Updating an old Air-compressor tap system

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Geoffington

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Columbus, OH
At the restaurant where I work, the ownership and management is very conservative to say the least. They still have an air compressor based tap system that probably dates back to the 70s. This results in all the expected problems of spoilage and the like.
The problem is, I know what it would cost to build my own 3 tap system (that's all we have) from scratch, what I don't know for sure is what would be involved in upgrading an old one. I want to be able to give the owner a quote and explain to him how it would save him money.
The set up consists of the kegs and a single pressure gauge residing in a walk-in cooler that is used for food storage as well. This one reads 20 psi. The beer lines go from there up to the taps upstairs directly above. The lines are not cooled, but I am not worried about upgrading that. Baby steps.
The air compressor is in an adjacent room, not in the cooler, and the gauge on that reads 40 psi. I believe it goes fairly directly to the other gauge, but I cannot be sure, since it disappears up into the ceiling. If this needs more info let me know. I'll try to get it from the guy who cleans our lines.

I'm basically wondering, just to switch to CO2 would it be as simple as I suspect, merely getting the tanks, maybe another pressure gauge, and hooking them up? Is there more to it than that? I understand proper pressure calculations would have to be done depending on the length of tubing, but is there no additional equipment?
Would this come in under $200 as I suspect?
 
If I am understanding you correctly, it would be as simple as removing the compressor and adding your new Co2 pressure source and a Co2 regulator. I cannot begin to guess what pressure to use to push the beer, but if the compressor is pushing out 40 psi then I would start there. The price may depend on what the cost of bulk Co2 storage tanks are going for in your area, so I would call around and ask for prices as they will likely want to setup an account with your restaurant. In Ohio in the Cincinnati area we have a few local restaurant supply stores that deal in "beverage gasses" but welding supply shops may be another good place to look at as well. Good luck!
 
Do the main BMC distributors, as an industry, typically take care of CO2 or is it a separate supplier? Right now our CO2 tanks and gas for soda is supplied by Coca-cola.
 
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