart meter doesn't do that unfortunately. This is my power generation on an almost completely overcast day. From 10am - 5pm I'm still generating around 500 - 1100W, so for most days it would be running at almost no cost.

Well at least you showed me some numbers

I have one of these for measuring consumption around the house, has come in quite handy for either reducing consumption or reassurance that something's not chewing up more than it ought to.