Leave CO2 Bottle Open or Closed

I know different types of beer need different levels of pressure, but for the most part do most of you always leave your CO2 bottle open so its has a constant head pressure on your kegs. As long as the keg is sealed correctly it should retain that pressure correct?

The one microbrewer locally suggested to only set the pressure as high as its needed to push the beer out of the tap and when I am done pouring a beer to turn the CO2 bottle off, that kinda seems like a pain to keep turning on/off?

He's a dope....you'll eventually loose carbonation if you do that.

I leave mine on 24 - 7 with 10 - 12 psi.

The only time I turn it off is if we go on vacation, I take the tap handles off, and shut off the gas. The cat goes a bit stupid if we're gone too long.

If you've eliminated all leaks from your system, there is no need to turn the gas off. Leaving it on also maintains carbonation. Mine stays at serving pressure 24/7, about 8psi, and I've had the same 5lb tank in the kegerator for about eight months. Next time I replace the beer lines, I'm going to add a few feet, which should allow me to bump the serving pressure up a bit.

This is very timely for me since I just racked to a keg for the first time. I am trying to force carbonate so I got the required pressure in the keg. I unhooked my entire set up to the keg. I checked for leaks on the keg and it seems good. I figured why stay hooked up if you have a good seal. Is this wrong?? I did find a small leak in one of the hoses so I figured even more reason to d/c them from the keg once it was pressurized.

With my four tap system I always seem to spring a leak somewhere. Post on the kegs, the screw on C02 adaptor getting loose, Seals on the post. I went through around 3 5lb bottles. Now I threw on a 20lb bottle, set it to 13lbs and open/close the manifold controls to each keg.
It is a pain at times, but I can catch a leak very quickly by listening to the push on the gas.
Some day I may trust the system enough to leave it on all the time again, but refilling tanks is a pain, and at $25 each it kind of sucks. "Thats a batch of beer".

I leave mine on at 12 psi I just checked all the lines for leaks didn't find any. I just went to 10 ft lines and now the beer serves perfect every pour, I had 5 footers and was getting a lot of foam .

I'd suggest leak-checking your entire system first. Just get some sanitizer in a spray bottle and wet every joint, you'll hear/see it bubbling if its leaking.

You really want to be able to leave the serving pressure on the cylinders at all times.