woodsy
Member
Hey HBT,
These forums have helped me get through countless experiences of worrying if I was doing it right, and now Im reaching out for a little more help.
My kegging system has a slow leak, and for the life of me, I cannot seem to pinpoint and/or fix it.
About 4 months ago I ordered a 2 faucet basic homebrew keg kit from kegconnection with a taprite dual body regulator and 2 ball lock kegs. I got the new 5lb tank filled locally and they said I got about 3.5lbs. I put it all together as per instructions, tightened all points, including the Gas In and Beer Out connections, performed the spray test with starsan on everything, listened for hissing and looked for bubbling, and all seemed well.
Finally I filled a keg up with a nice vanilla coffee porter, let it carb for a week (did an amazing job leaving it alone and not worrying) and went to pour a brew, and the tank read EMPTY.
I tightened the tubing connections to the regulator, some of which were looser that i thought when I set it all up. I thought this might fix it, so I filled up the gas again, hooked it up, and let it sit.
I was able to pull a few gallons of beer from each of the two kegs I had hooked up, but I noticed after about a week back on gas, the dial was dropping. Was this due to temp change? I don't know. I am new to this. One week later (2 weeks back on gas) i come back from a weekend away and I'm out of gas..
Before I fill up for the THIRD TIME having not even completed a keg's worth of drinking, I figured I must have missed something, or had a slow leak, and re-read everything I could on the subject.
-I bought teflon tape, put it everywhere where there was a thread. (MFL couplers to hose, hose to regulator, regulator to tank)
-I got a wrench large enough for the job of tightening the regulator to the tank properly (I had been borrowing one that wasn't as hardcore as I'd like)
I filled up again and tightened down as hard as I felt comfortable, and let it go back to work. I left it alone for a few days, checking the fridge every day to make sure it didn't drop down immediately, in case the timing of when the leak occurs had anything to do with it, and after about a week it was fine.
I left town for two weeks over the holiday, and came back to the needle on the dial just barely above empty, well into the red. Beyond frustrated I leak test my new wort chiller (thanks grandma) and go to sleep. Next morning, (about 3 weeks on gas) it's all out.
I have had various thoughts to which I am unsure of their respective worth or insanity:
1) I have a danby minifridge converted, and below is a photo of how crammed everything is. After the first leak completed, I thought maybe since things were so tight, there may have been some stress on a joint somewhere causing the leak. To combat this, I coiled all of the lines in a way that reduced this as best as I could.
2) My regulator claims that the connection to the cylinder does not require an o-ring, as there is a little built in part... this doesn't seem very effective, as it's nearly flush with the face of the pipe. Would a real o-ring help, or hurt, in this instance?
3) If you're looking to find a leak of the slowest kind, just dunk the damn thing in the bath. Now.. I'm not about to go swimming with my regulator, but.. how much of it do you think I can really submerge? Can the ball lock connectors get totally dunked? What about the joints of the regulator up to the dials? an entire co2 tank?
HBT.. please.. save me from this headache. this sober, sober headache...
-woodsy
These forums have helped me get through countless experiences of worrying if I was doing it right, and now Im reaching out for a little more help.
My kegging system has a slow leak, and for the life of me, I cannot seem to pinpoint and/or fix it.
About 4 months ago I ordered a 2 faucet basic homebrew keg kit from kegconnection with a taprite dual body regulator and 2 ball lock kegs. I got the new 5lb tank filled locally and they said I got about 3.5lbs. I put it all together as per instructions, tightened all points, including the Gas In and Beer Out connections, performed the spray test with starsan on everything, listened for hissing and looked for bubbling, and all seemed well.
Finally I filled a keg up with a nice vanilla coffee porter, let it carb for a week (did an amazing job leaving it alone and not worrying) and went to pour a brew, and the tank read EMPTY.
I tightened the tubing connections to the regulator, some of which were looser that i thought when I set it all up. I thought this might fix it, so I filled up the gas again, hooked it up, and let it sit.
I was able to pull a few gallons of beer from each of the two kegs I had hooked up, but I noticed after about a week back on gas, the dial was dropping. Was this due to temp change? I don't know. I am new to this. One week later (2 weeks back on gas) i come back from a weekend away and I'm out of gas..
Before I fill up for the THIRD TIME having not even completed a keg's worth of drinking, I figured I must have missed something, or had a slow leak, and re-read everything I could on the subject.
-I bought teflon tape, put it everywhere where there was a thread. (MFL couplers to hose, hose to regulator, regulator to tank)
-I got a wrench large enough for the job of tightening the regulator to the tank properly (I had been borrowing one that wasn't as hardcore as I'd like)
I filled up again and tightened down as hard as I felt comfortable, and let it go back to work. I left it alone for a few days, checking the fridge every day to make sure it didn't drop down immediately, in case the timing of when the leak occurs had anything to do with it, and after about a week it was fine.
I left town for two weeks over the holiday, and came back to the needle on the dial just barely above empty, well into the red. Beyond frustrated I leak test my new wort chiller (thanks grandma) and go to sleep. Next morning, (about 3 weeks on gas) it's all out.
I have had various thoughts to which I am unsure of their respective worth or insanity:
1) I have a danby minifridge converted, and below is a photo of how crammed everything is. After the first leak completed, I thought maybe since things were so tight, there may have been some stress on a joint somewhere causing the leak. To combat this, I coiled all of the lines in a way that reduced this as best as I could.
2) My regulator claims that the connection to the cylinder does not require an o-ring, as there is a little built in part... this doesn't seem very effective, as it's nearly flush with the face of the pipe. Would a real o-ring help, or hurt, in this instance?
3) If you're looking to find a leak of the slowest kind, just dunk the damn thing in the bath. Now.. I'm not about to go swimming with my regulator, but.. how much of it do you think I can really submerge? Can the ball lock connectors get totally dunked? What about the joints of the regulator up to the dials? an entire co2 tank?
HBT.. please.. save me from this headache. this sober, sober headache...
-woodsy