Nostalgia Electrics Kegorator Price: $339.99 Shipping Options:: $5 Standard Shipping Estimates: Ships in 6-7 business days (Monday, Jan 19 to Thursday, Jan 22) + transit Condition: New
If some of the Amazon reviews worry you, read the ones at Walmart:. Looks like it DOES get cold enough as it ships, but if it didn’t you can tweak the thermostat so that it does.
Thanks to the dual gauge regulator you can specific how much pressure to the faucet apply, (lower pressure should lower excessive foaming). Which can also be due to temperature. I’m planing to insulate the tower to help in this area also.
This is the cheapest kegerator I’ve found online. I’ve owned a different brand for almost 10 yrs that’s still going strong but I’ve been looking or a second one for large parties as well as to offer two types of beer and at this price, I pulled the trigger.
I have a Beverage Air. It’s done right, this one looks very questionable.
What’s the interior dimensions? Is it big enough to hold at least a 5 lb. CO2 tank AND the 1/2 keg, cause a wimpy 2.5 aint gonna cut it sports fans. More after market expense. (I use a 10 lb.) Looking at the open door interior pic posted at the Nostalgia link, there aint enough room for a mug!
I guaranty the thermostat will suck. It’s either gonna be too cold or too warm. FIX - buy an external Johnson or Rogers thermostat with thermocouple. Run/tape the thermocouple inside, set the temp for 35F, set the box’s thermostat on high, plug the box into the external thermostat dual plug which plugs into the wall. Viola, perfect temps. More after market expense…
Tower must be insulated or you’ll have major sweating and warmer beer.
Follow my recommendations and you’ll have decent results. Use as is and you’ll be in trouble.
I own this kegorator. Same brand, looks identical. I would have to check and see if it has the same model number on it. Hopefully they made some upgrades compared to when I bought it. I have done about 5 kegs with it, never without frustration. Finding a place to fill the CO2 tank was a pain. I did a welding/gas supply shop the first time, then I found a paint ball shop that was much less of a drive for me. The CO2 tank tended to run down pretty quickly, but I could never find a leak. The regulator that came with it was terrible and always ended up with foamy beer, even with pouring correctly. I took the regulator in to a local brewer store who has supplies for people to do their own keg setups as well. They said that the regulator that came with it wasn’t quality and set me up with a better one. The kegs after that were marginally better after that, but still not perfect. The fridge will not hold a Blue Moon keg, as they have a ridge on the outside that makes them too big, so don’t expect to hold a Miller/Coors full size keg.
If you get one of these invest in a kit to clean the lines. I have to replace mine, as I didn’t get them cleaned out the last time I used it.
The beer was very cold for me, so I have no complaints on that. If you prefer some beers at different temperatures though, you won’t have luck with that.
Even working as poorly as it did, coming out with too much head, people were still impressed by the fridge!
Exactly what I said. You have a box that’s too small and crappy components that requires too many pricey work-arounds.
You get what you pay for.
There’s another caveat nobody has talked about - unloading. 1/2 kegs weigh about 170 lbs. You’ll need 2 strong men to unload it from a pickup. I do it solo, well…me and my tractor’s bucket to get it off the bed and to the back door!
I have this one. The tap is insulated with foam but with no forced air into it the first hit can be a touch warm but I’ve never had an issue after that.
Everytime I do the math it makes no sense to own this? Am I missing something? Ya, I know it’s supposed to taste better than canned beer but nothing beats the convenience of canned beer. Owning a keg is about 20% more expensive than just drinking out of cans. Not to mention the hassle.
Buyer beware, we bought one of these for my in-laws for Christmas. After 2 regulators (the 2nd replaced under warranty) I went ahead and just bought a nice regulator to replace it.
No matter how low we set the pressure, we couldn’t get rid of the excess foam. When I replaced the regulator with one from my kegerator it worked fine, so I just replaced theirs with one similar to mine and took mine back home.
If you homebrew the appeal is the amount of time you don’t have to spend bottling.
I homebrewed for ten years on and off. Once I built a keezer I realized the task of cleaning and bottling was the one thing that kept me from really enjoying the hobby.
To keep on topic, most “kegerators” are somewhat limiting. On good ones you might get two taps (two on top or one on top and a party tap inside) but the tower is going to mean you can’t avoid a 1/4 of your beer that’s room temp unless you just served.
I just googled “kegerator 2 5 gallon kegs” and first link was for beveragefactory.com which had several pricey options which you might like (they sound pretty nice). However, if you are as cheap as I am you make want to find plans online and build your own from an old fridge/deep freeze (Craigslist, yard sale, etc).
I have been home brewing for about 20 years now. I found the best kegerator is actually a keezer
I took a used 7 foot chest freezer, put a wood apron between the lid and the freezer, and put taps on it. I can get 4 5 gallon cornelius kegs into it, as we a a 5 gallon CO2. I added a distribution system for the CO2.
It was about 2 weeks of work, but I love it. I even put wheels on it to move it around.
All in all, about $250 for the freezer, the parts.
You can find all sorts of how to guides on Youtube and on various home brew boards
I live in a state with bottle deposits, and I have no intention to deal with the headache of returning bottles. A keg saves me 160 cans worth of non-returned deposits. Also, there is cost savings for buying in such bulk. I buy kegs of Sam Adams for $150, which means less than a $1 a beer. You can’t get that rate by buying 6, 12, or 30 racks.
For what it is worth, I bought this exact kegorator about a year ago and have been very pleased. I wrote a review on Amazon, but this thing uses little electricity (400 watts when the compressor kicks on but within 10-15 seconds, its down to 80 watts). The compressor is a little loud, but it’s a minimal design as there are no fans. The case of the kegorator is the actual heat sink.
It keeps my beer at 3-4 degrees C, and I have the temperature knob in the halfway point.
It comes with a 2.5lb tank but I swapped that out with a 5lb tank. The 5lb tank is good for ~6-8 half barrel kegs.
Here is a tip for people complaining about going through their CO2 fast. When you are all set, take a day to just leak check the lines. Screw in the CO2 tank and open her up and pressurize the lines. The regulator will show you both PSI of the tank side and line side. After the lines are up to pressure, turn off the CO2 tank. Let the lines sit for a day and see if the pressure drops due to small leaks. When I first got this, I did this test and realized I didn’t screw everything down tight enough and I lost the pressure in the lines within 6 hours. I went back, tighten everything down and did the check again. After 24 hours, I lost no pressure and I knew I was good to go. You might think a leak slow enough to lose pressure in the lines over 6 hours isn’t that big of a deal, but over a year that really adds up.
My only true complaint with this kegorator is a mold issue I am having with the tap handle itself. No matter what I do, it keeps growing mold after the keg has been flowing for a month or so. I even took star san and cleaned the lines and handle, let it air dry for a month, and star saned it again and I still got mold growing back.
Mold doesn’t kill you, but the first pour may have this blueish looking film floating on top of the beer. I wonder how many bars have mold like this!
![[Preview 1]](http://d3gqasl9vmjfd8.cloudfront.net/8b165b1b-3d4f-4738-a571-a25109ca4257.jpg){kind=link}
