Valve Problem, Blockage?

I'm pretty sure I know where to start looking on this, but it's always worth gettting other opinions. Last night, I kicked my IPA keg and swapped it out with a fresh saison keg. I let it chill overnight and went to hook everything up this morning. When I popped on the gas disconnect I didn’t hear the regulator running. I checked to make sure I’d turned the on/off valve on at the spitter and it was on.

I thought maybe the disconnect wasn’t engaging the poppit or one or the other was jammed. I vented and pushed the poppit in with a screwdriver, seemed fine. Attached gas again, nothing, pushed the pin in on the disconnect and held it open, I heard a puff of gas released, but didn’t really hear the regulator running after the gas in the line was released. If I released the pin and pushed it back in a few second later I got another puff of gas, but nothing further from the regulator, same as before. I tried a spare line I had coming off the same three way splitter. Ah ha, I could hear gas flowing through the regulator. I pushed the pin in on that disconnect and, unlike the other disconnect, got a strong puff of CO2 and could hear regulator flowing as long as I kept the pin depressed.

So, essentially, I have some CO2 flowing to that other line, but pressure is really weak. I assume the problem exists somewhere within the gas line, can’t imagine what would be blocking it suddenly in the hose, or at the valve on the splitter. It’s possible the valve is not opening all the way for some reason. If I turn the valve to off it definitely shuts off gas to that line, as I can bleed the hose by pushing in the disconnect pin and it never regains any pressure. So, maybe something is loose in the valve or there is a blockage in the path starting around that splitter valve out to the disconnect. Anyone have any similar issues in the past?

Shooter said:

I'm pretty sure I know where to start looking on this, but it's always worth gettting other opinions.
So, maybe something is loose in the valve or there is a blockage in the path starting around that splitter valve out to the disconnect. Anyone have any similar issues in the past?

Click to expand...

If your shutoff has a check valve it could be install back wards if you had the problem from day one.
If the problem just started swap the valve with a known good one.

ClaudiusB said:

If your shutoff has a check valve it could be install back wards if you had the problem from day one.
If the problem just started swap the valve with a known good one.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it's a new problem. So, something recently went wrong somewhere in the system.

It was a clogged check valve. I suspected on my last keg that I had some back pressure force beer up into the hose. I disassembled the valve and my suspicions were confirmed, obvious evidence that some beer had gotten in there as I suspected. I soaked it for two hours in PBW and the thing works great now. Of course, that sounds much easier than it was, ripping off hose clamps, cutting hose, cutting hand, accidentally opening taps, realizing I'm down to last washer for my regulator/CO2 bottle. Let's just hope I got all the fittings wrapped well enough with teflon and/or tight enough that I don't have any leaks. I tried the spritzing with StarSan trick, but some of the joints weren't too easy to reach or see.