CO2 options for kegging in Wellington

[Danny]

I'm looking to take the next step and get into kegging.

Getting a basic kegging setup (1 keg / picnic taps) seems to be easy (and reasonably priced enough ($250ish) and I have an old fridge to use. Upgrades can come later.

So, i just need to work out where the co2 comes from. 

Is there a general rule here?? do you buy / rent cylinders, where from and what sort of price am i looking at for purchase / rental / fill??

Clearly I'm lost here, so any help is welcomed.

[Peter Smith]

You should buy one off trademe, they are like dive tanks and need to be tested every few years.  I got a small 3.5kg one (ex fire extinguisher) for $150 and a massive 10kg one for $200 but I am a bargin hunter....

[Brent Marquis]

Buying a cylinder costs slightly more than renting one for a year.

With a rental you can essentially swap it for a full one, or have it refilled on the spot.

If you buy one, only a couple of places will refill them (wormald in the hutt and cylinder testing in porirua)
I've heard reports of needing to leave the cylinder with the guys in porirua overnight.

It comes down to convenience balanced with cost.
I rent one from BOC, because I live in town, and going to the hutt/porirua during working hours is too hard.  I can swap my BOC cylinder in newtown on saturdays.

[Chris Banks]

I agree with Brent cost vs convenience but the rental costs really get my goat I gave up having oxy acetylene for heating/brazing etc after working out it cost about $40 each time I turned it on most of that was due to infrequent use and the rental costs on the two bottles (gutted me even more taking the bottles back with gas in them!)

I would talk to Karl at allgrain.co.nz about an owner bottle.

Filling yes PCTL can be a bit fickle with service but its who I use as they are my local.

I havent been to wormalds yet what are their costs like ? I think it works out about $10/kg at PCTL based on $60 to fill a 6KG.

[Brent Marquis]

Yeah, rental cost is a bit crazy.
Sounds like filling the rental is cheaper though - 5kg CO2 refill is $40 from BOC

If anyone has a good experience with wormald, and they are open Saturdays, I'd be interested...

[Smiffy]

I think the Wormalds guy charged me $30 for a 2kg bottle.

I bought two 2kg bottles (from ezitools) but found that the gauge gives me plenty of warning when a refill will soon be needed, so I would sell one if someone made a good offer. It is dated 08/2011, and full. It cost me $270, (It's at Paraparaumu Beach). Smiffy

[Hopshed]

Hi - I use Wormalds in Petone and it's about $55 for a 5kg refill. Bit of a PITA that they are closed weekends but SWIMBO deals to it during the week. I bought new cylinder from a guy called skute (or similar) on Trademe for $280 full. Very happy.

[Jim Abbott]

I went in to Wormalds this morning and found that they now send cylinders to AK for filling - turnaround about 3 weeks and cost near $70...

Supagas offer the same. Anyone found any alternatives?

Maybe Porirua is now the only option!

[Eddie Johannisson]

I went to a factory tour at Supagas last week and meet their team. They are a small company compare with the big players and are trying to get more business by being customer friendly. One thing I got out of the meeting is that they try very hard to meet customers needs and because they are small they can be more flexible.

If cost or turnaround time is a problem contact their head office and have a chat to them. They may not be able to help straight away but if enough homebrewers ask them they will surely be interested.

[Grant R Baker]

BOC Seaview don't fill bottles anymore...so last time we went to Porirua, $45 done on the spot.

[Roger]

For the occasional brew I do, I still use Soda Stream cylinders and an adapter to fit the regulator. Great thing about Briscoes, is they now sell the full, new and bigger 400gram bottles during their sales less 30%. Works out about $42 bucks each, with the exchange price under $18 during sale time.  If you factor in bottle hire from BOC, or the initial outlay for larger ownership bottles, it works out pretty favourable.

[Max]

I have a 3.5kg fire extinguisher I could sell, I was going to convert it for a mate but they bought a bottle. Conversion/test/fill are about $100 at the places mentioned in this thread?