Soda cheater

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david_42

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I drink a lot of fizzy water, in part because of my blood pressure meds. For years, when the keg was empty I would de-gas, open it, refill with water and connect it back up to the CO2. This meant 2 days out of 10, no bubbles! Not to mention the waste of CO2. The soda cheater is the solution. A male hose connector, a check valve, a black cornie connector, lots of hose claps. When the keg is empty, I connect it to the cheater. Water line pressure fills the keg until the pressure balances. CO2 dissolves, more water pours in. By the time the keg in the kegger kicks, the one on the cheater is ready to go. Not completely carbonated & not chilled (much of the year), but close enough.

The check valve is there to prevent CO2 from coming out of the toilet.:eek:

This is in the old garage connected to the washing machine cold tap, so when the hose pops off, the water just runs into the floor drain. The tap is just open a crack, so I didn't have too much of a leak. Plus, the check valve is noisy, so I immediately suspected something was wrong.

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Nice job! If you want to increase the efficiency of this system, chill the keg hooked up to your "cheater," and shake it a little from time to time. CO2 dissolves better in cold water, and agitation will help dissolve it faster.
 
Shaking isn't necessary. It doesn't need to be fast. The keg is generally hooked up for ten days. And since the whole reason for doing this is to pre-charge the keg, waiting until I can chill it puts me back to where I started. I end up with 2.4 volumes dissolved gas (i.e. 100% of the CO2 in the keg), which is about as efficient as it gets.
 
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