Extreme co2 pressure loss problems. HELP!

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tylo_k2008

tylo_k2008

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Hey Guys hoping someone can give me some advice.

Right now I have a 5lb co2 tank. With a main regulator on the co2 tank and a 4 tap secondary regulator. Right now I only have two taps up and running. One tap set to 12 psi (Kiltlifter beer) which is a 1/6th keg and the other at 40 psi for soda (corny keg).

I had both taps completely working fine, didnt notice any loss of pressure for the whole first week - week and a half, I had them set up. The co2 tank was just filled prior to pressurizing the two kegs. Went to Sadona, AZ Saturday morning for vacation. Pressure was fine and still perfect prior to leaving. When I arrived back Sunday afternoon the main regulator as well as the two guages I was using on the secondary regulator were all the way down to 10psi and the co2 tank was just about empty.

I just refilled the co2 tank today, but I wanted to get input before hooking it all back up again. Im thinking I had to have a leak as no one was home to mess with the pressure otherwise it should have stayed where I left it and the co2 tank would still be near filled. All my hoses have hose clamps, and I didn't hear any co2 escaping prior to all this. So where do I start? Is this normal? Any advice... Thanks! :tank:
 
mix some dish soap and water and apply it to all you connections with the CO2 turned on (with a brush or rag or spray bottle) and all the parts connected.
If there is a leak somewhere you should see it bubble.

Don't forget the gasket from the CO2 bottle to your reg. (its like a flat plastic disk) since you disconnect it the most, it is the most likely to leak.

I have 2 kegs connected and it last months on a 5lb CO2.
 
I had a leak once that drainned my 5lbs tank over a weekend too. I sprayed with soapy water and no leak was found. I disconnected the co2 from my kegs and used my compressor to up the pressure to 90psi. Found a leaky hose. I tightened the clamp and i was good to go.

Small leaks can be hard to find
 
Soapy water or even star san works really good.
Typical leak locations are at the reg-to-bottle connection... it needs to be REALLY tight.
Soapy water will tell you where low pressure leaks are, but high pressure is much harder to find... the high-pressure gas will blow the soap away and not make bubbles. If you can't find it with soap, you may need to submerge the entire deal in water.
 
Thanks. Yeah I know all my hose connectors are really tight. And I also have the gasket for my regulator to co2 tank. Guess I will try the soap test and see what I can find out.
 
tylo_k2008 said:
Thanks. Yeah I know all my hose connectors are really tight. And I also have the gasket for my regulator to co2 tank. Guess I will try the soap test and see what I can find out.
Click to expand...

I'm betting its the bottle to regulator connection. Happened to me once. Then my LHBS sold me the dedicated wrench to put on the regulator. It lets you really tighten it up. Best $3 I spent.
 
So I tried the soap thing. No luck.. What I ended up doing was pressurizing my beer keg and 2 corny kegs (added a 2nd one), then turned the co2 off on the co2 tank. Waited a few hours and my beer keg was still fully pressurized while both corny kegs had lost all pressure. Now I guess I am going to start a battle with the o-rings and see if I can figure it out.
 
tylo_k2008 said:
So I tried the soap thing. No luck.. What I ended up doing was pressurizing my beer keg and 2 corny kegs (added a 2nd one), then turned the co2 off on the co2 tank. Waited a few hours and my beer keg was still fully pressurized while both corny kegs had lost all pressure. Now I guess I am going to start a battle with the o-rings and see if I can figure it out.
Click to expand...

To me, the kegs are the most likely place to see leaks. Some potential sources:
1. The lid, I usually pressurize my keg to 30psi to make sure I have a good seal then purge and pressurize to the PSI I need. Dry/cracked o-rings will cause leaks. Use kep lube and replace when the o-ring starts cracking.
2. Make sure the poppet springs are good, "soft" springs can cause leaks at the poppets. These leaks are usually easy to identify with soapy water, beer, star san. Sometimes my poppets don't reseat well when I pull a QD.
3. Posts. I have a keg that leaks at the post threads even with the post extremely tight. I have to use gas tape to prevent leaks.
4. Warn out post o-rings can leak with QDs attached - replace them if they appear warn out.

Hope this helps.
 
tylo_k2008 said:
Hey Guys hoping someone can give me some advice.
Click to expand...

First identfy where the leak is:

Test Kegs

  1. Charge your kegs with 30 lbs or so of pressure
  2. Disconnect the gas from the kegs

If you have time get a squirt bottle and spray the top of the kegs and look for bubbles and listen for sounds.

If after a day or so it holds pressure, it is not the kegs (yet).

Test gas set up.
  1. Check all the connectors from the cylinder to the gas in connectors make sure they are tight..... Some times normal use will loosen some the "Gas-in" connectors
  2. Check the weigh or gauges of your cylinder... turn on the gas, not connected to the kegs… leave it for a day or so and then check the weigh or the gauge to see if there is a difference.

No difference the gas system is fine.

Connect everything and test as a unit…
 
Found 2 different leaks in the one keg which is where I have been keeping all my focus. Improvement! Had one leak in the co2 diconnect swivel nut and one at the end of my beer line where the hose clamp was. Turns out I didnt have the hose clamp close enough to the end of the hose. From the regulator to the diconnect I have no leaks now. But I am still losing pressure somewhere in the keg and its killing me. Not finding anything with soapy water and cant hear anything leaking. I went ahead and changed out all of the o-rings (when I bought the corny keg it came with 3 different sets of extra o-rings). Still losing pressure. I have the keg pressure for soda set at 40psi. Fully pressurized when I went to work and it dropped 10psi down to 30in about 3 hours. Dont get me wrong that is a huge improvement from what it was before, but I am still losing co2. Any advice on where to go from here? I made soda in it a week ago and the soda line is supposed to arrive tomorrow, and I would like to try this soda already, but need to find this leak before I get too far ahead of myself.


Also I set up the other corny keg again. In the corny keg that I just set up I found I have a leaky poppet in the gas in post. Pretty bad leak when I sprayed it with soapy water, but with the disconnect attached to the post - the pressure remained perfect for the 3 hours. So still keeping my focus on keg 1 for now.
 
If anyone has another route to go from here - please let me know. And thanks for all of yall who has tried helping so far! I don't know if 3psi an hour is considered a bad leak or not as I am new at all thsi, I just know if possible I dont want to waste any co2 I don't have to.
 
tylo_k2008 said:
Found 2 different leaks in the one keg which is where I have been keeping all my focus. Improvement! Had one leak in the co2 diconnect swivel nut and one at the end of my beer line where the hose clamp was. Turns out I didnt have the hose clamp close enough to the end of the hose. From the regulator to the diconnect I have no leaks now. But I am still losing pressure somewhere in the keg and its killing me. Not finding anything with soapy water and cant hear anything leaking. I went ahead and changed out all of the o-rings (when I bought the corny keg it came with 3 different sets of extra o-rings). Still losing pressure. I have the keg pressure for soda set at 40psi. Fully pressurized when I went to work and it dropped 10psi down to 30in about 3 hours. Dont get me wrong that is a huge improvement from what it was before, but I am still losing co2. Any advice on where to go from here? I made soda in it a week ago and the soda line is supposed to arrive tomorrow, and I would like to try this soda already, but need to find this leak before I get too far ahead of myself.


Also I set up the other corny keg again. In the corny keg that I just set up I found I have a leaky poppet in the gas in post. Pretty bad leak when I sprayed it with soapy water, but with the disconnect attached to the post - the pressure remained perfect for the 3 hours. So still keeping my focus on keg 1 for now.
Click to expand...

Do you have soda in the keg? If so, then you may not be losing pressure - your soda could just be absorbing the CO2 if its not at equilibrium. The only way to be sure this isn't happening is to fill it to 30psi empty and let it sit then test pressure again.
 
So fill the keg up to 30 psi - then empty the co2 and refill gain to 30 psi? Is that what your recommending?
yes i do have soda in the keg. and i have water in the other keg thats staying at perfect pressure.
 
Sorry, my statement was a little unclear. All I'm suggesting is that when you pressurize a keg filled with liquid (soda, water, beer, etc) then you have a small amount of head space. When you let the keg sit without the gas source the gas in the head space is absorbed into the liquid (effectively reducing the pressure/amount of gas in the head space). This means that the pressure in the keg drops over time naturally - it doesn't necessarily mean that you have a leak. With an empty keg there is no place for the gas to absorb into, so if the pressure drops you're losing gas to a leak.

I seriously recommend getting some heavy duty leak detector. I fiddled around with soapy water/star san and leak detector works 100 times better. You could also try submerging your keg in water to find the leak. Good Luck.
 
tylo_k2008 said:
So fill the keg up to 30 psi - then empty the co2 and refill gain to 30 psi? Is that what your recommending?
yes i do have soda in the keg. and i have water in the other keg thats staying at perfect pressure.
Click to expand...

What he is saying is that the soda may be absorbing some of the pressure as the CO2 goes into solution (i.e., the process that allows force carbonating). He was saying that you will not be able to really test the keg unless it is empty. That way, there is no liquid for the excess pressure to dissolve into.
 
Damn thats not what I wanted to hear since I do have soda in it.. Maybe ill just empty out the water from the keg that is for sure working and try and dump the soda in there, then start messing with the keg again. Thanks alot!
 

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