I have been fighting an issue for a couple months now and asked a few people at the LHBS and Brew Club but haven't come up with a good answer. It resulted in a pretty big issue the other day.
Equipment:
10# CO2 tank also have a 20# but I doubt it is a tank issue.
Cornelius Primary regulator with double gauge and cage
Beverage Air BM23C-S Keg fridge with optional 3 tap tower
3x Perlick 525SS Faucets (cleaned 1 per Mo)
Gas Manifold
Each liquid line is about 3-4'
10' and a 3' cobra tap liquid side for 4th keg.
Pressure:
Usually try to have it set around 8-10psi. See more in the issues section on this. Checked for gas leaks and none found.
Environment:
All equipment located on porch. It is insulated and heated out there in the winter so around 60-70 all the time. No AC in there so it does get warmer out there in the summer than the house but hey, this is Minnesota so it isn't like it is that hot out there.
Issue:
1. Intermittent pressure fluctuations seen in the low pressure gauge on the regulator. Doubt it is a gauge issue as I have noticed symptoms of high/low pressure when dispensing beer as well.
2. Faucets seem to have a hard time sealing at times. Beer will fizzle around the faucet and leak out. If I mess around with it I can usually get them to seal. Doesn't do it all the time but once every couple weeks.
The weekend before x-mas we were going over to my parent's house for dinner and celebrating the holidays. I filled a couple growlers to take with. I noticed that I was getting lots of foam. I checked the pressure on the regulator and it was up to 15psi. With my short beer lines this was causing over carbonation. Turned the regulator down to 9 PSI. X-mas day going to In-law's for x-mas. Same deal filling growlers and notice pretty much no flow. Turn to regulator and low pressure PSI is at about 0. I am thinking I might be out of gas but high pressure is fine. Turn regulator back to 9 and I can hear the tank pushing out CO2. Because the pressure was so low now I have all 3 taps leaking beer. Mess around with them for a bit and get them to seal now that they are on pressure. I then go get ready to leave for the party and when I come back out to the kitchen my wife said my beer was making noise out in the porch. I run out there and find that one of the faucets started leaking again. It pushed the remaining 1.5 gallons or so out and it was hissing CO2 now. Beer everywhere. The drain filled up and overflowed dumping beer inside the fridge and it was leaking out on the carpet floor. Yeah, this sucks. We have a carpet shampoo machine so started cleaning. I cleaned up the fridge later when we got back but I haven't hooked up my liquid lines again yet.
So any ideas why I am getting these pressure fluctuations and why I am having so many problems with the Perlicks? Cleaning the faucets does seem to help but doesn't explain the pressure issue. I could order a rebuild kit for the regulator. I also do have a dual pressure regulator that I want to rebuild and another Single Regulator that I use when going to parties. So in the short term I think I will try and swap out the regulator that I am using now as my main one.
Thanks
Equipment:
10# CO2 tank also have a 20# but I doubt it is a tank issue.
Cornelius Primary regulator with double gauge and cage
Beverage Air BM23C-S Keg fridge with optional 3 tap tower
3x Perlick 525SS Faucets (cleaned 1 per Mo)
Gas Manifold
Each liquid line is about 3-4'
10' and a 3' cobra tap liquid side for 4th keg.
Pressure:
Usually try to have it set around 8-10psi. See more in the issues section on this. Checked for gas leaks and none found.
Environment:
All equipment located on porch. It is insulated and heated out there in the winter so around 60-70 all the time. No AC in there so it does get warmer out there in the summer than the house but hey, this is Minnesota so it isn't like it is that hot out there.
Issue:
1. Intermittent pressure fluctuations seen in the low pressure gauge on the regulator. Doubt it is a gauge issue as I have noticed symptoms of high/low pressure when dispensing beer as well.
2. Faucets seem to have a hard time sealing at times. Beer will fizzle around the faucet and leak out. If I mess around with it I can usually get them to seal. Doesn't do it all the time but once every couple weeks.
The weekend before x-mas we were going over to my parent's house for dinner and celebrating the holidays. I filled a couple growlers to take with. I noticed that I was getting lots of foam. I checked the pressure on the regulator and it was up to 15psi. With my short beer lines this was causing over carbonation. Turned the regulator down to 9 PSI. X-mas day going to In-law's for x-mas. Same deal filling growlers and notice pretty much no flow. Turn to regulator and low pressure PSI is at about 0. I am thinking I might be out of gas but high pressure is fine. Turn regulator back to 9 and I can hear the tank pushing out CO2. Because the pressure was so low now I have all 3 taps leaking beer. Mess around with them for a bit and get them to seal now that they are on pressure. I then go get ready to leave for the party and when I come back out to the kitchen my wife said my beer was making noise out in the porch. I run out there and find that one of the faucets started leaking again. It pushed the remaining 1.5 gallons or so out and it was hissing CO2 now. Beer everywhere. The drain filled up and overflowed dumping beer inside the fridge and it was leaking out on the carpet floor. Yeah, this sucks. We have a carpet shampoo machine so started cleaning. I cleaned up the fridge later when we got back but I haven't hooked up my liquid lines again yet.
So any ideas why I am getting these pressure fluctuations and why I am having so many problems with the Perlicks? Cleaning the faucets does seem to help but doesn't explain the pressure issue. I could order a rebuild kit for the regulator. I also do have a dual pressure regulator that I want to rebuild and another Single Regulator that I use when going to parties. So in the short term I think I will try and swap out the regulator that I am using now as my main one.
Thanks
