Keg not holding pressure, or so it seems

I set the regulator on 17psi when I left the house. I came back and it's now on 15psi. Can someone explain this? I don't know a ton about kegging so any help would be great.

Check all your seals. You can expect some drop in pressure, but not that sudden. Mix up a solution of water and dishsoap. Spread it on all your seams. Crank up the CO2 and if you see bubbles, you've got a leak.

Check your pins, your regulator, all of the hose connections, around the lid of the keg, etc.

My main problem was always the CO2 gauge. I had a really hard time getting it tightly fit into the tank. Put a little plumbers tape on it and cranked on it with a wrench real good.....problem solved.

People also dunk their lines, hoses, even regulators under water. YMMV (and I personally won't put my regulator under water), but if it's bubbling up anywhere--easy to spot the leak.

grab a spray bottle with sanitized water and spray around possible leak points

yah...what they said

Ugh, I simply cannot find a leak....Argh!!

If you have the regulator set at a certain pressure and the gauge drops after a while then you have several possibles.
1. out of gas, regulators maintain pressure with adequate gas flow.
2. poor quality gauge, (most likely problem) Even though the gauge will read in 1 lb increments, slow drops or rises are not recorded very well.
3. poor regulator, cant maintain a precise pressure resulting in readings that are a few lbs off.
4. any combination of the above.
Since a regulator is designed to maintain a set pressure, a leak will not cause a lack of pressure until the tank is empty and cant deliver the required pressure.
A couple lbs is not that much to worry about. It happens to me but after a couple days of fine tuning the pressure it normally stabilizes. RDWHAHB

Well I check for leaks, and unless it's in the thing that connects to the keg, then I'm lost. I'll set it at 17 tonight and I'll let you know where I stand come morning.

I just don't want a leak and find an empty tank. If there was a leak though I would probably hear the tank supplying co2 for it though wouldn't it?

Hang on, did you set the pressure and then turn the gas off? C02 disolves into the beer and the pressure will drop over time if this is the case.

I kept gas on. Beerthirty is prob right about the inaccurate gauges. I do feel though as if my previous tank emptied pre-maturely though.

If beer was soaking in CO2 wouldn't the pressure then drop if gas was on or off?

Parva said:

Hang on, did you set the pressure and then turn the gas off? C02 disolves into the beer and the pressure will drop over time if this is the case.

Click to expand...

This was sort of what I was thinking as well.
Turn on the supply valve on your CO2 tank. Turn the regulator up to desired pressure. One thought here, if you overshoot your desired pressure, turn down your regulator a turn or so. Then pull the ring on the pressure relief valve on the keg. The pressure shown on the gauge will drop to the current setting. Now release the ring and turn the reg up slowly so that you creap up on the set point you want without overshooting.
What you may have done is overshot your pressure. When you turned down the regulator, if you did so without venting the pressure in the keg, the gauge would have falsely read higher than its setpoint. Over time, as the CO2 dissolved into solution, the pressure in the line would drop until it got to the regulator setpoint.

(Disclaimer: If it seems like I am rambling, it is the medication. But my advice is sound.... and makes perfect sense to me. :cross

16psi this morning. I'm going to chalk it up to poor gauges.

The other day it did go from 17 to 12. I must have had a small leak, but I tightened everything up. Now it went from 17 to 16 overnight. I'll attribute that to no leaks and a crappy gauge.

petep1980 said:

I kept gas on. Beerthirty is prob right about the inaccurate gauges. I do feel though as if my previous tank emptied pre-maturely though.

If beer was soaking in CO2 wouldn't the pressure then drop if gas was on or off?

Click to expand...

if i set my reg then put it an the tank in my keezer, I get a 10-20% drop in output pressure as it cools.......... a leak should not cause your pressure to drop if the gas is on, it will cause your tank to empty

I let my reg/tank chill overnight before setting pressures.