Kegerator Hack: Cool a Draft Tower with Computer Fans

Here's a fun project for those of you who are geekily inclined. (If you are not the DIY type, you can just buy a tower cooling fan here) Owners of a kegerator with a draft tower, whether your beer dispenser is commercially made or a kit conversion, you can add some cooling power by modifying the tower with a CPU cooling fan. With this, you can push cold air into the tower from the cooling chamber, ensuring that the beer lines are the right temperature right up to the faucet shank. This, in addition to a tower cooler insulated sleeve, will help to eliminate an over abundance of foam in the initial servings of new kegs from your home draft system.

A computer fan cool air blower will help keep your draft tower temperatures cooler and eliminate foaming of your first few pours.

Beer lines that aren't chilled properly are one of the most easily over looked reasons for over foaming draft beer. The beer itself does cool the beer lines eventually, but it is easy to lose a couple of pints from each keg if this problem is not addressed.

To hack your kegerator with a CPU cooling fan, you will need a few pieces of hardware and tools.

Hardware
CPU cooling fan
Power adapter or 9 volt battery
Crimp-on electrical connectors (at least two)
6 feet of 3/4" to 1 inch hose for cold air funneling
Plastic waterproof project box (6"x5"x2")

Tools
Wire crimper/stripper
Screwdriver
Hot glue gun
Drill with 1/4" drill bit

I used a 3" diameter CPU fan that I ripped out of an old server tower I found in a trash pile on the curb (that tower also had 8 GB of Ram with cooling fans that were fully functional, too. Score!).

The most expensive part has got to be the power adapter to get it going - if you can't find one in the bin of miscellaneous electronics at your local thrift store. The fan should have the power requirements printed on it, or, if not, a serial number with which you can look up the power requirements, but I'll tell you right now that almost all of them are 12 volt. Some operate at a faster speed when powered by 17 volts. If you use a power adapter, you will have to drill a hole in your kegerator for the power source or run a cord through the door. (Watch out for the coolant lines when drilling through kegerators.)

You can always make this a battery powered operation, however. A nine volt battery will probably work even if the voltage requirement is 12 volt. The fan just won't run as fast.

Once you have your power source figured out, the next step is to use the drill to make the hole for the power adapter, if you are going that route. When drilling into your kegerator, always be careful not to nick the cooling lines or the compressor. Even a small cut in the refrigeration lines can seriously damage your home draft operation.

A 1/4" hole should be big enough to stick the wires through for attachment to the fan.

DO NOT HAVE THE POWER ADAPTER PLUGGED IN WHEN YOU DO THE FOLLOWING: You will need to cut the adapter end off of the very end of the power adapter's wire, and strip the exposed wires in preparation for attaching them to the leads on the fan. It is a good practice to always treat stripped wires as if they are hot when handling them. At 12 volts, there shouldn't be much danger in handling them even if they are hot, except burning out your power adapter.

When making the box for your fan, you will need to cut a big hole in one broad side, big enough that the fan can suck through that end, and a small hole for the cool air funnel tube in the narrow end. The hot glue gun can help to seal up the cracks. Once the fan is powered, you can tell which way to orient it so that it sucks air into the tube instead of out of the tube - an important difference. Yes, as you can probably tell, I put it in backwards the first time.

The screwdrivers can be used to mount the cooling fan to your waterproof project box with bolts or screws. Making the cooling box out of a plastic electrical outlet box or electronic project box will work, too, and I know that you can get a box cover with a big round hole in it at your local hardware store. You will still want to seal the cracks around the cover plate with hot glue, silicone caulking or some narrow weather stripping.

Once you have the cooling module fabricated, jam the other end of the cooling tube up inside your cooling tower from underneath. Duct tape or a zip tie or two can come in handy to connect the hose so that it doesn't fall down but be careful to not restrict the beer flow when securing the cooling tube. I also drilled some holes in the end of the cooling tube (the last two inches) so that the cool air would flow even if the end of the tube got pressed flat up against the cap or wall of the cooling tower.

Now you can also add a switch to your CPU cooling unit, and a perfect switch to use is one like the old desktop computers used to have. The kind that pushes in and stays in and on and with a second push comes back out and off. To me, personally, this is one of the most satisfying switches to push, but go crazy with your own personal switch geekery.

Related Kegerator Articles :
Hacking Your Kegerator: Adds and Mods Edition -- Modification projects for your kegerator including, computer fans, blowers, tower mods, rfi readers and open source technologies.
Eliminating Foamy Beer from your Kegerator -- Is your kegerator dispensing foamy beer?
Modification Project: Adding Double or Triple Tap Tower -- Learn how to add a double or triple tap tower to your kegerator.