Keg Coolers

Keg cooler installation, servicing and repair in London

Climate Flow Limited installs, services and repairs keg coolers for pubs, bars, clubs, restaurants and event venues in London and surrounding areas. A keg cooler is a refrigerated unit that holds kegs and keeps the beer in them cold until it is poured. Climate Flow works on the refrigeration side of the cooler, and offers 24/7 emergency callouts.

What is a keg cooler?

A keg cooler, also called a beer cooler or keg fridge, chills the kegs themselves rather than the room they are stored in. It suits a bar with no cellar, a site with no room to cool one, or a counter that needs a few kegs close to the tap. The common types are:

• Under-bar keg fridge. A refrigerated cabinet under the counter that holds one or more kegs.
• Direct-draw dispenser. A keg fridge with the tap mounted on top, so the beer is poured straight from the cabinet.
• Remote keg cooler. The cabinet sits in the bar and the condensing unit, the compressor and condenser that carry the heat away, is mounted elsewhere, such as a back room or an outside wall.

Each type is a small refrigeration system, with a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator (the cold coil inside the cabinet that takes heat out of the kegs) and a controller that holds the set temperature.

How is a keg cooler different from a cellar cooler?

A keg cooler chills the kegs inside its own cabinet. A cellar cooler is a refrigeration system that cools the whole cellar room where kegs and casks are stored. A pub with a cellar usually relies on a cellar cooler; a bar without one usually relies on keg coolers behind the counter. Our cellar cooler installation page covers that work. Which suits a site depends on where the kegs can sit, how much space there is and how much is poured.

What the work involves on site

A new keg cooler, a replacement and a repair follow the same order.

1. Survey. An engineer looks at where the kegs will sit, where the cooler or its condensing unit can go with air around it, and where the power supply is.
2. Plan. We agree the equipment and a time for the work around your trading hours, so the bar is not out of action during service where that can be avoided.
3. Install or repair. The cooler is fitted or repaired and the refrigeration circuit is tested.
4. Commission and hand over. We run the cooler, check it is cooling as designed, and show whoever runs the bar what to look out for day to day.

Someone who knows the bar and its equipment should be on site at the start and at the handover.

Working safely where dispense gas is stored

Bars and cellars hold dispense gas cylinders, so an engineer takes care in any enclosed space where gas is stored. The Health and Safety Executive defines a confined space as one that is enclosed or largely enclosed and carries a reasonably foreseeable risk, and lists reduced oxygen levels among the main dangers (HSE, introduction to working in confined spaces). Whether a particular cellar or store counts as one depends on the risk assessment for that site.

Common keg cooler faults

Most calls start with the beer at the tap. These are the signs we are asked to look at:

• Beer pouring warm, or warmer at one time of day than another
• Fobbing, where the beer comes out as foam
• A cooler that runs all the time, or keeps stopping and starting
• Ice building up on the evaporator inside the cabinet
• Water pooling under or around the cooler
• A noisy compressor or condenser fan
• An error on the controller, or a cooler that has stopped altogether

Warm beer and fobbing can have more than one cause, and some sit on the dispense side, the gas, couplers and taps, rather than the cooling side. An engineer checks the cooler first, then tells you what was found.

Maintenance and the F-gas rules

A keg cooler is a refrigeration system, so the F-gas rules cover work on its refrigerant circuit. Anyone who installs, services or maintains such a system, checks it for leaks, recovers its refrigerant or decommissions it must hold the right F-gas qualification, and working with F gas without it is against the law (GOV.UK, qualifications to work on F-gas equipment). Climate Flow is F-Gas certified.

The people who use the equipment and the technicians who maintain it share responsibility for stopping refrigerant leaks. Where the leak-check rules apply, equipment in the lowest band must be checked at least once every 12 months, and a leak that is found must be repaired as soon as possible and the test repeated within a month (GOV.UK, checking F gas equipment for leaks). Records must be kept for 5 years for equipment containing F gas equivalent to 5 tonnes or more of carbon dioxide (GOV.UK, record F gas in equipment). Whether a given keg cooler reaches those thresholds depends on its refrigerant and its charge (the amount of refrigerant in it), and many small self-contained units fall below them. Beyond that, how often a cooler is serviced is agreed per site.

On a service visit we check:

• The condenser coil, the finned coil that gets rid of heat, clean and clear of dust and grease
• The condenser fan and the airflow around the unit
• The refrigerant circuit for signs of a leak, with a leak check where the rules require one
• The evaporator for ice build-up
• Door seals and hinges on the cabinet
• The controller settings and the electrical connections
• Drains and condensate

Which sites use keg coolers

Pubs, bars and clubs are the main users, along with restaurants, hotels and event venues that pour draught beer; our refrigeration for pubs and bars page covers the wider work those sites need. Sites that serve from a bar usually run an ice machine as well, and we also repair and service ice machines. Our commercial refrigeration services page covers the rest of the refrigeration work we do.

Talk to us about your keg cooler

If a keg cooler at your site needs installing, repairing or servicing, call 020 3488 5452 or request a quote and tell us what you have. Climate Flow works across London and surrounding areas, with 24/7 emergency callouts. Climate Flow Limited, 2 Engineers Way, Wembley, London HA9 0JS.

This guide is general information, not a survey or a quote for your site; every system is different, so an engineer needs to see yours before any work is priced.