Been contemplating sharing this story or not. Suppose it's better to share than to wait for somebody else to post about it happening to them.
When kegging, I use an auto-siphon, attached to a 10' length of 1/4" vinyl hose, with a ball lock liquid-side quick disconnect at the other end. This allows me to siphon straight into the bottom of an oxygen-free serving keg. Once they blow, I scrub them with OxiClean and hot water, pump 5 gallons of StarSan through, and seal them empty at 10 psi. Voila, they're ready for the next batch.
I went to keg a Honey Porter. Pulled the split ring on the pressure relief valve, didn't hear any whoosh of gas, and assumed I'd just not gotten a good leak at only 10 psi. I guessed that the CO2 had just slowly leaked out. Shrug. I attached the liquid disconnect just as the proverbial light bulb lit above my head as I made a realization.
That realization was that I hadn't felt the little "tug" of the relief valve opening. It had been stuck with something sticky, and the keg was still pressurized. But it was already too late.
BOOOOOM! For the first few instants, I was stunned. The auto siphon had blown apart. The second law of thermodynamics kicked my ass - the entire 5 gallon volume of CO2 at 10 PSI rushed out of the auto siphon in under a second. The racking cane portion flew up and smashed me in the eye, almost breaking my glasses. The other half flew straight down and cracked itself on the tile floor. I was left holding just vinyl hose.
Lesson learned: when siphoning into a keg, don't trust that the relief valve actually opened. Crack the lid itself open slightly to be sure.
When kegging, I use an auto-siphon, attached to a 10' length of 1/4" vinyl hose, with a ball lock liquid-side quick disconnect at the other end. This allows me to siphon straight into the bottom of an oxygen-free serving keg. Once they blow, I scrub them with OxiClean and hot water, pump 5 gallons of StarSan through, and seal them empty at 10 psi. Voila, they're ready for the next batch.
I went to keg a Honey Porter. Pulled the split ring on the pressure relief valve, didn't hear any whoosh of gas, and assumed I'd just not gotten a good leak at only 10 psi. I guessed that the CO2 had just slowly leaked out. Shrug. I attached the liquid disconnect just as the proverbial light bulb lit above my head as I made a realization.
That realization was that I hadn't felt the little "tug" of the relief valve opening. It had been stuck with something sticky, and the keg was still pressurized. But it was already too late.
BOOOOOM! For the first few instants, I was stunned. The auto siphon had blown apart. The second law of thermodynamics kicked my ass - the entire 5 gallon volume of CO2 at 10 PSI rushed out of the auto siphon in under a second. The racking cane portion flew up and smashed me in the eye, almost breaking my glasses. The other half flew straight down and cracked itself on the tile floor. I was left holding just vinyl hose.
Lesson learned: when siphoning into a keg, don't trust that the relief valve actually opened. Crack the lid itself open slightly to be sure.