- Dispenses 5 liter kegs
- Compact size
- Compressor cooling
- Adjustable CO2 regulator
- Holds two kegs
I have been saving for a personal 5L beer keg dispenser after seeing all my 'cool-friends' with the Heineken Beer-tender, but the reviews on their life-span turned out to be true (they quit if you keep a close to empty in the unit for more than a day or two) and I wanted something that operated differently.
I love this machine for the most part, and am working on making adjustments to the parts that are a miss for me. I love that it holds 2 x 5 Liter kegs and the accessories that come with the machine will allow you to use virtually ANY 5L keg style out there: Co2 pre-charged kegs like Heineken and Newcastle as well and any un-charged keg. The fact that this is an actual fridge protects the item from conking out because of a no-load melt-down like the other dispensers I have experience with.
Now the misses on this unit; this is a fridge and it boasts a glass shelf to chill your beer glasses. This is included and a really cool idea, however the shelf is way to close to the top of the chiller for anything taller than a shot-glass and so is pretty much useless for any practical use. Maybe someday I'll find some glasses that fit in there but right now I just can't make it work.
Next miss, and this is the biggest one; the pour spout looks very large and so you would think the flow of the brew would be almost as fast as a bar tap. Unfortunately this was very far from reality. The handle uses a 3/16" ID vinyl tube identical to the kind used in an aquarium aerator pump. The pour is excruciatingly slow! The tap handle works by pinching the tubing within the plastic spout but there is room for a slightly bigger tube. Today I went to a local hardware store and picked up a 1/4" ID vinyl tube and installed it,(after sterilizing) this helped quite a bit but is still way too slow for my taste. The speed is slower than the included tap on a Heineken 5L for reference. I will continue to work on this and it is usable, just a sticking point for me but NOT a reason avoid this machine.
The LED light is a cool idea, but that is about as much effort as they put into it. The light can be seen if you look through the window, but doesn't light up the fridge interior unless all the external lights are off in the room. In fact I forget it's on some times and leave the room because I can't tell that it's doing anything by just glancing at it. LED's run cool and it's a great idea, just no follow though on this.
The temperature adjustment is very cool(no pun intended) and even though the fridge settings bottom out at 38 degrees, the fridge is normally sitting at 36 degrees making very tasty beer.
The door is not reversible as described in the product features, the latch is molded on the door and cannot be opened from the right side.
Co2 control seats well and is easy to setup and adjust.
Overall I am really pleased with this product and do recommend this to others as a more reliable alternative to the Beer-tender, but I recommend it most for those who are home-brewers and aren't afraid to 'tinker' with the tap handle to get a better flow. I am most excited about the home-brewing aspect of this products versatility, as I myself have just started a batch of Oktoberfest home-brew and just ordered a Keg 5 Liter Party Keg with Tap for Homebrew and am beyond excited to have my brew on tap for my friends instead of passing out bottles.
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I bought this on a whim. I had been thinking about putting my homebrew in kegs but didn't want to deal with the expense and complication of a kegging system and a kegerator. As I looked at this I saw that it could substitute for the mechanics of that system as long as I could get my homebrew into mini-kegs. The good news is that it can be done, the bad news is that mini-kegs seem to be in high demand and low production so there will be a wait for the empty kegs to get started. In the mean time I have substituted a pre-made mini keg. I chose one that is not of the pre-charged variety (Heinekin, New Castle) as my own will not be pre charged.
The good: The setup was easy and installing the first mini-keg was as easy as tapping and putting in the fridge. There is space to keep some glasses on the shelf, although not much, to have a chilled vessel to contain your brew. The unit looks sharp and will give you some bragging rights when your buddies are over for football. The ability to store a spare is a great feature. It is pretty cool to have a nice, cold, draft beer from the comfort of your family room/man-cave.
The not so good: The draft tube to the front of the unit is a pretty small diameter. It takes about a minute or so to fill a standard pint glass. This isn't a deal breaker, but when the previously mentioned buddies line up, that pour time takes the shine of the apple, a bit. The unit looks sharp, but on closer inspection, chrome parts turn out to be shiny plastic and the unit overall has a bit of a cheap feel.
The bad: The unit is noisy, not off the scale, but distracting when it kicks on during a movie. The regulator system is SUPER cheap. I had to add an o-ring to keep my cartridges from losing pressure (I wasted 3 in 3 days before I figured it out). The knob to adjust the pressure just keeps going tighter, sometimetimes with no result, other times by over presurizing the mini.
I would say that overall this unit will perform as advertized, just don't expect to be blown away.
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Picked up mine last year post x-mas. Still love it!!! Do have some difficulty in NJ finding gravity kegs though. I keep two kegs in it at all times...usually a Heiniken or New Castle and then another that is run off of the coolers co2 system. I have found the 9oz co2 canisters work the best. The 16 grams tubes tend to leak unless u apply a little pipe tape. I was surprised that the 16g are not threaded, it would work much better.
Was originally drawn to the unit for its 2 keg size and because the cooling system is actually run off of a compressor and not a thermal cooling plate. Had one of them a few years ago and it burned out pretty quickly as most of them seem to do.
All in all it seem to work like a charm...highly recommended!!
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I've had this product for over a year now. I got it because I am a homebrewer, but don't have the space in my apartment to go to a full 5-gallon keg sytstem.
Don't bother trying to use the 16 g CO2 cartridges the o-ring seal on the attachment-nut piece is cheap, and will not properly seal the cartridge. Therefore you'll go through tons of the cartridges, and wind up with a lot of flat kegs of beer. I use a standard 12oz and 20 oz paintball canister that you can get at Dicks or off of amazon which scews into the regulator directly. You can still get the 20 oz canister to hang from the hangar on the inside of the door but you won't be able to fit two kegs.
The faucet that comes with the unit works fine the tubing is 1/8" ID, which does make for a deliberate pour, but smaller diameter tubing can also help to reduce foam. I wound up modifying the door so that I could install a bar-quality tap faucet from a homebrew supply store and use cornelius-style kegs (also from a homebrew supply store), but the existing faucet gets the job done.
The one thing that I can't modify is the noise that this thing makes when the compressor kicks in. It is very noticeable, especially if you have it in a room where you watch tv.
Overall I am happy with this product, it only gets three stars because the 16 g co2 cartridge option just doesn't work reliably, and the noise.
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I ordered one of these units with an adapter for non-Heinekin kegs about two weeks ago. It was easy to set up and looks pretty much exactly like the the picture.
PROS:
The refrigerator is large enough to hold two standard-sized mini-kegs. If you mix up 5-gallon batches like I do, that's enough to store about 2/3 of the total batch. I force-carbonate and bottle the remaining beer.
My unit is relatively quiet and unobtrusive and the temperature controls work well.
It's small enough that I can move the unit to a different room if I want it to be available for a party.
CONS:
The regulator is TERRIBLE. The plastic knob of the regulator valve came off of its threading the first time I used the system and I had to superglue it back on. Then it broke off again a week later. The regulator also immediately developed a fairly serious leak, so I was blowing through CO2 cartridges. I eventually got a better regulator and the system works fine. However decent regulators are relatively pricey.
The system doesn't carbonate the first third or so of a mini-keg very well. There tend to be a lot of foamy bubbles that dissipate quickly and leave the beer slightly undercarbonated (but still quite drinkable). A lot of this probably has to do with the small exit tube attached to the tap. If the tube had a larger diameter, the fluid would exit less quickly and the beer wouldn't decarbonate as much.
All in all, I'm glad I have the dispenser because I don't make enough beer to warrant a full-size kegerator and the mini-kegs that this system uses are perfect for my needs. However, I would have much rather paid a few extra dollars to get some high-quality force-carbonation parts instead of the cheap regulator and tubing that came with this system. If you buy this system, you may have to tweak it with extra parts in order to get it to work to spec.
This item was not included in a refrigerator we had just purchased. I considered just doing without as I had never used one before. But, what the heck. I ordered from Amazon and here it came.
