CO2 separating in lines....help

Sorry to be repetitive, but I've been getting way too much foam out of my tap, and nothing I do seems to makes it better.

My dual tap tower came with 5' lines of 3/16" ID X 7/16" OD tubing. I installed a muffin fan to circulate the air up the tower and was still getting too much foam at about 10 psi.

I was at my LHBS and picked up some 10' foot lines, but they only had 3/16" ID X 5/16" OD tubing. I installed the new lines and now the foam is even worse. I can see the CO2 separating in the lines and turning into large air bubbles.

So what now? Does the extra 1/8" in the thickness of the tubing really insulate the lines that much better? Do I try shortening the lines? Do I buy the thicker tubing? Any Ideas?

No so much insulate, but expand less. Think of beer line as a really tough balloon. The thinner the wall, the easier it will expand under pressure, and in doing so, will allow some CO2 to come out of solution

is it foam everytime , or only on the first pour. You havn't told us how you carbonated the kegs. Did you force, naturally carb, or force with shaking at high psi?

Depending on how you carbonate your beer it may just be over-carbonated.

What temp is it in the fridge and what temp is the beer that comes out? If it is too warm then liquids have a hard time holding onto the co2.

Are you using cobra taps? Some people find that they give you foamy beer (I personally find them to be fine.)

Are your beer lines clear? If not, how can you tell the beer is separating in the line?

You also may want to make sure your regulator is correct. Usually if they are wrong you can tell, but it is possible that it could just be off by a few PSI. A cheap and easy way to test this is get a cheap tire pressure gauge and hook it up to the gas/in side of a fully pressurized corny (empty may be best.)

After you check ALL of this you may want to consider the thicker walled beer lines. But I do not think it will make THAT much a difference.

To answers the questions:

1.) I force carbed at 12psi
2.) excess foam only in first pour
3.) My faucets are Perlicks
4.) Temp in my kegerator is about 38 degrees. I haven't measured the temp of my beer coming out. I'll check that tonight.
5.) The lines are clear and I could see the air-pockets at the top of each coil in my line (since there is 10' I zip-tied it and coiled it)
6.) I haven't checked the accuracy of my regulator, but even if I set it at 5-6psi I get a lot of foam in that first pour, and you can tell it's coming out of the faucet pretty slow.

One thing I tried was uncoiling and straightening out my lines so there is only one big air pocket that gathers by the tap, and one small pocket by the disconnect. That has helped considerably, but I still end up with too much foam.

The other thing I am considering is running my lines inside the 1" hose that I'm using to circulate cold air up the tower. Maybe that constant flow of air will keep the lines colder.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Are the taps staying cold. I notice this as well on my keezer, but only on warm days. I use a PC fan and it greatly helps. When I went o Perlicks it was way less, but I would still keep the 10' lines. WHat kind of beer is it, I notice my wheats foam more.

I would say the taps are "cool" not cold. It's a scotch ale.

I've been messing around with it and I believe that the temperature is pretty uneven throughout my kegerator. It's a cold box style kegerator (pic). I've been moving the thermometer around and it reading different temps. I already have 2 muffin fans installed, one to circulate the cold air out away from the fridge, and one to circulate air up the tower.

So I need to come up with some ways to sustain a more consistent temperature throughout the kegerator. I just took a lot of the left over foam board and cut it to fit on the far side to cut down the amount of air space since I'm only using 2 kegs right now (it could fit 5 kegs with out the extra foam).

I was also thinking about trying to put 1 1/2" PVC pipe in the tower and surround it with that spray foam insulation. Has anyone tried this? Do you think it will help? My other idea would be to put the liquid lines inside the hose that I use to circulate the air up the tower in an effort to keep that cold air around the lines. Any ideas?

Are you using a temp controller, if not then you might want to see if you can move the probe to the box portion. I also notice on mine that placing the fans by the coils works best. What temp differences are u getting from fridge to fridge box.

No temp controller, it was a little out of the budget. I have a cheap digital aquarium thermometer that I've put the probe inside a lunch box cold pack. I had it over by the fridge, but moved it to the other side of the box. That's when I noticed it wasn't holding the same temperature. Hard to say exactly how much of a difference because I've been messing around with adjusting the fridge settings. I would say it's at least 5 degrees. I wish it had a min/max setting to see how much the temp fluctuates inside the box, since the large volume of liquid inside the keg will hold temperature much better than the small amount spread throughout the lines.

My fans are sitting right below the freezer compartment of the fridge.

So to provide an update I tried several things this weekend:
1.) I replaced the cheep-o insulation that came with my tower (which was only like an 1/16" thick), and replaced it with 2 1/8" ID, 3/8" thick, R2.5 closed cell pipe insulation.
2.) I replaced my tower cooling fan setup with a better engineered solution. Initially I just used a cheap tupperware container to connect the fan to the hose, and my hose was a slit cable organization hose that I duct taped closed. I replaced it with a project box setup and dishwasher drainage hose. That made a noticeable difference in the air flow to the tower, and the taps are also colder to the touch.
3.) I added a 2nd full keg to increase the thermal mass and reduce the open air space.

There are still 2 (much smaller) air bubbles by the tap and the disconnect. I now get perfect pours at 5-6 PSI. So my question now is this: if I serve at half the pressure I carbed to, will I slowly lose my CO2 volumes?

If it's only on your first pour it's likely a temp issue. If you changed your cooling system that should help. I would suggest turning up psi to 10-12, At 5-6 your co2 will break out of solution (bubbles in lines) and cause foaming. You sound like your close, hang in there it will be worth all the tweaking!

Hope you get it all set. I'm about to pour my first kegs using my new external tap box and have my fingers crossed.