Damn CO2 Leaks!

Come back from Vacation to find my CO2 bottle is empty. WTF? It had plenty of pressure before I left! Now granted, I've had the bottle for a bit, but There should have been no loss since I was not there to drink it!

I think this is the same keg that drained the bottle last time. I've checked several times for leaks and can't find any. It has been fine most of the time...

blame the keg... replace every oring on it, and use extra keglube next time... I am in the habbit now of putting a galon of starsan solution in my kegs and adding some pressure. if the keg is flat when i check it, i know i have a leak before i fill it.

be glad you didn't find it the way i found my last leaky keg... with 2 inches of beer on the bottom of my keezer

Wrap the outside of top chime with masking or duct tape to seal a bowl around it. Pressurize the keg and fill the ring with water. If there is a leak, it will show.

Arkador said:

blame the keg... replace every oring on it, and use extra keglube next time... I am in the habbit now of putting a galon of starsan solution in my kegs and adding some pressure. if the keg is flat when i check it, i know i have a leak before i fill it.

be glad you didn't find it the way i found my last leaky keg... with 2 inches of beer on the bottom of my keezer

Click to expand...

I've been there, and have gotten into the habit of closing the manifolds to the already carbed beers and then hitting them with gas when the pour gets too slow.

Trubadour said:

I've been there, and have gotten into the habit of closing the manifolds to the already carbed beers and then hitting them with gas when the pour gets too slow.

Click to expand...

mine was a popet valve. the fix was to hook up a beverage line to it after cleaning up the mess. Popets aren't cheap, and adding another beverage line simply gave me more selection.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Wrap the outside of top chime with masking or duct tape to seal a bowl around it. Pressurize the keg and fill the ring with water. If there is a leak, it will show.

Click to expand...

I'll try that.

Trubadour said:

I've been there, and have gotten into the habit of closing the manifolds to the already carbed beers and then hitting them with gas when the pour gets too slow.

Click to expand...

+1...burned through too many tanks to not take this precaution.

I have (had) all my leaks fixed but then a couple weeks ago I was on vacation and closed the valve on the tank before I left. When I came home and opened it there was gas blowing out of the nut that connects the regulator to the tank! All from just closing and opening the tanks valve. I have had some serious bad luck with leaks!

SOB said:

+1...burned through too many tanks to not take this precaution.

I have (had) all my leaks fixed but then a couple weeks ago I was on vacation and closed the valve on the tank before I left. When I came home and opened it there was gas blowing out of the nut that connects the regulator to the tank! All from just closing and opening the tanks valve. I have had some serious bad luck with leaks!

Click to expand...

Give new meaning to the term "busting a ......."

Thats funny that we had the same experience. I just posted the same exact thing the other day.

I am still wondering, however, if a fully on CO2/keg setup will inevtiably leak. I am guessing most people consume a keg before they can even realize this. My homebrew consumption is extremely slow - usually limited to bottling everyone in a while, and an occasional pint for myself.

In other words, if everyone filled a keg, carbed it, and then left it there for 2 months with the manifold open, does everyone really think that there would be no CO2 loss? The other question would be does everyone think that there should be no CO2 loss?

Although, on the other hand, most people say a 5# CO2 tank should last 4-5 kegs. If mine doesnt even last 2 months about 1/2 keg usage, then maybe most people are really leak free?

Trubadour said:

I've been there, and have gotten into the habit of closing the manifolds to the already carbed beers and then hitting them with gas when the pour gets too slow.

Click to expand...

I did this for a while after my first leak, but the beer would drop carbonation too much in some styles. I finally decided to keep it open and I wanted to carb up a new batch anyway.

Maybe it was just time for the bottle to empty, but I doubt it. I think I need to try a different method of leak detection. Maybe tonight I'll give it a go.

I should be able to leave the gas on all the time.

Use a soapy water solution (dish soap) to detect leaks. It works for bicycle tire inner tubes too. Just look for the bubbles.

What I'm doing now -- the other day I set the psi to 9psi and opened up all 4 manifolds one at a time until the gas stopped coming in, and then turned them back off, but left the regulator set to the same psi. The next day I opened up each manifold, one at a time, to check (looked at gauge and listened for gas entering the keg). 2 of them were still at 9 psi, one was slightly less (but barely), and one was almost all the empty. I repeated the experiment, checked again today, and the same keg was low. So I found the culprit.

Problem is, though, that as I circulate through my stash of kegs, you never know when another one will go bad, or when one of the good ones turns bad. I guess you have to keep a close eye on them, especially when refilling / changing out.

Trubadour said:

Problem is, though, that as I circulate through my stash of kegs, you never know when another one will go bad, or when one of the good ones turns bad. I guess you have to keep a close eye on them, especially when refilling / changing out.

Click to expand...

It's probably a good practice to at least replace all the seals in your kegs every so often. Depending on how much you use them, maybe once a year? This is something I might start doing. I also like the idea of putting a little pressure on the kegs when they are being stored. When you go to use them, if there's no pressure then you know it's leaking.

I lost a bottle on my portable CO2 set-up. I was pissed to see the sucker empty. I think that I got the leak source figured out... oring in the wrong place. Duh.


I plan to disconnect the bottle when I'm done serving too.

Hmm, wouldn't the CO2 eventually dissolve into the beer though?

SOB said:

I also like the idea of putting a little pressure on the kegs when they are being stored. When you go to use them, if there's no pressure then you know it's leaking.

Click to expand...

usurpers26 said:

Hmm, wouldn't the CO2 eventually dissolve into the beer though?

Click to expand...

If you are addressing my comment. No, since the set-up wasn't connected to the keg when I noticed it was dry. I stored it all connected with the CO2 reg turned down to the min and the valve closed.

No, sorry, I have the bad habit of putting the people I quote below my reply (see I did it again )

I was quoting SOB

Schlenkerla said:

If you are addressing my comment. No, since the set-up wasn't connected to the keg when I noticed it was dry. I stored it all connected with the CO2 reg turned down to the min and the valve closed.

Click to expand...

I think I found my leak problem. The disconnect was basically up against the back of the fridge, which was covered in frost rime. I think the disconnect actually froze a bit and if so, the seal might have gotten stiff or shrunk enough to let some gas out. I turned the keg so the disconnect was away from the back of the fridge.

usurpers26 said:

Hmm, wouldn't the CO2 eventually dissolve into the beer though?

Click to expand...

I meant when you store empty kegs. I rarely have enough of a "pipeline" to store full kegs until I am ready for them. So placing a little pressure on empty kegs would allow you to pull the relief valve before sanitizing and filling and if there's no pressure than there is a leak.

As for the issue I talked about above with a possible busted nut (giggity) after I got back from vacation...well the regulator just came loose from the tank somehow! All I needed to do was tighten it a little bit and everything's fine!