i have a leak!

I filled my tank yesterday and it was at 600 psi now its at 500 psi which is in the fill gas section. I only got two kegs out of my last tank so there must be a leak. evey connection is tight and i put soapy water on every gas junction and no leaks to found. could my disconnects be on wrong? i also hav to get it to at least 12 psi to serve which i kno is high. im so lost.

is your tank inside or outside the freezer/fridge? if its inside its totally normal, my 10# tank goes from around 900 psi down to like 400 once it goes in the freezer

Agreed if your tank is in the kegerator the gauge is pretty much useless.


Cheers

but y do i hav to set my serving psi so high?

grrtt78 said:

but y do i hav to sey my serving psi so much?

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what?
.....

fixed that

How high??

12-15 psi usually

and how much beer line?

a full, room temp CO2 tank is about 800-900psi, and drops to 500psi or so when dropped to 40 degrees.
but you should get way more than 2 cornies off a 5lb cylinder..way more.

if you're only using 6-8 feet of beer line, 10psi should be plenty to pour a beer. if you barely have a trickle at 15psi, you have a leak. gas always takes the path of least resistance, even a pin hole will have an effect on gas loss.

use soapy water and dribble it around all of your fittings. Bubbles mean a leak. No bubbles no leak! A drop in pressure is normal... especially if your tank is in the fridge.

i would bet money one of your kegs has a small leak, i bought all my kegs off ebay and all where pressure tested, and shipped under pressure, so when i got them first thing i did was bleed off the CO2. well fast forward a few weeks later and my 10# co2 tank is empty after a month and around 2 kegs of beer. and one job of xfering beer from carboy > keg.

so i leak check and double leak check all of my kegs and find my poppits arent sealing completly and one of my check valves leak if you twist it just the wrong way when pulling it. so i stoped being cheap bought some keg lube, rebuilt all but 1 of my kegs (ran out of packings for it) and havent had a problem sense.

another thing i do is shut off the gas going to the kegs when not in constant use. i have 2 lagers that i will open the gas valve ever couple weeks just to make sure they are holding pressure or havent absorbed all the CO2 if i hear the keg fill up then i know the beer absorbed a small amount of CO2 if the keg is flat and has NO pressure it has a leak.

just my experece with kegs from ebay, side note, stuff shrinks when its cold think about jumping in a cold shower, O rings do the same thing when they are cold so purchase some keg lube itll soften those O rings up and you will get a better seal.

oh one more thing are you sealing your kegs after you fill them? i normally place around 30psi just to get the lid seated. then bleed about 10 psi off and let the keg sit with no gas going to it so the beer will absorb the CO2.

I recently started kegging as well, and found this assembly to be useful (All parts from Lowes plumbing section cost about 22 bucks):

1/4 brass Tee
0-100 lb pressure guage (1/4 thread)
ss schrader (tire) stem
1/4 barbed hose connector
1/4 x 1/8 brass adapter
2-3 inches of 1/4 hose
(the guage and tire stem are by the well pumps)

Assemble this together with plumbing tape and attach to a gas in QD.

-After tearing down and reassambling a keg, I'll use the tire stem to pressureize from my compressor or bike pump (instead of CO2). Let it sit for a few days and make sure it is holding pressure.
-I can also check the serving kegs pressure (vs the regulator's out pressure).
-Finally, I have pin lock kegs-without the pull pressure relief valves, so I can let pressure out with the tire stem.

grrtt78 said:

I filled my tank yesterday and it was at 600 psi now its at 500 psi which is in the fill gas section. I only got two kegs out of my last tank so there must be a leak. evey connection is tight and i put soapy water on every gas junction and no leaks to found. could my disconnects be on wrong? i also hav to get it to at least 12 psi to serve which i kno is high. im so lost.

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Do a search. Your CO2 tank's high pressure gauge is useless. Why? Bottled CO2 is stored in a liquid state and evaporates to fill the empty space above it at a pressure equivalent to the vapor pressure of CO2 at the temperature inside the bottle. In layman's terms; the HP gauge will *always* read 800-1000psi when warm and 4-600 when cold. Even if your tank only has one tsp of CO2, it will read 4-600 until that tsp is gone. Then it will go from 400 to < 100 in about 24 hours. This is also why propane tanks on grills/RV's/etc do not come with pressure gauges to determine their fill level.

You said you only got 2 kegs from your last tank. What told you that it was empty? No gas, or low pressure reading? If it was the gauge, you probably filled a full tank. If it was no gas, you need to keep looking for a leak. It could be that your gas line has become old and gas permeable. That happened to me....

i filled it bc it would not push beer nemore