Opinions on Those Miniature CO2 Chargers

I have kegs. I have CO2. I have all the hardware including picnic taps (no kegerator faucets yet). I have everything I need to serve beer from a corny.

What I don't have is a SWMBO who is ready to give over the garage fridge to my "needs" for a kegerator...yet. Oh sure, I can "store" my keg in there...but no holes dammit!

So...how does the forum feel about those small CO2 chargers for dispensing beer. I figure if I can spend $35 or less for some stop-gap solution, I might be able to satisfy my need for a draft without major fridge conversion.

Does anyone have any other solutions for making use of this keg system?

PS - My CO2 is a 20lb Steel tank so there's no "sneaking" it into the fridge behind the milk.

I'm guessing by the lack of response...there are no opinons.

I don't know personally, but if I remember correctly you can use them on kegs that have already been under pressure for a time (read carbonated).

They just force the brew out and you'll need several cartridges for a full keg.

Well if you are just looking for alternate idea's I have a couple that might be cheaper over the long run. At $1 each the 12 gram co2 cartridges seem expensive to me and it takes something like 3 or 5 to discharge a cornie. Although it is cheap to start it would not take long to spend some real money.

A couple of other alternatives would be go with a 5 lb tank they aren't to big or heavy and you could use your current setup. The other more expensive option is go with a 20 oz. paintball gun co2 bottle and fill it from your 20 lb tank. You'd need new regulators and adapters for the 20 oz bottles.

you could also go with a 2.5lb tank. i bought one off craigslist a long time ago for 10 dollars. haha. it has a very small footprint, and in fact, when empty, the regulator is enough torque to cause the tank to fall over. haha.

gnef said:

you could also go with a 2.5lb tank. i bought one off craigslist a long time ago for 10 dollars. haha. it has a very small footprint, and in fact, when empty, the regulator is enough torque to cause the tank to fall over. haha.

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2.5 lbs wow didn't know such an animal existed. Now I want one!

You might almost be better off making some kind of jockey box system to serve your beer. You have everything but the cooler and the way to chill it. Search around on Jockey boxes. You could prolly build one fairly cheap.

I have the little keg chargers and I use them on my travel kegerator--they work great! But it could get expensive depending on how much beer you drink!

http://www.pbase.com/melvinfeng/image/69785790

that's the best picture i could find of my 2.5 lb co2 tank. the tank in front is a 20 cf oxygen tank, so you can tell that the 2.5 is pretty small.

I used one of these before I got my taps set up on the beer fridge. I mostly used it to slam in about 25 psi to seal the kegs, then purge out the air, and hit it again. After a week or so, you can lower the pressure and put a picnic tap on it and drink it like a normal tapped keg. Only diff is after about 6-8 beers it may need a small shot of pressure.