Portable CO2 Keg Charger... any good?

I'm looking at buying this for an upcoming party at which I'll have more kegs than taps. My only other option, afaik, is to lug a keg over to the kegerator and hit it with pressure for a few minutes everytime that they start pulling slowly from the cobra tap.

I only have one tank and a dual body regulator. Everything is contained within my Sanyo now and I don't want to drill any holes in it, so splitting those lines off and coming out of the Sanyo with a T isn't really an option.

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_40_271_275_273&products_id=1197

Anyone have any experiences with this or something similar? Other ideas?

I have one and it works but it takes about 1 cartidge per gallon of beer dispensed. The upside is that it's very portable but the downside is its additive cost and need for manual intervention.

I have that, I use it all the time. The only thing that sucks is the lack of a regulator, so you just hit it with a little punch of CO2 when it needs it and hope you don't give it too much. Make sure you have plenty of beer line, since it's ineviable that you'll inject too much pressure at times.

A better, but more spendy, solution would be this.

I have one and it is very handy. I like that it connect to an MFL connection on a ball lock.

The key is portability and you won't find anything smaller. Bobby is spot on for how many cartridges you need to dispense a keg.

I love mine. I can get like 20 CO2 cartriges for $10 at my LHBS, so the cost is negligible, even if you are swapping them out. I love being able to take the keg on the road... I've taken it to a New Years' Eve party, a tailgate, and a bachelor party.

I have one as well and it comes in really handy when your Co2 tank runs out on your regular kegerator. With the portable charger you can still dispense if you are not able to get your tank filled soon. In other words, it's portability is nice, but its use as a backup is also worth the peace of mind.

wouldnt a paintball adapter work better? if in a pinch buy the use once bottles. other times fill up the 20oz or similar tank. but i dont know about the use once tanks since they may contain oil for mist oiling the guns

Didn't we have one hooked up in Cincy? I think I brought one, and Pseudochef (or someone) brought one and we had it hooked up until MrFebtober came with his manifold. I'm pretty sure it worked ok, but then we put all the tanks on co2 when he came with the "real" equipment.

I bought one, and have never really used it, though. I've just been taking growlers of beer instead of kegs, but I will definitely use it when we take kegs to a party.

I know this post is older but if your like me and still searching... It might help.
I'm a brewer and a paintballer.... So this seems to fit my bill!
http://stores.kegconnection.com/Detail.bok?no=268
I saw the thing below a while back and thought about it... But the one above is cheaper and you have everything right there. Minus a PB tank Check your locall sporting store or PB store.

the_bird said:

I have that, I use it all the time. The only thing that sucks is the lack of a regulator, so you just hit it with a little punch of CO2 when it needs it and hope you don't give it too much. Make sure you have plenty of beer line, since it's ineviable that you'll inject too much pressure at times.

A better, but more spendy, solution would be this.

Click to expand...

is it ok to use the 12gram cartridges meant for airguns in these?

I just got one of these so I can bring some kegged beer to a tailgate. The instructions very clearly warn to attach the pin/ball lock to the keg FIRST, then screw on this gizmo or Bad Things will happen. If I did that, wouldn't I vent out all the CO2 currently in the keg's head space? can I safely ignore their warnings and just do what common sense tells me to?

It won't vent out because the co2 pushes down the poppet in the post to inject it into the beer.

Toivo said:

It won't vent out because the co2 pushes down the poppet in the post to inject it into the beer.

Click to expand...

Interesting. I thought there was a pin that pushed down on the poppet (and didn't even bother to look). Anyway, it worked out great! We went through about 4 gal of carbonated beer and only needed one cartridge. I now have a great set-up for portable keg dispensing.

I had no idea that some companies used oil in the CO2 cartridges. I ran out of the 16g I used at the lake so somebody brought me some 12g that we made work. Now I need to go check on them to see what the deal is and if I want to use them in the future.

Thanks for the heads up.

Could I serve 3 kegs using one of these chargers, just connecting it and giving a shot of co2 as needed?

murphyslaw said:

Could I serve 3 kegs using one of these chargers, just connecting it and giving a shot of co2 as needed?

Click to expand...

Yes, but you may need 5 or 6 of those co2 cartridges. One thing that happens though is that when you remove it, say to move it to another keg, you have to disconnect the co2 off of the gun and that may drain the c02 out of the keg, so you'd need to put it back on and give another shot. That means you couldn't serve out of all three at the same time.

Yooper said:

Yes, but you may need 5 or 6 of those co2 cartridges. One thing that happens though is that when you remove it, say to move it to another keg, you have to disconnect the co2 off of the gun and that may drain the c02 out of the keg, so you'd need to put it back on and give another shot. That means you couldn't serve out of all three at the same time.

Click to expand...

Oh, that's too bad. I wanted to serve 3 different kegs at the same time. At $20 a pop, I might as well get a second regulator with a manifold. Or more likely just bring my current co2 setup. I hoped to avoid that because it feeds through the wall of my kegerator.

Thanks for the advice Yooper! It would have sucked to show up with 3 kegs and only been able to serve one at a time.