Is this a good deal?

There is a local guy selling 2 cornies for $35 bucks on craigslist and I offered $30 and he said ok. Also has a 6.5 gal glass carboy for $15. Sound like a good deal to you? Pics of cornies are clean. Said bought used last year and never used them. Bought new house no time for hobby. What do ya think? Buy?

buy, yes buy them.
I don't know much about cornies but I believe there are two different kinds of valves? one of the elders on this site could tell you more, but you may want to find out which kind they are.

Check them out - pin lock or ball lock?
Ball lock kegs are easier to come by - so if you want to expand later - you may want to hold off if they are pin locks.

If 2 is all you're gonna have room for - then buy them no matter what and make sure you get the right fittings when it comes time to build the rest.

Offer him $40 for all 3 and you are basically getting a free carboy.

hell yes buy them. i guarantee you that you won't be able to find cornies locally for less than $15 a piece. and $15 is also a great price for a glass 6.5 carboy. you'll likely have to do a little refurb work on the cornies (new o-rings, etc.), but that's really easy.

6.5 gallon carboys generally go for $35 used, and thats on the low side. I'd snatch that sucker up!

Ok got them just now... carboy is awesome. The guy just lost interest and had a TON of stuff and his wife hates the smell. He also offered that brew ware book and brewing for dummies for $5. I may go back and get them. Not sure if its pin or ball, if it means the in and out i believe its pin. It has two pegs withe small circles that push in. Also the lid comes off with a pull back on the arm and the o rings look brand new. He said he never used them and got on ebay last year. They are both cornelius and look VERY clean inside and one smells a tad bit like pepsi so i know he didnt use them yet. So are they ball or pin? Ill do some research now.

jezter6 said:

Check them out - pin lock or ball lock?
Ball lock kegs are easier to come by - so if you want to expand later - you may want to hold off if they are pin locks.

If 2 is all you're gonna have room for - then buy them no matter what and make sure you get the right fittings when it comes time to build the rest.

Click to expand...

A couple questions, ball kegs are easier to come by so i figured the pin is better? But hold off if they are pin locks? And as far as building to expand, you cant build off of a pin one? And what do you build off of the keg to expand? Sorry so new to kegging.

Beau815 said:

A couple questions, ball kegs are easier to come by so i figured the pin is better? But hold off if they are pin locks? And as far as building to expand, you cant build off of a pin one? And what do you build off of the keg to expand? Sorry so new to kegging.

Click to expand...

What they mean is that pin lock kegs, being harder to find, make it harder to expand since you'll be using pinlock connectors for these. If you wanted to have 4 corny kegs that are all interchangable, you'll need to buy kegs that have the same connector as you already have and if you have pinlocks now that makes it harder to find more in the future. That's what they mean about building in the future. More kegs that all work on the same system.

No, the idea is that your kegging system is going to have the quick disconnects on the hoses and they have to be either pinlock (push, then twist to lock) or ball (pull back on the ring, push down, release to lock). If you have a mix of keg styles, you loose the flexibility of using any keg on any hose. Therefore, it's best to choose one style of keg and stick with it.

what was meant by ball locks easier to come by is that there are more of them out there. Pin locks are somewhat rarer

This is what pin locks look like


on the inlet there is two pins on the post on the outlet there are three. I have 4 pin lock corny's at this time but I also have 7 Sanke pup kegs - converted corny's to Sanke type taps

Ahh gotcha. After seeing a pic of ball and pin I thought the ball was the one opening at the top with maybe a ball bearing type steel ball but I saw another photo which shows mine to be ball. It has ports sticking up on opposite ends and not close together like the pin ones as seen on here The homebrewers guide for care and cleaning of kegs OR above, we posted same time

I cleaned the outside and im going to take the posts off and o rings and top and soak in soapy water then going to do the same with the inside of the keg, then ill use idophor for the hell of it, being im not using the kegs for a good year probably. Just gotta buy a co2 tank and the right hoses and gauges and buy a refrige and make it into a kegerator... so thats why its going to take me a while to get the cash to do all that. My small apt doesnt help either.

Beau815 said:

Ahh gotcha. After seeing a pic of ball and pin I thought the ball was the one opening at the top with maybe a ball bearing type steel ball but I saw another photo which shows mine to be ball. It has ports sticking up on opposite ends and not close together like the pin ones as seen on here The homebrewers guide for care and cleaning of kegs OR above, we posted same time

Click to expand...

Then they are pin locks nothing to say one is better than the other they are just different.

yeah i DONT have the above one... with the pins set closer together, I have the one where they are directly across from each other. They dont have the little pins sticking out of the side of the ports. One of these has a weird starlike type screw in post the IN port thats like impossible to get off... the other three posts wrenched right off. I guess I should of used "posts" instead of "pins". It has post directly opposite with no little pins protruding from them. Thanks for all your help, you just cant understand kegs until you take em apart.