Sad, Sad Morning...

I just want everyone to make sure that their shank and faucet connections are nice and tight. I lost 4 gallons of my pale ale that i had cold conditioning for over a month. It sat fine for that long and then, I woke up to it all over the floor this morning (luckily the keezer is in the garage).

I believe the circled area was the culprit. In the picture, the connection is securely tightened. When i inspected it this morning, a couple of the threads were showing. When this happens, if you grab the faucet assembly and push down or up, it starts leaking. I believe the faucet just tilted a bit (somehow?), opened up a slight gap between the connection and boom, pale ale everywhere. In addition, the black cap on the faucet was on the floor. Does everyone agree with my assessment of what happened? Or could it have been something else? Anybody have this happen before? It did not drain the C02 tank, just the beer.

fwiw, I always put just a film of keg lube on my faucet threads when installing them. Makes a world of difference.

But I don't think the faucet leaked around the shank coupling. The fact that your faucet cover blew off says the leak was through the faucet valve. The keg got poured to death.

If that Pale Ale keg is empty, put some water in it, hook it up to your faucet and CO2, and try to duplicate the leak. My bet is it won't leak at the shank end, but that your faucet lever is very touchy and needs to be adjusted...

Cheers!

Well, in my experience just this past week when I built my keezer, I hooked everything up to pour my very first pint and my beer POURED out of the circled area. I made a complete mess myself. I probably only lost a pint or two but still, it was from this exact area. I just grabbed some tools and tightened it as best as I could without damaging the faucet and it sealed right up.

day_trippr said:

fwiw, I always put just a film of keg lube on my faucet threads when installing them. Makes a world of difference.

But I don't think the faucet leaked around the shank coupling. The fact that your faucet cover blew off says the leak was through the faucet valve. The keg got poured to death.

If that Pale Ale keg is empty, put some water in it, hook it up to your faucet and CO2, and try to duplicate the leak. My bet is it won't leak at the shank end, but that your faucet lever is very touchy and needs to be adjusted...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

This could be it, but i don't understand how the handle would have closed itself. In fact, i don't know how the whole thing stopped leaking once the beer was gone. I fully expected the C02 tank to be empty as well, but it wasn't. Once the beer was gone, everything closed up.

Jwood said:

[...]Once the beer was gone, everything closed up.

Click to expand...

If I had to choose between wondering how a faucet sealed back up verses a shank coupling suddenly tightening, I'd definitely indict the faucet every time...

Cheers!

2 more hours at work and 45 minute drive home....I am really Paranoid.....grrrr

day_trippr said:

If I had to choose between wondering how a faucet sealed back up verses a shank coupling suddenly tightening, I'd definitely indict the faucet every time...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

It didn't retighten. When i messed with it, if it sat perfectly straight it wouldn't leak. But if I put downward or upward pressure on the faucet, it would start spraying gas and leftover foam out of the connection. Either way, what should I do to better adjust the faucet handle, if indeed that was the issue?

First, I'd definitely fix the loose shank problem.

But that wouldn't have popped the spout cover, so I'd also tighten the faucet lever bonnet a bit. Because there's no spring in a 525 the only thing keeping the ball pressed against its o-ring during closure is inertia, friction, and the pressure of the beer.

You can increase the friction by tightening the bonnet. But don't over do that, either, or you'll distort the o-rings that seal the faucet lever pivot ball and you'll have beer dribbling from the bonnet...

Cheers!