If I was just starting out, I would go with these kegs

Well I figured I would get a ton of blowback from the PET statement... In today's world, PET is unavoidable: it is cheap and the most recyclable plastic that is safe for food. Anyone who leaves this keg in a hot car obviously doesn't care about their beer anyway so that is obviously not a reality. The hot car is just an example of what can happen when a plastic is left out in a hot environment and exposed to UV light. Now that I have seen a cutaway of the thing i can see that the beer is not even held in the container that would experience these conditions, especially due to the common location of a keg being the fridge. I'm not some worry wort who is assuming that everything except un-glazed ceramics and glass will cause cancer, the science just isn't there, but I am someone who looks at trends and scientific reasoning to come to a real conclusion; PET is not as sturdy as HDPE and HDPE is what is typically used in the food containing industry. I just want to know what led the engineer to choose PET over HDPE, that's all.

They intend the internal bottle to be one time use then recycle, only reusing the outer shells. Likely the reason for PET.

DudeAbides said:

They intend the internal bottle to be one time use then recycle, only reusing the outer shells. Likely the reason for PET.

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Yeah, I imagine the PET is cheaper, too.

I think this is the company that makes them. http://pubkeg.com/

You can see that they are meant for breweries. The lowest quantity you can buy from them is 48 and they have a refund of $5 if they are recycled at one of their recycle depots.

It looks as if some HBSs are buying in bulk and reselling. I am not sure how many uses you could get out of the PET bottle, but I would think with a little care you could get quite a few. I am not sure how available the bottles would be or the cost to replace-something to look into before purchasing.

There was a thread on here about them a while ago, not sure where it is and what the results were

Here is the other thread

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/pubkeg-plastic-kegs-172235/?highlight=pubkeg

CGVT said:

I could have posted about six different links disputing the chemical leaching claim and/or danger of a trace amount of antimony the same as I could for every aluminum causes Alzheimer's post that comes up.

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If you have them handy that would be a great addition to the discussion. That way people can make up their own mind. The link between Alzheimer's and aluminum is not supported by research, but chemicals leaching from plastic is a completely different issue.

Another criticism is that the plastic will eventually deteriorate, sooner or later depending on your cleaning regimen. With a corny you would be investing in something that will last forever as long as you don't pile-drive it onto a concrete floor.

The question is still will/do they sell the innards? I have a Tap a draft but if I were to ever get tired of it I would seriously concider this setup.

If it makes you feel any better CGVT, I am in exactly the situation you stated at the beginning of this thread. I have home brewed and would like to start kegging now that I have my own kegerator, but I want to stay with the sankey connection as I regularly still get commercially brewed kegs. The ability to switch back and forth without any hassle sounds too good to pass up. When I came across these kegs searching google for an alternative to cornys for home brew kegging, I immediately came to these forums to see if anyone had opinions on them.
I am definitely going to give one a try.

Meh, if it's $60 for one of these plastic sankeys, and ~$90 for a stainless 5 gallon sankey, I think I'll spend the extra thirty bucks. Not because of safety concerns, but because I know the steel will long outlast the plastic. How many brews a year do you think your standard keg will see - and will the plastic survive well if you forget about an empty one in the back of the keezer for a few months? I have a sankey coupler lying around, and an old keg from bevmo I can practice on to see how easy the cleaning/sanitizing/filling of these is.

If it's not relatively easy to clean and fill then I'm not really that interested. I'm just sick of cornys developing leaks on me.

popeboy said:

If it makes you feel any better CGVT, I am in exactly the situation you stated at the beginning of this thread. I have home brewed and would like to start kegging now that I have my own kegerator, but I want to stay with the sankey connection as I regularly still get commercially brewed kegs. The ability to switch back and forth without any hassle sounds too good to pass up. When I came across these kegs searching google for an alternative to cornys for home brew kegging, I immediately came to these forums to see if anyone had opinions on them.
I am definitely going to give one a try.

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You can get a sankey coupler with an MFT connection. The MFT connections are not much of a hassle at all.