Keg Pressure

Just recently received my new keg setup from Midwest Supplies. Last night I transferred my brown ale into the keg and as per their instructions - set the regulator at 40 psi. Now an hour later I went down to the basement and noticed that the regulator was down to about 33 psi. This doesn't seem right to me. If I set it at 40, then shouldn't it stay at 40? Isn't that the point?

BTW - I sure can get used to kegging instead of bottling, aside from the cleaning and sanitizing - it was a matter of minutes to transfer and pressurize.

A new regulator can be a little finicky at first until the parts settle in. They can also react to temp changes a bit. You have it set at 40psi at what temp?

This happened to me as well. Brand new keg setup from Midwest and everything. I set the pressure to 40, threw the keg and CO2 bottle in the fridge and the next day, not only was the pressure reading low for the keg, but the bottle had dropped from 800 to 600! I was thinking I had a leak.

But no...

I set all my pressures on a warm keg and a warm CO2 bottle and then put it in the fridge. Where it is cold. Where gas changes volume... After resetting on the cold system, everything was fine.

I wonder if you are experiencing the same thing?

The temp is 65 degrees. I wanted to put it in my fridge but realized that it wouldn't fit in there without a big pain in the you know where. Work that I had intended to do tonight. I went home for lunch today and it was at 23 psi. Hopefully things will just settle in as Bobby mentioned.

Bobby_M said:

A new regulator can be a little finicky at first until the parts settle in. They can also react to temp changes a bit. You have it set at 40psi at what temp?

Click to expand...

so true. I've owned 3 CO2 regulators for various purposes, and they all 'break in' in a little. I think its the spring tension on the valve inside the regulator assembly just has to work the 'play' out of itself, then it'll stay set.