CO2 Tank in Fridge or Not?

I've converted a minifridge into a kegerator with a twin draft tower on top. With the two kegs there's still room for my CO2 tank. Is there any problems with putting it in there? I'm worried the temp change will effect the regulator and create pressure problems. I really do like the clean look of it though.

I leave mine outside. I've heard of people having them freeze when they keep them inside.

It'll be fine to keep it in the fridge, it's what I do.

damrass said:

It'll be fine to keep it in the fridge, it's what I do.

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Good deal.
What do you have your pressure set to?

I have never kept mine anywhere else and have never had a problem. I keep mine at about 5 psi for dispensing.

Cheers

Bytor1100 said:

I leave mine outside. I've heard of people having them freeze when they keep them inside.

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I wouldn't store beer in that fridge. CO2 turns to dry ice at minus 78.5° C (109° F).

I store mine inside 24x7x365 w/o incident.

I leave mine outside for a number of reasons.

• I don't have to open the cooler to check the pressure gauges on the tank. OCD and all that.
• I have room for another corney keg since I have a 20lb CO2 tank.
• I don't have to worry about anything corroding in the regulator because of condensation.

I keep my pressure at 12 PSI with 5 feet of 3/16 beer line and my cooler at 40 degrees F. That makes for a nice pour.

I keep mine outside as well, for reasons already mentioned, especially the extra room inside.

I got a sweet deal on my tank, bought a guys old used equipment, tank was out of cert by 10 years, swapped it for a one year old steel one for $20 exchange. When that emptied I found a place to swap and got a 1 year old aluminum tank for $15 exchange yay! I am going to try to get this one filled since I like the aluminum (no rust rings).

Keeping it inside will just slow the expansion of the liquid in the cylinder to gas, but will not adversely effect you if you are regulating it down to 5-15psi. I deliver (for the company that MMB got his tank at) CO2 to many walk-in refrigerators (50 degrees) at universities and hospitals and they use it too kill rats at about 25psi without a problem.

Despense at the pressure you want your beer to be or else it will either be overcarbonated or go flat.

If you keep it in the keezer, it reads a little lower on the
dial as far as gas remaining than what's really in there. I've
had no other problems but that with it inside

pldoolittle said:

I wouldn't store beer in that fridge. CO2 turns to dry ice at minus 78.5° C (109° F).

I store mine inside 24x7x365 w/o incident.

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You can get freeze over due to endothermic flashing of liquid to gas. If the tank is low enough, and you're pulling enough gas out of the cylinder, you'll get freeze over even at room temperature. If you are in a fridge, you can freeze over easier.

Unless you're pouring pints every 5 minutes when the tank is 1/4th full, you'll be fine.

The alcove underneath my bar only allows room for the minifridge. I would not be able to fit the 5 lb tank along side.

I have it on the hump inside the fridge and have had no problems.

TheFlatline said:

You can get freeze over due to endothermic flashing of liquid to gas. If the tank is low enough, and you're pulling enough gas out of the cylinder, you'll get freeze over even at room temperature. If you are in a fridge, you can freeze over easier.

Unless you're pouring pints every 5 minutes when the tank is 1/4th full, you'll be fine.

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Isn't that how they make dry ice?

i store mine in my mini-fridge, no problems.

your 2nd gauge (reading tank pressure) will drop significantly. after 1 day in the fridge my gauge was in the "time to refill" range. has not dropped since.

DonkeyShoes said:

your 2nd gauge (reading tank pressure) will drop significantly. after 1 day in the fridge my gauge was in the "time to refill" range. has not dropped since.

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Exactly! CO2 is in a liquid/vapor state that has a direct temperature/pressure relationship. The pressure will remain exactly the same, at a given temperature, until all of the liquid has been vaporized. Once only vapor exists, the pressure will drop rapidly. The pressure/temperature relationship can be seen in this PT chart for CO2.



The only downside, other than taking up space, of keeping the CO2 tank in the fridge is that the elastomer that the regulator diaphragms are made of will be slower to react to a change in output pressure when they are cold. For example, if you change the regulator output pressure from 10 psi to 12 psi when the regulator is cold, the pressure may slowly creep past 12 psi after some time has past. Over time, I learned to recognize the amount of overshoot and compensate for it.