Commercial Kegerator Buying Guide: Towers, Taps and Keg Capacity

Two faucets on one tower and two towers with one faucet each hold the same kegs, cost about the same, and work completely differently once two bartenders are behind the bar on a Friday. That is the decision most commercial kegerator guides skip. This one starts there, then covers why "how many kegs does it hold" has no single answer, what a keg actually yields in pints, and how a kegerator lines up with the rest of your bar refrigeration.

1. Commercial kegerator, or the one from the appliance store?

Search the word on its own and most of what comes back is a home unit — a single-faucet cabinet for a garage or a basement bar, built around a compressor that expects the door to open a few times an evening in a 70°F room.

A commercial kegerator, also sold as a direct draw beer dispenser, is a different machine. It holds 33–41°F with the doors opening all night in a warm, crowded room, it is NSF listed, it has a locking door because there is inventory inside, and the cabinet is built to be pulled out and cleaned under. Put a home unit behind a working bar and it will not hold temperature through a busy Saturday — which shows up in the glass as foam long before it shows up as a service call.

2. One tower with two faucets, or two towers with one each?

This is the decision that changes how the bar runs, and the two options are usually the same price. On a 49-inch cabinet we build both: the PLM-BCBD2-1 puts two faucets on a single tower, and the PLM-BCBD2-2 puts two separate single-faucet towers along the same cabinet.

One tower, two faucets

• One service point. A second bartender pouring at the same time is standing in the first one's way.
• One drip tray to empty and clean.
• Keeps the rest of the bar top clear — better where the bar is short or the top is also a work surface.
• Right for a bar where one person pours beer and the other works the well.

Two towers, one faucet each

• Two people can pour at once. On a busy bar this is the whole argument, and it is worth more than any spec on the sheet.
• Spreads the queue. Guests naturally form two lines instead of one.
• Two drip trays, two sets of lines to clean.
• Takes more of the bar top, so it needs the bar length to justify it.

At the top of our line the PLM-BCBD4-2 does both: two towers with two faucets each, so four beers on tap and two people pouring.

3. "How many kegs does it hold?" has no single answer

It depends entirely on which kegs, because US keg sizes differ far more in diameter than in height — and diameter is what decides how many stand side by side on the cabinet floor:

A half barrel is 16 1/8 inches across; a sixtel is 9 1/4. Two half barrels take about 32 inches of floor width and three sixtels take under 28 — so the same cabinet holds meaningfully more sixtels than half barrels, which is exactly why a craft bar with a rotating list and a high-volume house-lager bar reach different conclusions from the same spec sheet.

What a keg is worth in pints

Straight arithmetic from the volumes above, before foam and line loss:

• Half barrel — 1,984 oz, so 124 sixteen-ounce pints, or 165 twelve-ounce pours
• Quarter barrel or slim quarter — 992 oz, so 62 pints
• Sixtel — 661 oz, so about 41 pints

Real yield is lower. Foam on the first pours after a keg change, the beer left in the line, and anything poured off while balancing pressure all come out of that number. Use it to work out how often you change kegs, not to price the pour.

4. It is the same cabinet as your back bar cooler

Worth knowing if you are specifying a whole bar at once. Our kegerators are built on the same shallow cabinet as our back bar coolers, with a tower on top:

Same depth, same capacity, same cabinet — so a kegerator and a bottle cabinet from this line sit flush next to each other along the back run with no step and no gap, and your depth budget is the same number for both. If you are laying out a bar rather than replacing one box, that is worth more than it sounds.

5. Direct draw or a long-draw system?

Everything on this page is direct draw: the kegs sit in the cabinet the faucets are mounted on, and the beer travels a few feet of line. Short lines are simpler, cheaper, and far easier to keep balanced and clean.

A long-draw system puts the kegs in a walk-in and runs glycol-cooled trunk lines to towers elsewhere in the building. It makes sense when you need many taps, when there is no room for kegs at the bar, or when keg changes must happen away from guests — and it costs several times more to install and to maintain. If direct draw fits your tap count and your bar has the floor space, direct draw is the right answer; long draw is something you grow into, not something you start with.

6. Install: the parts that are not the cabinet

• CO2 is not included and it is not optional. You need a cylinder, a regulator and a place to stand the cylinder where it will not be knocked over. Budget for it before delivery day.
• Know your coupler. Our units ship with the "D" system coupler, which is what most American domestic brands use. Imports and many craft brands use S, A, G, M or U couplers — check the brands on your list and order the couplers you need.
• Electrical. Every Polarman kegerator runs on standard 115 V, single phase, 3 amps. Give it its own circuit.
• Compressor side. Our two-door and larger cabinets are left-side mounted, so leave the left side reachable for service. The 24 1/8" single-tap unit is rear-mounted and needs clearance behind instead.
• Height. These stand 51 inches overall with the tower, so the cabinet does not go under a bar top — the tower comes up through or beside the bar surface. Plan the cut-out before the cabinet arrives.
• Drip tray drain. A built-in tray still has to go somewhere. Decide early whether it drains or gets emptied, because retrofitting a drain through a finished bar is not a small job.
• Line cleaning. Draft lines need cleaning on a schedule — it is the single biggest driver of how your beer tastes, and it is a cost of running taps, not an optional extra.

7. The Polarman kegerator range

All 115 V / single phase / 3 A, R290, 33–41°F, 51 inches tall overall, black cabinet with a stainless top, built-in drip tray, locking doors and "D" system couplers included.

Keg capacity differs by keg type — check the figure on the model page against the kegs you actually buy, or send us your list and we will confirm it. Every unit carries 1 year labour, 2 years parts and 5 years on the compressor part.

8. Sizing it in one line

• One beer, small bar or a service station — PLM-BCBD1, 24 1/8", one faucet
• Two beers, one bartender on beer — PLM-BCBD2-1, 49 1/8", two faucets on one tower
• Two beers, two bartenders pouring — PLM-BCBD2-2, same cabinet, two separate towers
• More keg room, same two taps — PLM-BCBD3-1 or 3-2 at 61 1/16", 16.6 cu ft
• Four taps and two pour points — PLM-BCBD4-2, 73 1/16", two towers of two
• Rotating craft list — size in sixtels, not half barrels; the diameter difference is what buys you extra taps
• More taps than this, or no floor space at the bar — that is a long-draw conversation, not a bigger kegerator