Why won't my corny keg stay at one psi???

I'm sure this is an old mystery, but I am kegging my second batch and when I set my psi to 9 and walk away, after a while it jumps to almost 50 psi. To be clear about this, I set my psi to 9, then hooked up the corny keg. I assumed by setting the volume first, it would be "set". I had this problem with my first keg and never really figured out wtf was going on. It eventually settled down and held at 9 (after almost a full week), but I never could figure out why.
I have checked for leaks in the CO2 lines and cannot find any (using a spray bottle of starsan) and the keg is secure. Also, the CO2 bottle is in the fridge with the keg.
What the hell am I doing wrong? Is it just a cheap regulator? What am I missing?

I'm not 100% sure but I have read on the forums that the cold temps in the freezer or refrigerator can skew and mess with the reading on the gauges. I hope there is someone with more experience or personal experience of this that can confirm the info. Good luck

Ambient temperature changes can have appreciable affect on the high pressure gauge, but they shouldn't have any affect on the regulator and low pressure gauge, aside from perhaps reacting slower at cold temperatures (affects the diaphragm, I suspect).

Unless one has overcharged a keg, "creeping" regulator readings can result from debris in the regulator valve seat. Might be worth giving the reg a good blow-out to see if it will behave...

Cheers!

I'm not sure what you mean by overcharging a keg. I forgot about blowing out the regulator. I guess I didn't feel it was necessary since it is brand stinkin new.

Jon73 said:

I'm not sure what you mean by overcharging a keg. I forgot about blowing out the regulator. I guess I didn't feel it was necessary since it is brand stinkin new.

Click to expand...

If you don't have a check valve between keg and regulator, and you over-pressure a keg, that keg pressure will back-feed the regulator, such that if you dial down the regulator the low pressure gauge will read the higher pressure provided by the keg. This can confuse the novice (and we read about it all the time here).

As for blowing out the reg: folks buy brand new regs that are laden with machining debris that gets into the valve and causes exactly that "creep" syndrome. One person posted a pic of his new reg and the inside was caked with brass bits...

Cheers!

Okay. Off to get a check valve. Although if anyone has any suggestions on a decent regulator, I'd like to know. I feel as though mine is a fairly cheap model and wouldn't mind spending the money on a decent one. I got mine for xmas, so I don't know much about it.