Two CO2 Bottles Now Empty Due to CO2 Leak

I've now had two CO2 bottles leak out and I can't find where the damn leak is coming from. I silicone my keg seals so that's unlikely. I do have a splitter in my CO2 line so I can use one bottle for two kegs. I have clamps on each end of the splitter screwed down as tight as possible but I'm wondering if CO2 is still getting out of there? I haven't yet, but I'm thinking of putting some silicone around the ends of the hoses that end at the splitter. I don't know if most people do this...I just never have. Is there a way to detect where a leak is coming from?

First of all, have you tried to check for leaks by pouring a soapy solution over all the fittings? Bubbles will identify a leak.

Second, are you using food-grade silicone?

I would use dish soap and water, foam it up and apply a little foam to each joint. It'll bubble immediately if there is any leak at all. As a plumber I never crank things too tight, you can damage your sealing point, depending on what type of connection

Also often silicone will cause a rubber seal to actually slip out of where it should be sitting. But im not sure of where u r siliconing exactly

I'm indeed using food grade silicone. This last leak took two weeks for the bottle to empty. Would that slow of a leak show up with soapy water?

BVilleggiante said:

I'm indeed using food grade silicone. This last leak took two weeks for the bottle to empty. Would that slow of a leak show up with soapy water?

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I would certainly try it. Also, when you get your tanks refilled, you could pressurize your kegs and then disconnect the CO2. Next day, check to see if they all still have pressure. If not, the tank might be leaking.

Use the bubbles from the soap water mix and u will find the leak no matter how small it is. That's why any natural gas fitting I do I soap every single joint after, then you know for a fact there isn't even the slightest leak. But never trust the valve on any compressed gas tank to be sealed from factory, even with explosive/flammable gases I have seen the valves have leaks right from gas supplier.

Use a bucket, large tub, bathtub, pool, or whatever you can to submerge all of the components you can. Use soapy water for the rest. If it's taking 2 weeks to empty a tank, it's a very slow leak, and will be very hard to spot. Be patient and take your time looking at every possible connection.

And just because you use silicone lube on the keg o-rings doesn't make them unlikely sources of a leak. You still need good clean mating surfaces, o-rings that are in good condition, and everything properly tightened. Those connections are just as likely to leak as any other place in the system, maybe even more so since they get fiddled with much more than other connections.

jolsen said:

Use the bubbles from the soap water mix and u will find the leak no matter how small it is.

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Not entirely true. I found a leak in a friends system that several very thorough soapy water tests didn't find. After we submerged it in a tub of water we could see a very small bubble come up from one of the connections once every ~2-3 seconds. It was a very slow leak, taking about a month to empty the tank.

Thanks everyone. Got a new bottle of CO2 today and I'm going to try submerging anything I can in water to see if bubbles appear. Anything I can't submerge I'm going to use soap and water on.

CO2 leaks can be a royal pain. I had one that was in the low-pressure gauge. The threads were galled, so I couldn't replace the gauge. Had to buy a new regulator. I keep the old one around for when I need mobility, as a slow leak can be lived with for the length of a picnic.

Don't forget to use the bubbles when u mix it up. Alot of people don't realize that it is alot more accurate if u use the foam. After all a small leak on a gas line can be less than 1/4 of a psi

So...I hooked up my co2 tank today and submerged my lines in water...no leak. I put soapy water on my keg lid and any possible area with clamps on hoses...no bubbles. I tightened everything as best I could but now I'm scratching my head. Would it work if I fill up the lines with co2, disconnect them from the keg and let them sit a couple of days to see if the maintain pressure to try and see if it is indeed in the lines. Who knows if it would even do anything now that I re tightened everything?

How'd it go? I'm having the same issue (2 years later)

I ended up switching away from Soda Kegs to Sanke kegs and haven't had an issue since. I'll never go back to Soda Kegs. To many area's where CO2 can leak out for my liking.

TheOrlandoGuy said:

How'd it go? I'm having the same issue (2 years later)

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