Cleaning Keg Lines and Faucets?

How often do you all clean your keg lines and faucets? I've just been running water thru my lines after each keg and suddenly found myself wondering if that is enough.

Thanks

I run a gallon of cleaning solution (let some sit 10 minutes in the lines) followed by a gallon of hot water through after a keg blows. I take the faucet off and disassemble it and rinse it off well.

A follow up question... How would you clean them if they have never been used.

Chris_Dog said:

A follow up question... How would you clean them if they have never been used.

Click to expand...

I do new ones the same way.

If you believe micromatic.com's site, you should clean your lines every 1-2 weeks. I have noticed no problems with cleaning them after every keg, and my kegs tend to stay on tap for around 2 months each.

If the lines are new, they presumably are "clean", ie free of dirt, dust, buildup, etc. Probably even "sanitary", ie free of bacteria. But why take a chance with either? I'd just run some cleaner (and whatever rinsing the cleaning chemical you use stipulates) followed by sanitizer, be it new lines or existing ones.

One wrinkle I've noticed is that for my taps, it wasn't enough to just keg up cleaner or sanitizer and run it through the system. One tap started getting sticky after the second 5 gal keg of beer had been dispensed. So I removed the tap from the shank, dissasembled, soaked the pieces briefly in PBW and rinsed, reassembled and reinstalled, and all was fine.

I run oxyclean and hot water as well as sanitizer through my keg lines every time I switch them out.

I run BLC (beer line cleaner) through my lines and soak the tap and connector after each keg is emptied and rinse with hot water. I just follow the instructions on the container. Works for me.

I am sure this is a dumb question... What is the tool called that is used to tighter/untighten the collar that the faucet goes into on the shank. Where can I find one?

Spanning wrench from micormatic if you have a tower, otherwise a faucet wrench from any of the big 3.