CO2 Secondary Regulator Question

Hey everyone. So I'm just starting to piece together ideas for a keezer I want to to build for the house I'm moving into next month (I should probably be more worried about moving than building a keg setup, but I digress). I have been looking at different CO2 setups and I like the idea of having a secondary regulator for different pressures on each tap. The ones I found on micromatic,

CO2 Secondary Regulator - Keg Beer Dispensing

don't have check valves on the shut-off, which I would think would be important. And Kegconnection has this setup

CO2 Beer Regulator, Three Body, Four Gauge with check valves

that includes check valves but would be hard-lined to the CO2 tank and might cause some space issues. My question is whether or not anyone has used the keg connection setup, and their experience or if anyone knows where to find a setup with check valves like the micromatic one.

Thanks
:fro:

I don't have any experience with either set up but you can pick up a check valve and just put it in the line yourself.

How many pressures do you want?

The drawback to stacked PRIMARY regulators is usually cost. But that looks like a pretty good deal on the Keg Connection product.

Secondary regulators have a couple of advantages... 1)cost 2)adaptabilty for chaining them together.

If you're putting the TANK outside the KEEZER...then I recommend Using a bank of secondarys inside. IF you're putting your CO2 Tank inside the Freezer..then it matters less.

I personally prefer the TANK & PRIMARY regulator outside the Kegerator...set to 35PSI

Then I have 2 SECONDARY regulators inside the Kegerator...set to lower pressures...IE 12PSI and 8 PSI...

You can use regular gas hose between the PRIMARY and SECONDARY regulators....(big advantage not having to use hose that can handle 2000 psi!) You can join secondaries with 1/4" MPT Pipe Unions...or Barbed Nipples and Gas hose. Very flexible for design purposes. If you remove the PLUG from the side of the last SECONDARY in the chain and put a shutoff/check valve there...you actually get a 3rd pressures from two secondarys...that's what I do. The Last Secondary has two outputs...a pass thru which is set at 35 PSI from the PRIMARY regulator...and then the output from the bottom can be dialed in to anything less than 35PSI.

Another note. It's easy to take the shutoff/check valve off the bottom of one of the secondarys and replace it with a multi-port manifold. One of my Secondaries has a 3 port manifold... I could actually remove the plug from the end of it and add another port if I wanted to.

You can buy those shutoff/check valves for around $8 a piece.

I found a great deal on secondarys here... the only drawback is they're 0-100 PSI. But as long as the relief valve on your PRIMARY regulator won't excede the working pressure on your corny kegs...you're safe.

IMI CORNELIUS CO2 PRESSURE REGULATOR NEW - eBay (item 260446630285 end time Jul-14-09 12:57:11 PDT)

I found these on eBAY for a very decent price. He may have more of them. He'll post multiples if you want to buy more than one...and he discounts the shipping.

You'll still have to add connectors or unions, and shutoff valves if you want them. But you can't beat the price. I bought two. I then ordered 3 shutoff check valves, 2 pipe unions, and a 3 port manifold...and replacement guages that go from 0-60 psi. Still cheaper than getting one already built.