Can I Put Male Flair Fittings on This Manifold and Ditch the Barbs?

[Clint Yeastwood]

My old brass cobbled-together manifold is not satisfactory, so I ordered an aluminum manifold. Photo below.

My assumption is that I can unscrew the barbs and put male flair Duotight fittings in their places? Is that right? I want to go manifold >> Duotight >> EVAbarrier >> Duotight >> shank.

My fittings aren't here yet, so I can't check. I want to know what's happening so I'll know whether a return is in order.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

The more I read about this, the more I think a manifold alone is not the answer. I want 5 kegs in one keezer. One keg will be on beer gas with a stout faucet, so I only need 4 CO2 hoses. I believe I'll need two CO2 pressures. One for ales, and one for lagers. I doubt I'll get so fussy that I need four different pressures on the CO2 side.

Maybe a primary regulator on the keg, feeding maximum serving pressure to a manifold. Then two lines from the manifold to lagers and one line to a secondary regulator for ales. Then two lines out of the secondary regulator to the ales.

I see Kegland makes inline regulators, but I read a lot of complaints, so maybe it's best to get one Taprite instead of 4 Keglands.

 

[BAF]

I have my primary regulator set to 40psi so I can carbonate water as well. I have a 20 pound cylinder in the storage room between my bar and where I ferment/condition in the basement, and have both locations plumbed in with their own manifolds. Super convenient.

Anyhow, I use the Kegland inline regulators on everything and haven't had any major issues. What are the complaints you were reading, out of curiosity? I have four of them in my kegerator for my four taps, and I have five of them in my chest-freezer-turned-refrigerator that I use for conditioning/carbonating. I also have other ones floating around for other uses (regulating CO2 in for closed transfers, one permanently living on my beer gun lines, etc).

One or two of them had issues with drifting, but pulling them apart and cleaning/lubing with some keg lube fixed them. They're useful enough that I bought up a handful of the original ones (without the built in pressure gauge) when morebeer had them on clearance for $7 a year or two ago.

 

[camonick]

My assumption is that I can unscrew the barbs and put male flair Duotight fittings in their places? Is that right?

If you are thinking you can unscrew the barbed ends from the 1/4 turn ball valves in your photo, No, that won’t work. You’ll either have to order a manifold that has the correct fittings, or unscrew the entire shutoff and replace it with one with a MFL end.

 

[camonick]

Just using MoreBeer as an example…
Here is what would work better—
https://www.morebeer.com/products/k...3jSYo8qM9aZsYqnrHw_vQZrJcmGFzXeVObAhVUi_Et0CE
Paired with these—
https://www.morebeer.com/products/duotight-pushin-fitting-8-mm-516-14-flare.html

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Thanks for the help. I have a bunch of Duotight stuff coming, but obviously, I got the wrong manifold. This is the information I needed. It seems strange that the vast majority of manifolds being sold now are the old style.

 

[AlexKay]

It depends on the manifold (don't know with the one shown.) Taprite stuff (secondary regulators, mostly) come with thread-locked fittings that will never come out undamaged.

Brewhardware.com is a great source for getting everything EVA/Duo-related, including manifolds and regulators already with flare fittings.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

That's really helpful. Looking at the site now.

I'm starting to get the impression that the plastic hobbyist stuff is kind of a Mickey Mouse approach. Maybe it's better to get a Taprite multi-pressure bank and get it over with instead of struggling with the less expensive products.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

Rather than continue dealing with headaches and hacks, I ordered myself a CM Becker 4-product secondary regulator. It cost a lot, but I don't want to do this three times. I thought about Taprite, but CM Becker has a long warranty, they're serviceable, they have relief valves on the bodies, and the Germans make the parts. If there is one thing I would expect the Germans to get right, it's a beer regulator.

 

[Climb]

Clint - When shopping for a gas manifold with male flare fittings on the ball valves, but sure it includes a check valve with each ball valve. The one camonick linked to says it has a check valves. I have found that some manifolds don't say if they include check valves or not. So I assume they do not. The check valve is needed to prevent Co@/foam or worse case beer from flowing back into your manifold and possible to other kegs or to your secondary regulator. This can happen if a keg is pressurized above the pressure in the manifold. Think over carbonated kegs, warm kegs, etc.
Also think about plumbing the port in the manifold that is on the opposite end as your CO2 input port with another ball/check valve. This line could be used for quick carbing a keg.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

That is a great tip, but I think I'm out of the manifold market now. I hope the secondary regulator solves my problems.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I don't want to beat the subject to death here as I see you are doing a lot of shopping - make sure the secondary regulator you are looking at has check valves too. It's cheap insurance as Climb stated, beer belongs at the tap, in your glass and not in your regulator. It can happen real easy.

 

[wepeeler]

So maybe I'm overthinking this, but I'm looking for reassurance. These style manifolds are good when you want all kegs to be at the same pressure, correct? I'm guessing if you want to carb a certain keg to a certain pressure, say higher than the rest you could turn off the valves to the other kegs?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I don't want to beat the subject to death here as I see you are doing a lot of shopping - make sure the secondary regulator you are looking at has check valves too. It's cheap insurance as Climb stated, beer belongs at the tap, in your glass and not in your regulator. It can happen real easy.

Thanks for looking out for me. I found this: "Features a 1/4" MFL outlet(s) with shutoff and checkvalve (select swivel nut to barb options to customize for your hose size)."

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

It's real easy to get wrapped up in trying to find the best solution and overlook one thing. I've been there many times.

I have these check valves at the end of the CO2 QD's but also at the manifold and the regulators. Maybe overkill but it saves beer being pushed up through the hoses and the regulators.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

So maybe I'm overthinking this, but I'm looking for reassurance. These style manifolds are good when you want all kegs to be at the same pressure, correct? I'm guessing if you want to carb a certain keg to a certain pressure, say higher than the rest you could turn off the valves to the other kegs?

Overthinking or just being cautious, same thing to me.

You are right; CO2 fed to one manifold would split the pressure all the same at each port.