Exploding kegs?

[Martin Bridges]

I've just had a comment left on my blog saying that using re-conditioned fire extinguishers for keg setups is highly dangerous as the kegs could explode. Something to do with the way that extinguishers draw the liquid CO2 off the bottom of the cylinder. Anyone else heard any of this??

Martin

[denimglen]

At first I thought that sounded like a crock of shit.

But yeah, I guess it's possible, even with a good regulator, for it to suck up some liquid CO2 and drop it in the keg which would result in like a bazillon psi once it hit the beer and warmed up.

[Martin Bridges]

But has anyone ever heard of it happening?

[JoKing]

I lay my CO2 bottle on its side on top of the Keggerator of death. Liquid CO2 enters the regulator this way. I haven't seen any liquid make it past the regulator yet. It is a micromatic.

Perhaps if you lay it on its side, you'll get lquid to the regulator for the 1st half of the bottle.

I would assume that the extinguisher reconditioners remove the spike before its use for CO2.

[Martin Bridges]

So I shouldn't lie awake at night waiting for my deck to explode? Good. I thought this would be the case, but I wanted to check with people more sensible than I.

[Hugh Grierson]

That could be a bit dodge mate. Cant you stand it up?

[James P]

As the CO2 heated up, would the release valve not do it's job and release? Or would that bazillion PSI be an immediate reaction?

[Nicholas Frith]

I know this thread is probably dead but I just went into Pressure Check in Grey Lynn today to look at cylinders and I had a yarn to the guy there.

He said it could be dangerous if the fire extinguisher was left as-is (with the dip tube still in) but that he takes it out and changes the valve. This makes it pretty much identical to a brand new cylinder in terms of design. CO2 exits out the top if you leave it upright.