Daisy-chaining Secondary Regulators?

[thadius856]

BLUF: Trying to connect multiple secondary regulators in-line. How?

Looking to upgrade the CO2 system in my keezer. Currently have a dual primary, with one of them feeding a manifold with check valves. Everything is 1/4" MFL, not barbs.

Would like replace the manifold with a bank of secondaries. It's a 10-tapper, so I'd like to go the overkill route and have 10 serving pressures available to me. Yes, I'm aware of the cost.

I'd assume there's a capped off pass-through at the end (just like on my primaries) that I could un-cap and then thread together with a pipe nipple, but I can't see one in the pictures. How do I connect these buggers together, preferably without using T's in-line?

 

[day_trippr]

Was there supposed to be a picture, link, or other hint wrt the specific secondary regulator you're looking at?

Every secondary I've seen (admittedly, all Taprites) have goes-into and comes-outta ports, so you can gang them...

Cheers!

 

[WPStrassburg]

Look at the back of the reg. It should be marked with HI and LOW. Or whatever side the low gauge is threaded is the low port. Normally the hi is either side and low is top and bottom. Just be careful when you convert to secondary regs as most aren't rated for tank pressure. Your combo now is most likely two high pressure regs threaded together and you cannot unthread the second reg and just run that line to your new secondaries since that port will have the full tank pressure on it. you will need to come out the bottom port on your primary to the new secondaries so you are feeding the secondaries with lower pressure.

I'm assuming this is how your reg looks now? High pressure gauge out the end and two connections out the bottoms for serving pressures?

 

[nutty_gnome]

Wow how many chances for a leak are in a 10 tap fully regulated system? Its like 7 per regulator up to and including the shut-off to hose connection for each ... plus one at the tank and at least one at the high pressure end... plus at least 2 at each keg.... yikes!

 

[thadius856]

Wow how many chances for a leak are in a 10 tap fully regulated system? Its like 7 per regulator up to and including the shut-off to hose connection for each ... plus one at the tank and at least one at the high pressure end... plus at least 2 at each keg.... yikes!

Still less chance with the MFL's than using a boat load of barbed T's, like I've seen some builds here do.

Look at the back of the reg. It should be marked with HI and LOW. Or whatever side the low gauge is threaded is the low port. Normally the hi is either side and low is top and bottom. Just be careful when you convert to secondary regs as most aren't rated for tank pressure. Your combo now is most likely two high pressure regs threaded together and you cannot unthread the second reg and just run that line to your new secondaries since that port will have the full tank pressure on it. you will need to come out the bottom port on your primary to the new secondaries so you are feeding the secondaries with lower pressure.

I'm assuming this is how your reg looks now? High pressure gauge out the end and two connections out the bottoms for serving pressures?

You misunderstood my post. I want to run 45 PSI coming out of the first primary low side (blue line) for seating lids and force carbing. I want to run whatever pressure is necessary out of the second primary low side (yellow line) that would feed into the secondary regs. I'd leave the high-side pressure gauge (red line) in place.

 

[thadius856]

Was there supposed to be a picture, link, or other hint wrt the specific secondary regulator you're looking at?

Every secondary I've seen (admittedly, all Taprites) have goes-into and comes-outta ports, so you can gang them...

Cheers!

Wasn't meant to be, but here's some.

See what I mean? Can't tell if there's a cap there that I can remove an replace with a nipple.

If* the Micromatic's are built to industry standards, then perhaps a 4-way is just four identical singles nippled together?

 

[Shockerengr]

the vast majority of regulators i've seen have 1/4" ports on both ends. when used by themselves, the second port sometimes gets a guage added to it, other times a plug is added.

The biggest catch is whether it is right thread or left hand thread. the secondary regulators i've seen are all right hand thread, but i haven't looked at many varieties. If they are RH thread, it's straightforward to remove the plug and then add either a nipple or a hose barb to connect multiples together.

It's not really any different for the LH ones either, other than LH parts are much harder to come by (won't be at the local hardware store)

I run 8 secondaries my kegerator and it works pretty well.

 

[thadius856]

1/4" ports on each end. That sounds pretty easy then, as long as the nipples direction matches the port direction.

The alternative would be to attach a hose between the tank and my dual primary, then add a couple primaries to that. Like so:

Is there any real benefit to having a 10-way primary as opposed to a 10-way secondary?

 

[Shockerengr]

it's easier to seal against 30-40 psi than 600-900 psi for leaks is a big one.

 

[LuiInIdaho]

1/4" ports on each end. That sounds pretty easy then, as long as the nipples direction matches the port direction.

The alternative would be to attach a hose between the tank and my dual primary, then add a couple primaries to that. Like so:

Is there any real benefit to having a 10-way primary as opposed to a 10-way secondary?

I purchased a five-valve secondary from keg works recently. It is a Taprite it has a plug on the far left - when looking at the front - that can be removed to add more valves. The five valve system is fairly heavy and needs to be supported. It has three brackets to attach it to a support system. Because of the weight, I don't think that a primary is possible. Here area couple of pictures front and back.

 

[thadius856]

Pretty Taprite you got there. Matches my dual primary, except gold knobs instead of red. Seems to be how they do theirs.

Now just to source two of those with MFLs, or ten singles, and nipples. Check valves too if they don't come installed.

So I know how much space to reserve in the keezer, about how long is that 5-tapper?

 

[LuiInIdaho]

From the gas barb to the end of the last plug, the entire regulator is 18 3/4 inches long. Also, it did not come with check valves. Most of these are for commercial operations using sanke kegs -- which already have a check valve in the keg. So I had to add the check valves at about $9.00 a piece. They are cheap insurance however. Good luck on finding your regulator(s).

Mark