Kegerator conversion of Danby mini-fridge

When I built my outdoor kitchen, I debated between putting in a kegerator versus a fridge. I opted for a fridge thinking it would be more practical, and I hadn't started home brewing at that time. Since then, I began home brewing, and we hardly ever use the fridge because the main kitchen is not far away. So I looked into converting the fridge into a kegerator. At first, I was discourage by how little space is inside the fridge. It seemed I would not be able to fit even one 5-gallon corny keg and I would have to resort to smaller kegs. I regretted not going with a kegerator from the very start. Then I found this guy who had converted a very similar fridge (Danby DAR440BL) into a kegerator that fits two corny kegs and a 5lb CO2 tank (the key to getting enough space was removing the storage panel on the door).

I want to share a little about this project because I know how immensely useful this guy's project and his pictures were to me. I hope others will find this useful as well.

Here's the original fridge in my simple outdoor kitchen. It is a Danby DAR482BLS, which can be commonly found for under $200. It is not intended for outdoor use, but when shopping for outdoor kitchen, quite a few contractors recommended its use over much more expensive outdoor fridges. So far, it's working just fine.

This is the interior. Notice the thickness of the storage panel inside the door. It must be removed by unscrewing the hidden screws under the rubber seal.

With the storage unit gone, the door is much slimmer. To hold the magnetic rubber seal in place, so the door closes firmly, I installed a piece of plexiglass cut to the size of the storage panel that I removed.

Marked the area behind the interior light and in front of the cold plate where drilling can take place.

Start with a pilot hole.

Used a hole saw to drill through the metal case. Normally, one must be very careful not to hit any refrigerant lines. But since I had read about a similar job (this guy), I was fairly confident it was going to work out fine. And it did.

Fast forward a bit, the draft tower is installed. Drilling through the porcelain tile on the counter required using diamond drill bits. Then a masonry bit was used to drill through about 3 1/2 inches of concrete. I decided to drill two 1/2 inch holes (one for each beverage tubing) rather than a big hole because large diamond hole saws are very expensive, and large diameter masonry bits are not commonly found.

The corny kegs fit inside just fine. The CO2 tank sits in the back. A bungee cord holds the tank on the shelf (above the compressor) so it doesn't fall off when I remove a keg.

Here's the finished product. It was not difficult to make the conversion. I bought all the kegerator conversion equipment from http://www.beveragefactory.com. The kegs were used soda kegs found at a local brew shop.