second co2 tank and still having leak problems...

So a little background here.
A few weeks ago I got the swmbo go ahead on kegging and got the one corny keg kit w/ picnic tap from Midwest. I got the co2 tank filled and racked a warm beer into the keg, set the regulator to 12 psi and stuck everything in the fridge. I put soapy water on everything and all seemed well. I was checking it pretty often and I did notice that the low PSI gauge went from 12 to say 10. Not sure what this meant and thinking that it had something to do with the warm beer I turned the screw till the reg was back up a 12. I think I did this maybe twice till it it stayed at the pressure. After five days at 12 psi I pull a pint and it was very good. The next night a growler went to a party. I thought all was well so I just let it go and didn’t have any more till this past Friday when I went to get some beer and wham no pressure what so ever. Everything had been hooked up and on up until this point.

Today I exchange the empty c02 tank for a new one and also purchased Teflon tank to wrap around the tank threads. So the tape goes on and then th regulator and gas on. Soapy water showed a leak at the tape. Reg off and more tape on. Reg back on and more soap. No problems detected. This time I set the reg for 20 psi and close up the fridge. The beer has been in there the whole time so if something is wrong it is really wrong. Sure enough I checked a few minutes ago, 17 psi!/ I pulled off the QDs and shut the little valve at the gas out of the regulator and turned off the tank. The reg still show what they did when I opened the fridge.

What I am planning on doing is wait overnight and see if the keg still has pressure tomorrow and start trying to find the leak by working fro m the keg back. If the keg has pressure what would be the next step? Can I lay the tank and reg on it side under water in the bath tub to see if anything happens there or would I ruin the regulator?

You should not be putting teflon tape on the regulator to tank threads. That's a face-seal fitting similar to flare. You should have a gasket or oring in there.

Leave the QD's disconnected for the kegs, turn the tank on and set the reg to 20 psi. Turn off the tank. Come back in 30 minutes and see where the gauge sits. Still 20 psi? If so, your leak is in the keg.

I have the gasket in the connection as well as the tape. Do I need to remove the tape? I'll check out the regulator pressure later.

A shut off valve such as this one:
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=7674

makes isolating problems easy as they are only 1/2 turn on or off and cost less than 1 tank of gas

Mine mounts to the regulator : http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=7100

After the beer is carbonated I don't see any real advantage to leaving the gas on all the time but there's plenty of down side if you have a leak

I don't even keep the tank turned on constantly while I'm carbonating I like to start on the weekend and just turn it on every 6-8 the first couple of days then every 12 hours for the rest of the week. At 30 PSI and 35*F it usually takes 5 days to carbonate. It's not quite as easy but I haven't had any tanks empty on me since I started doing it this way

As long as there is no tape on the seat of the tank to reg union, you don't have to remove it, but it's not necessary in the future. All teflon tape does is lubricate the threads so you can really tighten them all the way. Since the threads aren't tapered in a union as it relies on the o-ring/washer/metal seat to make the seal, not the threads.

Yes, you can submerge the whole tank and reg briefly, but the guages will start to fill up with water, and there are steel parts int there, so make sure it sits in the sun long enough to dry out.

When you put a tank in the fridge the pressure gage will drop due to the cold.

When you remove it from the fridge the gage will go back up.

just so we are on the same page this is the system I have. Cornelius Keg System with 5 lb. CO2 tank
My regulator is not exactly that one, but is very close only differing in color.

The keg still has pressure but the regulator has dropped from say 18 to 12 psi since last night. The handwheel is closed and the shutoff valve at the bottom of the regulator is also closed. I should have taken note is the high pressure guage droppped any and by how much but I only noticed the lower pressure drop.

man this isn't cool. Where could this be coming from? the gasketed connection from the tank to the reg, the guages themselves, any other oriface on the reg?

Would be nice just to set everything up and not have to monkey around with it too much if possible.

I hav a reg that leaks out of the bleed hole. I don't know why, and have tried, and failed, many times to fix it, but when I take it apart there does not apear to be anything wrong with it.

Test the all the fittings on the reg again, and really inspect them for about a minute after spraying soap solution on them. Pay close attention to the small bleed hole, which should be on the main body of the reg.

This thing is brand new right? I say if you can't find anything, return it for exchange to Midwest. They've always been very helpful to me.

Sea said:

I hav a reg that leaks out of the bleed hole. I don't know why, and have tried, and failed, many times to fix it, but when I take it apart there does not apear to be anything wrong with it.

Test the all the fittings on the reg again, and really inspect them for about a minute after spraying soap solution on them. Pay close attention to the small bleed hole, which should be on the main body of the reg.

This thing is brand new right? I say if you can't find anything, return it for exchange to Midwest. They've always been very helpful to me.

Click to expand...

That is what I am going to have to do I think. I checked the reg this morning and the pressure had slipped below 10psi so there has to be a leak in the reg somewhere. I'll soap it up again and see what happens...

let me see if i got this right.

you put gas on it equalizes to 12 lbs you come back and its at 10 psi. you crank it up again and it drops to 10 psi. it could be as simple as your gauge is losing its pressure like a clock loses time. so you may just have a defective gauge. or as it cools you are getting shrinkage. while it is cool ensure all threads are tight. but dont crank on them. disconnect the gas turn it to 12 pressurize and see if it maintains the pressure.

pen25 said:

let me see if i got this right.

you put gas on it equalizes to 12 lbs you come back and its at 10 psi. you crank it up again and it drops to 10 psi. it could be as simple as your gauge is losing its pressure like a clock loses time. so you may just have a defective gauge. or as it cools you are getting shrinkage. while it is cool ensure all threads are tight. but dont crank on them. disconnect the gas turn it to 12 pressurize and see if it maintains the pressure.

Click to expand...

That is the thing, it is not maintaining pressure but I not know if that is because of a very slow leak at a connection or a malfunctioning reg.

After I get the new tank on Sunday i hooked everything up and cranked the gas up to 20 PSI. After noticing later that night that the pressure had dropped, I closed the valve where the gas line meets the reg and closed the valve on the co2 tank. The guages read 20 psi and I amm not sure what the high pressure read. The low pressure has been slowly dropping eversince but high pressure guage seems to be staying steady or at least dropping at a much slower pace than the low pressure guage.