keg help

can anyone give me a real reason to go ball lock or pin lock for corny kegs. i am leaning towards ball lock.

going to order from kegcowboy or kegconnection, but need to get the conversion kit also so as most im sure i have to make the crucial decision one way or the other.

Footprint. If your fridge can store 6 ball locks vs 5 pin locks, I'd go that route. If the footprint results in the same number of kegs, I'd go for the cheaper set-up.

MC

interesting, i never considered that as a point of debate. i only figured on having 1 or two in there.

im really quite lost on this whole kegging thing.

Look at your suppliers, and find out how many have ball-lock vs pin-lock kegs available. think about whether or not you might want to buy some more in 5-10 years. Ask them which they expect to be more available.

Ball-lock seem to be far more prevalent in the suppliers that I've seen.

Also: You can take apart a ball lock keg with a standard deep-well socket. You need special tools for pin-lock.

Another plus for ball lock is the manual pressure relief built into the lid, much easier when venting.

-d

I recently bought 2 ball locks for my freshly converted mini fridge. I got ball locks bc I happened to find them cheaper but if I had gotten pin locks I wouldn't have been able to fit 2 in the kegerator due to the slightly larger diameter (without a little more modification)

So I'd say check to see what will fit in your set up, taller skinnier ball lock or shorter fatter pin lock.

I usually buy my keg stuff off of cornykeg.com. I couldn't find cheaper kegs anywhere else. I bought their converted ball lock kegs but looking back I wish I had bought pin lock. Most people say there is no difference between them and I've found that pin lock are much cheaper. Another plus is that you can convert a pin lock to a ball lock if you feel ball lock is better but I'm not sure if you can convert a ball lock to a pin lock

Honestly the whole ball lock easier to vent is BS! It's not big deal to press down on the gas poppet of a pin lock keg to vent it. It all really comes down to number/ size and price. For my keezer the size didn't matter I was going to get 5 plus 20# co2 no matter which so it came down to price. Pin locks seem to run about $10 cheaper per keg.

My vote is for ball lock. The pin lock kegs have post that have little pegs that break easily and you cause you to go buy new post every so often.

BrewingRugger said:

My vote is for ball lock. The pin lock kegs have post that have little pegs that break easily and you cause you to go buy new post every so often.

Click to expand...

Where on earth are you getting this info? I've attached vise-grip pliers to pin lock fittings to remove them, and I have yet to even BEND one.

MC

I got both. Ball lock for soda and pin for homebrew. I found when I went from soda to beer (in the same keg) I needed to change everything or scrub like heck. I also found it was easier to visually ID who is drinking what (damn kids).

as for the pins on the pin lock and the lids, I just picked up a custom socket and a couple extra ball lock lids.

I like the pin lock better because they are usually shorter. The old coke kegs were shorter than their pepsi ball lock counterparts and they fit in my kegerator better. A $4 piece of plastic can be bought as a pressure relief tool on most kegging suppliers that sell pin lock kegs. Also, a specialized socket for removing the pin locks can also be purchased cheaply and they work great. I guess I'm a pin lock guy. But to be fair, it's all I've ever had.

Haven't done kegging yet (trying to find a SWMBO approved fridge as we speak), but from years of dealing with Coke and Pepsi fountain machines, I am going with Pin Lock, for the simple reason if you get the hoses mixed up it can be a real pain the the rear with ball locks, but you can't put them on the wrong post with pin locks.