Burned through the tank

Hi. New to legging and I finally got a beer carbed right and the tank ran out. I have a 5#. I didn't get thru one 5 gal keg with it. Now I only drink on the weekends and I kept the valve on all the time. I thought I had to do this to keep it carbed, once I got it where I wanted it. Is that not the case? I assumed that if I had it set to 12 psi and it was at 12 psi in the keg then the tank wouldnt empty because everything is at equilibrium. Is it ok to turn the valve off Monday to Thursday? If I did, would I have to carb the beer back up again?
Thanks for any help!

You have a leak in your system somewhere that you need to find. A 5 pound tank will last you a dozen kegs or more if you're not leaking gas.

Hard to understand what you are saying, but if you went through 5 pounds of CO2 on one 5 gallon keg, it is pretty likely that you are leaking CO2. It will last WAY longer than that. There is nothing wrong with leaving the gas valve open into a keg, as long as there is no leak. Use some StarSan in a spray bottle and search for leaks if you can't hear any.

Well like Blackbear and Andrew said, you have a leak.
You need to take everything apart from the regulator to the keg connector and replace the nylon gasket on the regulator, put Teflon tape on the threaded connections, make sure the hose is all the way onto the barb and clamps are tight.
Next, you might need to spend about $5 or $6 for a new gasket set for the keg. Make sure that there is no dings around the lid to the keg either.

As for the beer in the keg, you do not need to keep a live CO2 line on it. After you have the beer ready and the keg is pressurized, there is nowhere for the gas to go. It will stay in the beer.

I forget to turn my valve off on my kegs all the time. I drink from the kegorator every day, but I always intend to shut the valve off. Don't always do it. One 5 pound CO2 tank lasts a pretty long time.

After you do all that and fill the tank, hook it up to the keg and put about 30 pounds in it and maybe put some soapy water on everything. Look for bubbles.
Leave the keg pressurized for a while and see if it holds.

Contrary to 45_70sharps, I would only use Teflon tape on tapered threads. Straight threads are usually on fittings that don't seal via the threads, rather, they seal from a ferrule or angled face on the fitting. You don't want to get small bits of Teflon tape hanging around where it is not needed. Check for any nicks in sealing surfaces or small particles in the joints.

Another possible problem is with the valve on the tank. I have had conflicting advice given to me concerning opening the tank. Some people say to just crack open the valve while others recommend opening the valve fully. Some gas valves are meant to seal the valve stem only when fully closed or fully open, so check this with StarSan or soapy water.

only use Teflon tape on tapered threads. Straight threads are usually on fittings that don't seal via the threads, rather, they seal from a ferrule or angled face on the fitting.

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Some gas valves are meant to seal the valve stem only when fully closed or fully open

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+1 to both. using teflon tape on fittings when you should not can actually cause more leaks. you should only use tape on fittings that seal via thread interference (ie. NPT), and never on fittings that seal any other way.


back to the OP- you definately have a leak. follow some of the above recomendations for finding it.

but once you have no more leaks; you can turn the gas off while not in use, but you dont have to. it should have no effect. you should not need to recarb the beer, as long as there are no leaks.

Just to throw in something else, if you put the CO2 tank the fridge the gauge will read pretty low after that first keg but it won't be out. They don't read progressive like one might think. Mine is at 500 PSI and has a lot to go. Then when it's out out it suddenly drops to zero.

If yours is at zero then yes, like everybody else said, it's a leak.

And rather than take everything apart, just locate the leak and fix that.

I have had a leakage problem myself. I purchases a dual picnic tap/regulator system from KegConnection and have lost 2 full CO2 5lb tanks of gas. I have looked and looked and not been able to find the leak. I had a friend come by the other night and also tried to find the leak, but we were unable to. We did see the pressure gauge drop to confirm something was going on. The folks at KegConnection have been great. Todd told me to send back the system and they would replace it and he said he would reimburse me for the almost $12 shipping. Thats great, but I still lost 2 full tanks of gas at almost $50 bucks. So, I feel your pain.

Sheldon

Snoop it out!!! If it's leaking, it's leaking.. I snoop out every connection, fitting, ect.. one time the valve on top of the cylinder it's self was leaking when opened, tightened the nut and it stopped.. some wouldn't even think of snooping there.. if I couldn't fix that leak I would of taken the tank back to the cylinder exchange place I got it from..