Beer Everywhere! Regulator Failure

So I have had my Cascadian Dark Ale on the gas at 14 PSI for a week almost trying to carb it up. Everything was just fine until last night.......black beer everywhere. All over the floor, all over the fridge..etc..etc.. Looks like the regulator just stopped "regulating" for lack of a better term. NASTY

So after about 3 hours of deep cleaning I have recovered, but my faith in the kegging operation is surely shaken. I bought this regulator and system brand new in June, and now 8 months later I have beer everywhere.

I am contemplating two options:

1. by new regulator and proceed with vigor

2. convert full size keg fridge back to fridge filled with beer bottles.

First of all, my condolences. That clean up could not have been fun.

I'm not convinced that the regulator is to blame.

You're saying that the regulator failed, and the keg became overpressurized which somehow caused beer...everywhere. If the regulator supplied enough psi it would just open the relief valve in the lid of the keg. Where did the beer escape from? The "out" post on the keg? If so, it sounds like the keg is to blame. More specifically the "out" poppet valve seal.

Forgive me if I've misunderstood something.

I agree with coastarine. Where did the beer exit the system?

Coastarine said:

First of all, my condolences. That clean up could not have been fun.

I'm not convinced that the regulator is to blame.

You're saying that the regulator failed, and the keg became overpressurized which somehow caused beer...everywhere. If the regulator supplied enough psi it would just open the relief valve in the lid of the keg. Where did the beer escape from? The "out" post on the keg? If so, it sounds like the keg is to blame. More specifically the "out" poppet valve seal.

Forgive me if I've misunderstood something.

Click to expand...

I totally agree that the relieve valve failed, but the PSI was as high as it would go on the regulator display and "hissing" from the little red outlet on the regulator slowly. The beer was coming out of the out post for sure, but it was surely a result of overpressurization.

After cleanup I reasembled and could not get the regulator to work right. So I took it apart, made sure everything looked ok, and reasembled with new pipe tape (the white stuff) and made sure I had a good seal everywhere and that things were snug, but not overtightened. Same thing.....good pressure for a little while, slowly creeping up until it got way to high.

So to make a long story short, that regulator ran into a hammer really hard on accident about 50 times and is no longer in usable condition

What pisses me off the worst is that was a kick ass cascadian dark ale...8 oz of hops.....down the tubes.

seems like a keg out post / ball lock coupling issue more than regulator issue.

faulty regulator wouldn't cause a keg to leak beer, do you have a check valve on your Gas line to make sure beer doesn't travel back up to the regulator?

edit: so the regulator was leaking excess CO2, how is that going to cause the beer outpost to leak?

-=Jason=-

Fair enough. Sounds like that regulator is toast.

Flomaster said:

seems like a keg out post / ball lock coupling issue more than regulator issue.

faulty regulator wouldn't cause a keg to leak beer, do you have a check valve on your Gas line to make sure beer doesn't travel back up to the regulator?

edit: so the regulator was leaking excess CO2, how is that going to cause the beer outpost to leak?

-=Jason=-

Click to expand...

The regulator wasn't "regulating" I am going to go to micromatic and get the premium model.

ok so it pressurized the keg to much, why didn't the release valve in the keg kick open or is the outpost / coupling the weakest link there?


-=Jason=-

Flomaster said:

ok so it pressurized the keg to much, why didn't the release valve in the keg kick open or is the outpost / coupling the weakest link there?


-=Jason=-

Click to expand...

The outpost was the weakest link, but I will be looking into the release valves on the keg tops. I don't want this to happen again, but I am going to get a good regulator.

That's the thing... It doesnt matter if the release valve is set to open at 90 PSI, if the weakest link (say the out post) fails at 70 PSI, that's where it'll leak from.

M_C

permo said:

The outpost was the weakest link, but I will be looking into the release valves on the keg tops. I don't want this to happen again, but I am going to get a good regulator.

Click to expand...

Misplaced_Canuck said:

That's the thing... It doesnt matter if the release valve is set to open at 90 PSI, if the weakest link (say the out post) fails at 70 PSI, that's where it'll leak from.

M_C

Click to expand...

I agree, no argument on that point from me.

taprite regs are solid

that's all i have to say. rip black ipa....

Equipment failure sure sucks, at any point in the brewing process. Especially when the beer has made it to drinkable