The Carbonater

Has any one used The Carbonater?

Can you hook it up to a ball lock quick disconnect?

I use it to force carb a sample of beer at kegging time. It simply connects to your ball lock gas disconnect. Works fairly well, but mine doesn't hold pressure worth a damn over time.

I found that it doesn't properly fit some of the newer-type soda bottles with the smaller caps.

That's kind of what I figured. I can't get them it to seat all the way on the threads and carbonation seeps out the bottom edge.

I haven't had a problem with it. The main leakage I get is at the top where the o ring is, and I just add a layer of teflon tape to stop that. Since I only make 2 liters or less at a time, I usually don't need to worry about keeping the carbonation because nothing remains after.

Most often, I just use a 12 ounce plastic bottle and carbonate water (or beer, or juice) and don't even consider needing anything to save.

It works great for me! I just stick it on a 2L bottle and hook it up. I love mine.

Mine leaks a fair bit. Quite a few bottles don't fit the threads quite right & the ball lock connector leaks a lot as well.

I got it the next day. So far so good. no leaks, just carbed pop

um... forgive me for not knowing what Im talking about but I have a question. In addition to "the carbonator" what else do i need to force carb. The only thing I'll be doinng is 2L bottles of root beer.

kyleaubu said:

um... forgive me for not knowing what Im talking about but I have a question. In addition to "the carbonator" what else do i need to force carb. The only thing I'll be doinng is 2L bottles of root beer.

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CO2 tank, regulator, gas line & gas quick disconnect (and bottles/screwcaps, of course).

Would one be able to use the carbonater to get up above your desire pressure (maybe 14-15 psi at 38F for beer, then take the cap off, and replace it with a regular PET cap? Does anyone do that? I would think that would keep the carbonation longer than letting pressure leak through the disconnect.

Here's a good image of the items you'd need for a 2 liter carbonation setup.
http://stores.kegconnection.com/Detail.bok?no=247

I do that sometimes, but there's a few tricks to it. Because you lose carbonation when you initially open a bottle. (Like opening a 2 liter, closing it and leaving it, just tends to be flatter the next day)
You either have to overpressurize, so that the carbonation equalizes back to the desired pressure, or chill it down close to freezing so that you lose as little carbonation as possible.
Of course, if your disconnect is leaking, then it'd be better. Mine's not leaking at the moment (knock on wood) so I find leaving the disconnect on to be better than trying to replace it with a cap. I've had 2 x 2liters travel before, one with the carbonator cap and one with the regular cap replaced (at cooler than room temp, but not close to freezing). The carbonator cap had more pressure in it at the end of the trip.

I have a couple of them and they work well for me. No leaks.

kpr121 said:

Would one be able to use the carbonater to get up above your desire pressure (maybe 14-15 psi at 38F for beer, then take the cap off, and replace it with a regular PET cap? Does anyone do that? I would think that would keep the carbonation longer than letting pressure leak through the disconnect.

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Sorry to bump a 2 week old thread... but I'm interested in knowing the answer to this question.

You could. But I'd only do that if there was a leakage problem. If you don't have a leakage problem with the carbonator cap, don't bother using the extra co2.

I was switching one carbonator cap and a regular cap between two 2-liter bottles of beer a few weeks ago. It was a bit of a pain to do since each time I did, I had to repressurize the other bottle otherwise it got a bit flatter than I wanted.

The last time I did this, the beer temperature was around 32F and I had carbonated at 30psi and that worked out fairly well. I just opened it today and it's still carbonated, but I don't think it's still as high as 15.