Ball Lock Corny Keg-Gas vs. Beer Post

Any sure why to tell the difference between the gas and beer posts on a ball lock keg?

I took my one and only ball lock keg apart awhile back and when re-assembled it, taking a guess on which post belonged on the Gas/In side and which post belonged on the Beer/Out side. I could not remember which post went where but also did not see any obvious differences between the two posts. Now I'm getting close to filling it and want to be sure.

I know the gas post and the beer post are supposed to be different...thanks for any help!

i believe the beer out post will be about 1mm(or less) larger then the gas-in post.

(if you've ever accidentally put the gas-in on the wrong post it's a bit difficult to remove)

Often, the gas post will have nicks in the fitting just below the o-ring.

On all my kegs it is pretty clear what's what. The gas post will visually just look a little different. A notch here, a line there, etc. Something that makes it easy to tell (without having to measure 1mm).


Man I'm slow...

RC0032 said:

Click to expand...

Also, the gas connection on some kegs will be a 12-point fitting; these typically don't have notches, but you can tell by the 12-point (as opposed to the normal six-point) notches. Sorry, no pic handy.

This would have been good to know before I pressed the wrong one on. I did manage to get it off again, but it was surprisingly difficult.

This was the question that first brought me to HBT.... ahhhh single tear

Thanks to everyone for your help! In looking at it again, I did remember that one of the posts had those notches, but I didn't know it the notch was for the gas or the beer. Now I know!

Look at the first "ridge" down from the top of the post.
Gas In post have a small ridge. Liq. out post has larger ridge.
Matt

Get some red or green o-rings and put them on all of your gas posts. Extremely useful in poor light,

I made the same mistake... Now that I've identified the posts... Are the poppets different for each side or are these interchangeable?

The poppets are the same. I use green o rings on the gas side. Green for Gas is very easy to identify and hard to screw up.

JRems said:

The poppets are the same. I use green o rings on the gas side. Green for Gas is very easy to identify and hard to screw up.

Click to expand...

That's good advice. I will order some to avoid my lack of attention. Thanks for the follow up!

Wouldn't universal ball lock posts solve the issue for good?

ShinyBuddha said:

Wouldn't universal ball lock posts solve the issue for good?

Click to expand...

What problem?

A universal post would be a boon for the gas regulator manufacturers to keep up with the steady stream of ruined regulators...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

What problem?

A universal post would be a boon for the gas regulator manufacturers to keep up with the steady stream of ruined regulators...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

So universal posts are bad then because they ruin primary regulators? Just asking as I've never heard this before nor mentioned in the forums. I see them being sold at LHBS and online vendors.

ShinyBuddha said:

So universal posts are bad then because they ruin primary regulators? Just asking as I've never heard this before nor mentioned in the forums. I see them being sold at LHBS and online vendors.

Click to expand...

Universal posts? Or universal poppets? Never heard of the former, but the latter are commonly available.

If you put the gas QD on the Out post of a carbonated keg of beer and didn't have an anti-backflow valve (aka "check valve") in the gas line, the beer is going to shoot right up that gas line and right into the regulator. Bad juju. It's the most likely reason why both pin lock and ball lock kegs were designed so the gas QD can't go on the Out post...

Cheers!

ShinyBuddha said:

Wouldn't universal ball lock posts solve the issue for good?

Click to expand...

Do such beasts exist?

jchawk said:

Do such beasts exist?

Click to expand...

I did some looking around, and no, there is no such thing as a "universal keg post".

There is the concept of "universal" as applied to ball lock kegs: regardless of the manufacturer of QD or post, gas QDs designed to meet the industry standards will fit any gas post, and the liquid QDs will fit any liquid post, even though the posts from one manufacturer to the next may have dissimilar features.

Eg: the plethora of different thread dimensions, post heights, wrenches needed, etc, does not change the requirement that they all accept the standard QDs.

And those QDs are not interchangeable by design...

Cheers!