Ready To Give Up

5 bottles of co2 have leaked empty in my keezer in the year I have been kegging. The first bottle was an easy fix, had a faulty check valve, found it, replaced it, good to go. Then got a second manifold and regulator, emptied three bottles before I found the faulty check valve on that. Disconnected the second regulator and manifold, now I just have the bottle goign to the regulator, to a 5 way manifold, to the kegs. I had a bottle that was holding well for about 3 weeks, carbed up beer, had a party, had plenty of co2, just fine for 2 1/2 weeks after, checked pressure every couple days as I was still scared of leaks, finally felt comfortable and I go to fill a growler Saturday night, zero pressure again. It had maybe been 4-5 days since I had check on the keezer, I was sick so no drinking. I am dumbfounded, we took every single piece of the kegging setup and submerged it underwater to look for leaks, that is how we found the faulty check valve this time. I don't know how the pressure can stay steady for 3 weeks and then with zero change to the sytem empty out over 4-5 days. What am I missing, what am I doing wrong, I am so tired of this bs.

Have you bothered to check your kegs? I've had pressure relief valves get stuck before and slowly leak CO2 out the top.

nickmv said:

Have you bothered to check your kegs? I've had pressure relief valves get stuck before and slowly leak CO2 out the top.

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I put 40 lbs of pressure in each one and sprayed the hell out of the top with leak detectant spray from HD. Maybe I'll fill up the bathtub and submerge each one this time. I def checked and if they were leaking I couldn't find it. Maybe a pressure relief did get stuck somehow last time I had a beer.

Yeah man I dunno, that really sucks though. Certainly don't give up, but you've def gotta find that leak, otherwise you're throwing money away.

Sorry to hear

I recently had a leak on my kegerator that happened to coincide with swapping out a keg, so I went through 3 CO2 refills screwing around with that keg and all the lines & valves connected to it, before I finally figured out it was a completely unrelated hairline crack that had developed in one of my pipe couplings that was leaking CO2. What finally allowed me to figure it out was not doing submersion or spray tests or anything, but being completely methodical with pressurizing the system, and opening/closing various check valves, connecting/disconnecting parts, etc. in an order that allowed me to trace exactly where in the system the leak was occurring. I went through some similar growing pains when I first got my kegerator up and running...lots of potential places for a leak to spring up. You just have to be methodical about it to track it down.


This last one I should have caught after the first CO2 tank suddenly emptied, but I assumed I knew what the problem was due to the coincidental timing, and ended up wasting a couple of weeks and a couple bottles of CO2.

Indytruks138 said:

I put 40 lbs of pressure in each one and sprayed the hell out of the top with leak detectant spray from HD. Maybe I'll fill up the bathtub and submerge each one this time. I def checked and if they were leaking I couldn't find it. Maybe a pressure relief did get stuck somehow last time I had a beer.

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putting 40psi in a keg doesn't mean it wont leak at 10-15psi.. most times it ends up being the lid oring that wont seal at a low pressure without enough lube.. ive also seen low psi leaks on the diptube and stem orings that leak under the threads.. good luck

edmanster said:

putting 40psi in a keg doesn't mean it wont leak at 10-15psi.. most times it ends up being the lid oring that wont seal at a low pressure without enough lube.. ive also seen low psi leaks on the diptube and stem orings that leak under the threads.. good luck

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This seems counterintuitive to me. If the keg is sealed at 40 psi, then you put 15 psi on it its not going to unseal, anything that leaks at 10-15 should leak at 40 if you first seal the o-ring with the high pressure, right? I don't own keg lube, maybe that should be my next step.

edmanster said:

putting 40psi in a keg doesn't mean it wont leak at 10-15psi.. most times it ends up being the lid oring that wont seal at a low pressure without enough lube.. ive also seen low psi leaks on the diptube and stem orings that leak under the threads.. good luck

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+1. Low pressure sometimes allows a leak, whereas high pressure kinda seals everything up a little better.

Good luck, hope you get it!

Well I am going to get keg lube, and I just purchased a 10-pack of o-ring sets from ebay, so I'll be replacing all o-rings on all my kegs, this setup is going to be air tight by the time I'm done, may take 10 tanks of co2 and a lot of blood and tears, but I will beat this.