Learned an important lesson today.

Some of you may remember my thread about the troubles I was having getting my posts on my kegs. Well, things got fun today. I figured out that problem and others.

I wanted to keg my hefe. Simple enough task, right? Wrong!

I brought the keg to the garage so I could fill it with water an sanitize it. I noticed that the ball-lock wasn't screwed back on. Then came the first obstacle: Find the wrench.

After a half hour of searching, I realized that the wrench was right in the spot where it should be. I kept thinking it was the wrong one. Next obstacle: Tighten the ball-lock.

It wouldn't fit. I tried, but it just didn't fit on the post. So I switched the inlet with the outlet ball-lock. The outlet fit on the post, but now the inlet
wouldn't fit. So then I realized something I had done wrong a while ago - when the kegs arrived, I removed all the ball locks at the same time and dumped them in a cup to sanitize them. Little did I realize that not all ball-locks are the same.

So, an hour goes by and I'm mixing and matching them. Finally I get them all on and then I realize that there IS a BIG difference between inlet ball locks and outlet ball locks. So now I have to go back and keep switching back and forth until each keg has the right inlet and outlet.

UGH!!! I had no clue that these pieces weren't interchangeable.

In all, it took 2 hours to get everything together correctly. I'll never make that mistake again!

...and thank you for passing on that piece of important information...

That sucks. Thanks for the heads up.

I did the same thing when I first got my kegs. 5 Kegs, one of which was a pin lock. I threw everything in one container of PBW to sit overnight. The next morning was a nightmare when nothing held pressure.

Four months later, switching lids and posts, all but one of my kegs holds pressure. When I have the time and a good hammer, the last one will hold as well.

When I had my four kegs delivered, I made sure I took them apart one at a time and kept track of which were the in and out pieces. Good to know that I need to keep it that way.

I marked my kegs and lids so I know which one goes where but I never did anything with the posts. I only usually break down one at a time so I never had an issue that way but I can see how it would happen. On all but 2 of my kegs the gas post is star shaped(9 point?) and the beverage post is 6 point so that helps.

I do one at a time too. There is a good way to tell in from outs. The In posts have a groove in them. As far as one keg from the next, there are several different styles and a couple manufacturers. Best to keep them together.

What's really annoying is when you swap the tubes. Then you go to tap it & prefab beer farts is all you get.

i'm glad you didn't ruin the threads of the kegs or the posts. i think i remember when you were initially having issues, and you cranked down on them? can't remember if that was you or not. just remember, the posts shouldn't need that much torque in order to seal. you can also get double-seal, or 'h' o-rings that seal with less pressure.

glad you figured it out though!

I had the samething happen years ago, now when I clean more than one ai get plastic cups and number them/kegs and put the parts in them with cleaner/saintizer.

I'm in a similar situation, I only have two kegs and both kegs have the gas in and liquid out posts mixed up. I'll look for the thread that I posted, but apparently the gas in posts have notches in the "nut" part of the post.


EDIT: here is the thread:https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=17160