Kegging

[Mike Neilson]

Looking at doing a keg set up, Is it cheaper and easyer to go with the brew craft setup or designing your own set up, and getting the bits from the likes of Craft brewer, etc?
Whats your thoughts?

[vdog]

Cheers guys. When I got the bottle refilled I took my reg in and hooked it up and the guy did a leak test, which showed one between the first gauge and the second, so I've taken that apart, added extra thread tape and put it back together. Did the spray test on that join and got nothing, so presumed it was sorted. Maybe there's another one we didn't pick up. I think I'll now do two things:
1. Take the whole bloody thing apart, re-threadtape it, put it back together, then leak test again
2. Take the gas bottle out of the fridge for a night and let it warm up, and see whether that brings the pressure back up to roughly where it was before. That'll just help satisfy me re: the temp/pressure relationship.

[Haish]

Try using a liquid thread sealant instead of thread tape, its a lot easier to get an airtight seal. I used loctite 554 when I had to replace the hp gauge on my reg.

[vdog]

Would that mean I could never take it apart again though? Not that I especially want to, but if for any reason I've still got a leak, or if I wanted to add another secondary reg to it for three pressures, it'd piss me off if I couldn't get it apart to do that.

[Nick T]

loctite comes in more than one grade of 'stickyness' - don't use the 'permanent' grade, go for one of the 'medium strength' ones.

[denimglen]

Have a look around and see if you can get a 'rebuild' kit for your regulator, I forgot the what they actually call them but it's just a bunch of seals/o-rings and stuff.

[MrC]

vdog - The pressure gauge drops quite dramatically when you put the gas bottle in the fridge. It doesn't mean that you have a leak, it's a just a change in pressure due to the temp. Focus on looking for leaks.

I had the same problem last week and lost an almost full bottle of CO2 due to a small leak on one of the MFL fittings that I had checked sveral times but seemed to start leaking after moving kegs around. I check all of connections using water with dishwashing liquid and a paintbrush and look for the bubbles (just like the guys that fill the BBQ bottles for you). Make sure you check every connection, even the connections between the bottle and the reg and the guages too.

If you have a leak you should be able to find it.

[Haish]

The pressure gauge on a reg is not a reliable indicator of the amount of CO2 in your bottle. There are both liquid and gas CO2 in equilibrium inside the bottle, with a decrease in temperature you will have more liquid and less gas so will see a drop in pressure at the reg. As you draw CO2 through the reg, to carbonate or dispense, the liquid turns to gas inside the bottle to maintain equilibrium.

Starsan in a spray bottle is also great for detecting leaks, and sanitizing at the same time. I found a pinhole leak under the o-ring on one of my keg posts while sanitizing, no way I would have detected it otherwise the leak would have been too slow. As Mr C says, check every gas connection and point where gas could escape with some solution that will bubble.

Good luck finding it!

[Reviled]

Ive avoided leak testing my kegs cos I cant afford to replace all the seals and poppets lol

[denimglen]

Test them bro, a couple of replacement o-rings or tightening your clamps will work out cheaper than all the CO2 you could loose.

[Reviled]

I dont loose any CO2 cos I dont have my kegs under constant serving pressure, I just top them up when needed...

[Dale]

I'm same as you Reviled have just started only turning CO2 on every so often to make sure I'm still upto pressure. Weird thing is taps are now pouring 100 times better with way less foam...I couldn't work that one out.

[Reviled]

Nah only have to turn the bottle on every 4 or so beers, the keg normally holds enough pressure to dispense a few, then I just connect the QD, turn the gas on, then disconnect and keep drinking...

And as Dale says, I never, ever get foaming issues, low carb, sometimes minimal carb to the point where people say it tastes like water, but I have come to like it that way ;o)