F'n co2 leak!

3 5lb tanks now, and I still can't find the stupid thing. I spray soap and water or starsan solution on every connection and find nothing. There's literally puddles of water in the bottom of the keezer from spraying all the connectinos.

I turn off the gas on the tank and on the regulator checkvalve and it doesn't drop. I replaced the o-rings on the gas-in posts thinking that would be one place the soapy water wouldn't show a leak. I tried to test if there was a leak by only turning on gas to one, and shutting it off at the tank to see if it dropped too fast. Thing is all of the kegs are still force carbing, so I expect it to drop some. I never left the co2 tank on for more than a few minutes for the last few days until I thought I satisfied myself the leak was gone. 12 hours later and the tank reads empty again.

This time all the kegs still had pressure in them when I pulled the relief valve to try and pinpoint which has the leak, but I don't know it could be they just all equalized at a low pressure. The regulator pressure shows about 10 psi, although the high pressure side shows 0.

$60 in a week on co2, and i'm seriously frustrated.

First things first. Is your CO2 bottle in the keezer? Have you weighed the tank both full and when the guage reads empty? Is the place you're using filling this bottle or just exchanging it? A lot of high side guage readings are worthless once you put them in the kegerator and it cools down. Using that much CO2, you should be able to find the leak pretty easily. Get a bathroom scale, and weigh the tank. The tare (empty cylinder) weight is stamped on the side. Let us know - Dwain

i just teflon tape the hell out of all connections. never had a problem

Yeah, it's in the freezer, so I know not to trust the high side gauge -- at least until it says 0. I'm filling an aluminum tank (at beveragefactory.com, which doesn't do a 'liquid' transfer, so i'm not guaranteed to get a full 5# from what I'm told). Tare weight says 7.53lb. bathroom scales says it weighs 7.5 now. So i'm pretty sure it's empty.


I hadn't had a problem with leaks until one of the last kegs I hooked up, when my first two drained. I can't find a visible leak anywhere on it, so at this point all I can think is to transfer that beer to a different keg and pressure test the keg empty.

you may be right on that. it may be a damaged connector on that keg.

Water bath. I had a leak, slow very slow leak. StarSan, dish soap, leak detector solution from welding shop, none of those found it. I submerged all connections in a large container of water and watched for a bit. Sure enough every once in a while a tiny bubble came out. The flare connector between the check valve and gas hose was missing a plastic washer and the actual connections were tight enough to keep it at a slow leak (probably for over a year).

I have had similar problems. I have found some leaks and fixed them with new O-rings but still I will lose Co2 way too quickly. I now shut off the gas at the tank after every pour but it's hard to force carb this way and also it seems like it uses more gas because I will be filling the tank every time I turn it on. And this tells me that my gas leak is still there

samc said:

Water bath. I had a leak, slow very slow leak. StarSan, dish soap, leak detector solution from welding shop, none of those found it. I submerged all connections in a large container of water and watched for a bit. Sure enough every once in a while a tiny bubble came out. The flare connector between the check valve and gas hose was missing a plastic washer and the actual connections were tight enough to keep it at a slow leak (probably for over a year).

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I had thought about that, but couldn't figure how I'd get everything submerged. But now that I think about it, I can probably remove all the manifolds and lines as one, and dunk everything underwater in the bathtub. Is there any problem with dunking the tank (probably on its side) and entire regulator and all? I'm thinking i'll even put the kegs on their side and dunk them one by one -- I'm willing to have to let them settle afterwards to defeat this leak, my arch nemesis!

Some people dunk the regulator without issue, so they say. I've seen the inside of a rusted Reg, so I would never dunk mine. Everything else can get wet. If you still can't find the leak you could just hook up the reg without anything attached and see if it is leaking by turning the valve on and covering the reg with a plastic bag.

Just buy a cheapo Dollar Store trash can and dunk 'em. - Dwain.

good ideas. thanks guys. The gas store was easy on me today, as they said their tank was running low so I didn't get a full fill -- so they didn't charge me for it.

Well, I filled a garbage can of water, and submerged everything. The first go around I found no leaks. The second pass with the kegs I found that one of the lids had a very finicky pressure relief valve. If I touched it it would start leaking, or if I touched it again it would stop. This is the only thing that I found, but if it was leaking as I saw it had the capability of, I'm sure it could empty the tank.

A hard one to find, since the water/soap really had to be over the holes of pressure relief valve in order to bubble. I removed the valve after replacing the lid, and it did have a bunch of gunk on the threads/in the seat for it. Maybe after cleaning it, it will seal. Here's to hoping that I found the leak!