5 lb. CO2 bottle question

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Briano

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My first time kegging.I have read that a 5 lb. CO2 bottle can be used on about 15-20, 5 gallon kegs before it gets empty.I put a new bottle on last night,no leaks can be found,I discharghed about 8-10 beers from a 5 gallon keg.The bottle was at about 750-800 psi when full.I did notice it drop about 100 psi after it got cold.My bottle is arround 500 psi noe,I can't see it lasting more than 2-3 kegs at most.How long can I expect a 5 lb. bottle to last.I was at about 10 psi to discharge my beer,is that to high??Where should I be.
 
The pressure drops a lot when it gets cold. Don't worry about it. I keep mine at 12 psi but there is a little trial and error and tweeking depending on your guage. Don't turn it down to that pressure. Instead turn it down and then back up to pressure. Using keg lube on the o-rings, mine lasts for months.
 
Briano said:
My first time kegging.I have read that a 5 lb. CO2 bottle can be used on about 15-20, 5 gallon kegs before it gets empty.I put a new bottle on last night,no leaks can be found,I discharghed about 8-10 beers from a 5 gallon keg.The bottle was at about 750-800 psi when full.I did notice it drop about 100 psi after it got cold.My bottle is arround 500 psi noe,I can't see it lasting more than 2-3 kegs at most.How long can I expect a 5 lb. bottle to last.I was at about 10 psi to discharge my beer,is that to high??Where should I be.

The pressure reading on the high side of the gauge changes with temperature. It drops a lot when you put the bottle in the fridge. It will stay at that new level for months. When the bottle is very near empty it will start dropping a bit everyday.

PS. If you are force carbing your beer you will get more like 5-7 5 gallon kegs per 5 lb bottle. The number you quote is for already carbed (naturally carbed) kegs.
 
I am still on my first fill of my 5# CO2 tank. I've had six beers and one Ginger Ale Soda on tap (over 5 months), and it's still going. I don't bother to read the bottle pressure gauge, it seem wildly inaccurate at 35F.

I was dispensing at 15psi but that seems a bit high for my short (3-4') lines. I just lowered it to 10psi.
 
The gauges are kind of useless inside the kegerator.

I have 2 5# bottles. I use one for pressurizing and the other for serving.

My serving bottle is still going strong after more than a year. I've run about a dozen kegs through it. I keep it at ~10 psi.

The other bottle had to be refilled a few weeks ago. I use it for purging and force carbing. You go through a lot of CO2 that way. If you naturally carb your beers the 5# tank will last a long time.

BTW - last time I filled a CO2 bottle it cost me $9. I just paid $19. What happened? Did CO2 prices spike or something?
 
The gauges are kind of useless at any temperature below 90F.

FTFY.

Below 90F, the high-pressure gauge may as well be a temperature gauge, assuming we're at less than 100% rated fill on the cylinder.

It'll stay very steady at 500 PSI until the last 15% of the tank. I pull mine once it hits about 50-100 PSI. Edit: I'm assuming storage is at 39F.

I just called my local gas dist and here in WA state it's $15.80 +tax for an exchange.

I pay $22 for a 5# refill or $28 for a 20# refill. You can easily see that labor is the bulk of the price.
 
I pay $10 dollars per refill here in SE Indiana. I currently have 4 kegs off my 5lb CO2 and when I force carb the tanks drain really quickly!
 
It'll stay very steady at 500 PSI until the last 15% of the tank. I pull mine once it hits about 50-100 PSI. Edit: I'm assuming storage is at 39F.

The tank weight is the only way to tell how full or empty a CO2 tank is. CO2 is in liquid form inside the tanks, thats why the pressure falls off fast when the tank is empty. A 5lb bottle should be pretty close to 5lbs empty.
 
I see that posted a lot, but its only true until the tank is almost out. At 39F, as I posted above, that's at 14-15% rated fill. See here.

co2pv.gif


15% on a 5# tank is plenty of notice as long as you aren't force carbing in a single 24 hr period.
 
The tank weight is the only way to tell how full or empty a CO2 tank is. CO2 is in liquid form inside the tanks, thats why the pressure falls off fast when the tank is empty. A 5lb bottle should be pretty close to 5lbs empty.

The tare will be stamped into the top of the tank, I just checked mine, it's 7.3#
 
I've been using the same 5 pound cylinder for over 18 months... gotta be close to 8 kegs .
It should last a LONG time. Check your tubing, you prolly have a leak.
 
It costs me $14.66 to fill a 5# tank, or $16.88 to fill a 20# tank... I recently traded in my 5# tank for a 20# tank (which cost about $70 to do at Airgas). Definitely worth the $70 upgrade. I live in the sticks, so it costs me about $15 in fuel to get to the local Airgas. Basically will pay for itself before I have to refill it (4 empties to exchange = $15*4 =$60 in gas to refill the 5# tank 4 times). Abd of course, that doesn't account for the 4 hours of wasted time in the car for the 4 exchanges. Thats almost a whole brew day wasted just to refill! Needless to say, I love my 20# tank :)
 
The guy at Airgas said the CO2 is actually very cheap. Its the hazard fees and set-up costs that are fixed costs (about $11 per tank, regardless of tank size), hence the small difference in price
 
Yup. I just did that too. Except I bought new tanks because my nearest Airgas seemed sketchy. It's a 60-90 minute drive to reill for me, depending on downtown traffic.

I had initially bought 2 5# new aluminum tanks. Surely that would give me enough time to plan a trip down there to coincide with other needs, right? Well, turns out, I was wrong.

Picked up a 6-month-old 20# aluminum tank on CraigsList. I figure once it gets close to empty, I'll swap in a 5# tank and refill the 20# at my convenience. If I empty a 5# tank by the 10th 20# refill or so, oh well, take it with me. Of course by my 10th 20# tank refill, I expect they'll all be out of date and needing hydros anyway.
 
The guy at Airgas said the CO2 is actually very cheap. Its the hazard fees and set-up costs that are fixed costs (about $11 per tank, regardless of tank size), hence the small difference in price

They can produce CO2 on site by burning natural gas. Here, NG is $1.03 per therm, which is dirt cheap for the amount of CO2 it would produce.
 
thadius856 said:
I see that posted a lot, but its only true until the tank is almost out. At 39F, as I posted above, that's at 14-15% rated fill. See here.

15% on a 5# tank is plenty of notice as long as you aren't force carbing in a single 24 hr period.

Good to know I have been saving to up to get keging.
 
My original 5lb tank lasted 4 commercial sixtels and 7 force carbed corny kegs. I forced carb over a 3 day period.
 
I'm brand new to kegging. I have a 5lb tank and decided to try force carbing. I have no idea if I'm doing it right. When I filled my keg, I hit it with 30 psi to purge any air and pulled the release valve three times for short bursts. After that I turned off the gas and put everything in my fridge and let it drop to temperature. This morning I turned on the gas and set it at 10 psi. I figure I'll wait a week and see what happens. Does this series of acts reveal my complete noobishness? Should I be doing something/anything different?
 
Karkinos said:
I'm brand new to kegging. I have a 5lb tank and decided to try force carbing. I have no idea if I'm doing it right. When I filled my keg, I hit it with 30 psi to purge any air and pulled the release valve three times for short bursts. After that I turned off the gas and put everything in my fridge and let it drop to temperature. This morning I turned on the gas and set it at 10 psi. I figure I'll wait a week and see what happens. Does this series of acts reveal my complete noobishness? Should I be doing something/anything different?

Sounds right. No noobishness at all.
 
I'm brand new to kegging. I have a 5lb tank and decided to try force carbing. I have no idea if I'm doing it right. When I filled my keg, I hit it with 30 psi to purge any air and pulled the release valve three times for short bursts. After that I turned off the gas and put everything in my fridge and let it drop to temperature. This morning I turned on the gas and set it at 10 psi. I figure I'll wait a week and see what happens. Does this series of acts reveal my complete noobishness? Should I be doing something/anything different?

Sounds fine, but I'm skeptical you'll get full carbonation in a week at 10 PSI. There's an easier, and quicker way.

Determine the style you're kegging. Then look up the suggested volumes CO2 on TastyBrew's bottle priming calculator. Remembering that number of volumes, pull up the Kegerators.com Force Carbonation chart. Find the row that contains your keezer temperature, then scan horizontally across it until you find that number of volumes. That's your serving pressure in PSI.

Force carbing at 3x serving pressure for 24 hours will get you pretty close and will certainly be drinkable. After 24 hours, lower to serving pressure, burp the headspace, and serve. Don't forget to toss that first half of a glass of trub.

Any small difference between the result and your serving pressure will normalize over the coming week or two as you pour off pints.
 
Thank you Thadius for the links. After reading here and discussing it with my brewing mentor I decided I wanted to force carb to get to drinking faster. So I upped the psi to 30 yesterday and it should be ready tonite. My serving psi is 10, so you were correct to be skeptical of whether I could force-carb at 10 psi in a week. I'm really looking forward to drinking this beer!
 
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