"Class 3" Ball-Lock Kegs

Beverage Elements (http://www.bvrgelements.com/keg_products.html#ck1n5) has 4pks of "Class 3 Cut Handle" ball locks for $72.95 + S&H. They advertise that these kegs have more scratches and dents, but are pressure checked.

My questions:

1) Has anyone ever ordered one (or more) of these kegs from BE? If so, please share your experience.

2) Are "Class 3" and "Cut Handle" industry or generally-recognized terms, and if so, what should be assumed when something is advertised as such?

I've never ordered from BE, so can't comment on that one. But I don't think the classing system is any kind of industry standard, it varies from vendor to vendor. If they hold pressure and liquid and you don't mind the missing handle, probably not a bad deal.

I don't believe there is any such paradigm as Corny keg "Classes". I think that's an invention of that particular dealer.

And that "Cut Handle" is clearly the result of half the top rubber tearing off the keg. Someone may have trimmed the tear to clean it up, but that's it.

Cheers

God, BE kills me. They are literally 20 minutes away from me, yet won't let me pick up...instead I'd have to pay $40 in shipping for the 4-pack to travel from BE, to the Fedex sort site, to my door....when I could drive to BE in 20 min.

Sigh.

$73 + $40 = $113 = $29/keg. Not a wonderful deal for crappy beat up kegs. My local store has them for $30-$35 in pretty decent shape. I'll pay the extra $5/keg and get nicer ones and give my business locally!

I just bought 4 of the single handle ball lock kegs from them 2 weeks ago. They have a few dents at the top due to the lack of rubber top but are otherwise in really good shape. They came clean and hold pressure fine. I payed $91 plus $37 for shipping to Ohio. All told, 128 is for 4 ball locks was the best deal I could find anywhere. I'd do it again for sure.

Thanks for the responses... I can't find ball-locks cheaper than $50 locally (with tax), so even $120 with shipping from BE is a 40% discount off what I'd pay at the LHBS. As long as the things hold pressure, I could care less what they look like.

mvanwie said:

Thanks for the responses... I can't find ball-locks cheaper than $50 locally (with tax), so even $120 with shipping from BE is a 40% discount off what I'd pay at the LHBS. As long as the things hold pressure, I could care less what they look like.

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Well...Considering how heavy a full Corny is, I'd be a bit leery of buying one with half the rubber top torn off. Might be indicative of failing cement or an outright defective build, and now that you only have the remaining handle to pick the keg up, that other half might just fail at the most inopportune moment. I'd at least go for their "Class 2" keg (<== jeeze, it actually hurt to type that

Cheers!

The plastic handle on their single handle ball locks is very sturdy, which is why I went with them for a couple bucks more. I'd be worried about the cut rubber ones ripping off when carrying the keg.

I cut one handle off a few of my kegs because of a kegerator I was using at the time. Due to the hump in the top/back, I needed one handle removed to fit 3 cornies in the kegerator. It's not a big deal on the missing handle. There are actually several corny models that only come with one handle.

I bought two of these a year ago and have had no problems with them. I just ordered two more sunday morning. They don't always have them available, I've been checking for a while because the local cornies are around $40 each.

buckeye2011 said:

The plastic handle on their single handle ball locks is very sturdy, which is why I went with them for a couple bucks more. I'd be worried about the cut rubber ones ripping off when carrying the keg.

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Exactly what I was saying.

A keg designed with a single welded handle is one thing. A keg designed with a cemented rubber top missing half of it is another...

Cheers!

I rarely lift a full corny as it is... when I empty a keg, I pull it out of the keezer, soak & clean in a Rubbermaid storage tub, place the sanitized keg back into the keezer, purge the O2, and rack from my fermenting mini-fridge which sits to the side of the keezer.

All of my hardware (secondary regs, manifolds, thermostat, circulating fan, etc.) are mounted on the inside of the collar, so there's no way I'm going to be lifting full cornies in and out of the keezer & risk the damage.

The handle thing shouldn't be too much of a bother.

Follow-up: After seeing some of the responses here, I did a bit of research for any vendor I could find online (via simple Google search) retailing used 5gal cornies (I excluded any retailer who wouldn't quote shipping without creating an account, any retailer selling tanks "as-is" or non-tested tanks, and any that were over $70 before S&H). I put together a spreadsheet for both pin and ball locks both used and "refurbished" - the latter being more than just including new o-rings in the box - four categories in all. Including shipping, on a per keg basis, the cheapest I found in each category are as follows:

(prices include shipping)
Used Ball Lock (8 stores, avg. $44/keg): Beverage Elements Class 3 4-pk - $28.25/keg
Refurbished Ball Lock (11 stores, avg. $56/keg): Keggle Brewing 4-pk - $45.25/keg (cornykeg.com's 4-pk of converted pin to balls is $35.50/keg)
Used Pin Lock (5 stores - avg. $36/keg): cornykeg.com 4-pk - $27.50/keg
Refurbished Pin Lock (2 stores - avg. $35/keg*): cornykeg.com 4-pk - $31.00/keg

On a side note, I also came across two liquidators that sell ball locks in qty's of 1000; not Chi Company (apparently the west coast is barren when it comes to ball lock cornies)... one liquidator was in Ohio and one in Florida IIRC. Not sure how up to date their websites are nor if this has even been considered here previously (I'm only a casual observer on HBT), but considering that Flomaster had enough requests for his bulk order in just one hour back in January, I'm curious as to whether there would be enough interest in a group buy of 1000 to justify looking into the logistical issues.

Start a thread. I'd be in for two or three. I guess it couldn't hurt and you'd be a legend for organizing a bulk buy of that magnitude.

Lost said:

Start a thread. I'd be in for two or three. I guess it couldn't hurt and you'd be a legend for organizing a bulk buy of that magnitude.

Click to expand...

Man, just thinking of the logistics of dealing with 1000 Cornies...from accepting delivery (how many trucks would it take - and where do you put all those kegs??) to managing orders from this motley crew (herding cats comes to mind) to dealing with a myriad of delivery systems...

"Legend" would be an understatement...if he didn't lose his mind along the way...

Cheers!

Well, I think he'd be entitled to some compensation for his efforts. Even at a modest $1 a keg (buyer pays shipping) that's a pretty good profit. It would depend, of course, on just how cheap the per keg price would be vs. the current market price on single cornies...

I think it's worth looking into. If mvanwie doesn't do it, maybe I might.

I'd be down for a group buy depending on how good of a deal it is.