Thursday, May 25, 2006

Upgrading Draft Tower



The draft tower for the Sanyo is a 2.5" chromed plastic tower. Seeing that I have room for multiple kegs I thought it best to upgrade the tower to spray out two kinds of beer. I want all the parts in contact with the beer to be stainless steel. Most mid- and low-range kegerators use brass, which will break down from the acidity of the beer. So I also need to upgrade the shanks, faucets, keg coupler, and hose connections.
This post will only deal with the draft tower, shanks, and faucets.



Here are the Items I had to buy and where I got them:
DRAFT TOWER
ACU
Stainless 3" diameter dual port draft tower 12" high
Part #0802-12

ACU Metal Fab
ACU typically has these in stock. The tower is 3" compared to the stock Sanyo tower. I got the brushed stainless to match the BBQ grill. The big picture baby! ACU is significantly cheaper than other vendors for the draft towers.

SHANKS
MICROMATIC
I got the shanks from Micromatic (as well as most of my other keg stuff).
You can replace the internal parts of the US Standard faucet with stainless steel ones if you so choose. Micromatic has faucets also, but I am awaiting faucets from Ventmatic which are stainless steel so I didn't bother. I had an extra I got off ebay cheap.


Stainless Steel Elbow Shanks Catalog #
4329AS-3E
Elbow Shanks

Be sure to get elbow shanks, I don't think two straight shanks will fit in the tower.

MISC
You will also need 10-12 feet of vinyl beverage tubing, small hose clamps, and four 1" stainless steel screws.
I got the items from from HomeDepot.


Assembling the new tower
1)Remove the cap on the new tower. Dissamble the shanks. You should have all the parts for each shank like below:

2) Cut 2 lengths of 5-6 feet of the vinyl tubing. Heat some water on the stove.

3) Feed one length of tubing in to one of the ports. Be careful not to scratch the tower with the clamp.
Put the pieces in order on the tubing, and put the shank in the port. Tighten the nut but not all the way. Leave the nipple end of the elbow facing up.


4)Dip the end of the tubing in the hot water for 10 seconds or so. Now place the hot tubing on the nipple of one of the shank elbows. Put a clamp on and tighten.
Turn the elbow downwards and away from the middle of the tower.

5) Repeat with the other length of tubing and shank.
6) Tighten each collar nut on each shank.
7) Replace the end cap.



Installing the Tower
1) Feed the other ends of the tubing thru the hole in the insulating gasket, then the top of the kegerator.
2) Place the black insulating gasket so it is spaced properly around the hole, then place the tower on top aligning the holes.
3) I used stainless steel screws to fasten the tower to the top, using a power driver.
4) Attach your faucets and tap handles, couplers,and have a beer!

No comments: