How is this possible?!

All,

I was concerned that I had a leak in my system last night, so I turned off everything: co2 tank, flipped all levers to the right, and disconnected my QDs. I woke up this morning and the co2 tank is empty!

The only thing that I can figure is that maybe it emptied before I decided to turn it off. This stuff isn't cheap and I just had it filled on Saturday due to me having a leak somewhere earlier in the week. I'm assuming that there's no way to test for the leak without co2....is there?


**** Edit ******
It's not empty. I took it off the regulator and turned it on and it hisses. When I had it on the regulator, I couldn't hear it pressurizing or anything. I'm reconnecting stuff now, but I don't get a good feeling about it.

Okay...I can't see any leaks. When I stick my head into the keezer, I can smell co2 though. It's a lot lighter than it was last night, but I shouldn't be able to smell that...right?

Get a bottle add a tiny bit of liquid soap and water shake it up and spray water over all you fittings, lines, regulator hook ups kegs pretty much any where gas goes it will bubble where the leak is.

Do you use thread tape on your connections? It's not needed from your tank to regulator but pretty much needed on any other connection that has threads that use no type of gasket.

Also I thought CO2 was oderless..

Also your tank will still have some pressure in it even though it's empty. That is why you are hearing the hiss when you crack the valve.

Do you keep your tank in the fridge part of your keg orator?

I do keep it in the fridge. I didn't put pipe tape on any of the connections that the hose goes to, but I did put it on the tank to the regulator. All of my connections that hoses go to have hose clamps, and when I sprayed them this morning I didn't see bubbling at all. I didn't have pipe tape on the co2 tank last night which is what I did this morning.

Either you are getting a pressure drop from being In the cold fridge and you have no leaks or you have leaks and your tank is empty that is why you are not seeing any bubbles.

My regulator is showing pressure now though. Could it be a bad regulator?

Pull the regulator off and crack the valve, if it comes out white there is still co2 in the tank if it's invisible and has a dry feeling your tank is empty.

Usually when you keep your co2 in the fridge the pressure will drop several hundred psi

blefferd said:

Also I thought CO2 was oderless..

Click to expand...

CO is odorless. You can definitely tell if you're exposed to CO2 in a confined area. It burns your eyes, nose and throat. Very unpleasant.

That is a good point we had co2 fire extinguishers on the boat that where designed to flood the space in the event of a fire I forgot it displaces oxygen.

Put the keg in your bath tub and immerse it under warm/hot water. The interor gas will expand and bubble out if there's a leak.

OMO

bosco

If your unsure the tank is empty, on the shoulder you should see the letters TW with some digits following. The numbers represent the cylinder weight empty, weight the cylinder and subtract the TW.




As for Teflon tape, if it is a brass to brass thread connection it is unnecessary. Two of the reasons brass was chosen for the compressed gas industry is for it's ability to handle high pressure and it's soft metallurgical properties. The soft property make a good fit for mating surfaces like threads.

I chased a leek for quite sometime on my system and come to find a number of my worm gear (hose) claps had small leaks, almost undetectable individually. I replaces all of them with Oetiker clamps and my problem was solved.