SPT BD-0538 Mini Kegerator & Dispenser

Works great. As a Brit I know how to use these things. Here are some tips from practical use of three of these things:1. Get the temperature down to 40F or less to prevent foaming. Put the keg in the fridge before putting in the kegerator to speed cooling.2. Don't overgas on a new keg or you'll get foaming. Great if you like German-style serving. Not if you don't. Doesn't apply to Heineken or Newcastle kegs as they're pre-gassed. Expect foaming for the first pint or so with them. Should be ok after that.3. Some kegs better than others in terms of German kegs re connecting. Bitburger had the correct fittings. Warsteiner and others need to have the top fitting removed and replaced with the ones provided by SPT. A pain sometimes. The Heineken/Newcastle ones are easy connections. They're provided by SPT. Easy drinking, but you'll like other beers more as you try them.4. Now and again you'll get a little gas escaping when putting in a new CO2 cylinder. I've found a little lube helps. I've had one bad insert. I decided it's best to take the CO2 housing out of it's clip in the lid and put the canister in vertically. If you get leaks, check the black o-ring. Replace if it looks distorted or worn. SPT provide spares. I've done this once.5. You can get beer-branded handles off Ebay (lots) or Amazon (few). Makes it easy for party guests to see what they're drinking!6. It's ok to re-use kegs and decant the beer you like from cans, growlers and bottles you like. The alcohol, refrigeration and carbonation are the three reasons it will stay fresh for weeks.6. That's it. Everyone loves it when they come to my house! Shop around for good prices on kegs. Total and More often have specials, and their Newcastle is cheap at the time if writing.

Not very happy with this unit. Unit does not hold pressure. Wasted all the supplied CO2 cartridges trying to use up just one Mini-Keg. Purchased a few more cartridges - same results. Called supplier, but may as well been talking to the wall. Technical help was totally inept and unfamiliar with the product. I had to explain to her how this unit worked, what it was and she still did not get it.Best I could figure out, the "O" ring that seals the CO2 Cartridge into the unit is/was of poor quality and does not seem to have a memory. Consequently once compressed, the "O" ring does not return to its previous shape (bounce back) and the seal is lost. This then causes the cartridge to leak and the dispenser to become inoperative. Possibly old "O" rings??? I always turned the pressure off when not pouring beer as per owners manual. This should eliminate gas leakage downstream of the pressure shut off valve (at the keg connection and so on).Owners manual is generally pretty poor along with some bad sentence structure. Possibly a direct translation from a foreign language. I would be hard pressed to recommend this unit. I plan to purchase some better "O" rings and give it another go.

We got this to carbonate and refrigerate my one gallon batches of homebrew. I racked right from primary into the (NOT INCLUDED) one gallon mini keg. The set-up was incredibly easy. Before you load the CO2 cartridge, make sure the connections to the keg are tight and the top knob is turned OFF.Once the cartridge is loaded, I slowly turned the top knob on to about half, and wiggled the keg inside the refrigerator compartment without disconnecting the tubing to move the CO2 around. I let things settle for about an hour then turned the knob to the closed position. Beer pours like a dream without too much pressure or over-carbonation.Only complaint is the connection from the front tubing to the center pin doesn't lock without quite a bit of pressure. Otherwise everything fits together great. I have carbed a dozen beers and I love this system!

I like this cooler. It fulfilled my needs and expectations, but it does have limitations. This review will concentrate on those limitations, which may make the review seem to be more negative than my rating. But I really do feel it deserves 4 stars. I am not fond of fishing in an ice chest for a can of beer. I wanted something a little more elegant for patio parties. That is why I bought this cooler, and it meets that need.This cooler holds 5 liter mini-kegs. That is 1.32 gallons or 169 fl.oz. - or about 14 glasses of beer. You should plan on changing the mini-keg during the course of a party. However, quick disconnects are used, so keg change is quick and easy.This cooler is not very efficient - either in power use or cooling capacity. The power draw is stated as 65W, which is about 40% of the power drawn by my full-size refrigerator. However, the cooling capacity is minuscule compared to a refrigerator. The cooler will keep a keg cold, but it takes most of a day to cool down a warm keg. You will want to pre-cool your kegs in a refrigerator - especially kegs that will be changed during a party. The minimum set temperature is 36F, which is where I have mine set. The cooler shuts off at 38F and restarts at 41F.The hoses used are small diameter, so the fluid stream is "weak". It takes about 40 seconds to dispense a 12oz glass of beer. Increasing the keg pressure does not materially increase the flow rate, but it does increase the amount of foam on the beer. The CO2 pressure regulator should be set fairly low for a "normal" amount of foam. This is plain physics, not the fault of the cooler. When the keg is under pressure, CO2 dissolves into the liquid - which then reappears as foam when the beer is dispensed. Lower pressure, less foam.This cooler apparently uses a Peltier effect solid-state cooling module, so the only moving part of the system is the ventilation fan. The fan is louder than the fans used in tower-format desktop computers, but it is not objectionable. Outside on the patio, you have to listen hard to hear it. It is necessary to add water inside the cooler, so the keg is sitting in water. Presumably, the purpose of this water is to improve the energy transfer from the keg to the Peltier module. However, a quick drain tap is provided, so removing the water is easy.The power cord is short, so you will need to place the cooler near an outlet or use an extension cord.My one real complaint about this cooler is that the power cord is ungrounded - 2 wire. Seems to me this presents a safety hazard for an appliance that likely will be used outdoors. I could be wrong, but I don't think a GFCI outlet or breaker will trip, under ground fault conditions, unless the appliance has the third wire (dedicated ground). The cooler has metal sides. The metal kegs sit in water that also is in contact with the Peltier module. I definitely would feel more comfortable if the cooler was grounded and had a contact to ground the keg as well. I plan to unplug the cooler each time I change the keg.