Draft Tower Dilemma, help!

I recently ordered all of my supplies from kegconnection, and although my regulator guages were damaged during shipping, they quickly sent me a new pair of Taprite guages with no questions asked.

Having said that, I am going to be assembling my kegerator this weekend, and I cracked my tower open tonight to replace my 5' beer lines w/10' lines and discovered this:





Now I am completely new to kegging and I try to do my research, but those look like standard tailpieces to me, not elbow style tower tailpieces, such as these:



Another fellow HBT member posted this pic back in February of this year.

I am certain Taprite changes things periodically, but is this right?

If you look at the images of my draft tower, the hoses aren't even straight at the connecton, is that going to create turbulence leading to excessive foaming?

It is my understanding that the elbow style tailpieces are "tower tailpieces" and the "straight tailpieces" (like what are currently on my draft tower) are for straight connections like through a refridgerator door and such.

I could be wrong, I am new to kegging, but before I get to tinkering, should I ask for the elbow pieces?

Will the slight curvature of the hose at the connection lead to exccesive foaming?

Finally, is this completely wrong? Should there be elbow style tailpieces in the tower?

Any help/information/advice would be extremely apprciated. Thank you.

Feel free to chime in.

Please.

I don't know how much it matters. The sweep in the tubing is approximately the same as the sweep in the curved tailpieces.

sjlammer said:

I don't know how much it matters. The sweep in the tubing is approximately the same as the sweep in the curved tailpieces.

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If you take a close look at the hose right at the tip of the barb it is slightly offset (ie. not a smooth continuous flow). Although, the sweep is the same, my concern is the turbulence that might form at the tip of the barb where the hose meets it.

Like I said, I am completely new to this, so I may be over thinking this, as I am known for doing, but if I need to call kegconnection and get this straightened out I would like to do so, sooner than later, I have had this stuff for about a week now.

You're definitely overthinking. It will be fine as long as its not leaking. I'm sure my hoses are that curved and 'kinked' inside my packed mini fridge when i shove all the hoses in to get the door to shut.

mosquitocontrol said:

You're definitely overthinking. It will be fine as long as its not leaking. I'm sure my hoses are that curved and 'kinked' inside my packed mini fridge when i shove all the hoses in to get the door to shut.

Click to expand...

I guess what I really want to know is should it have the elbowed tail piece?



Or, is this setup suitable/correct?



I have no idea if the elbowed tailpiece is a must for Draft Towers, or if the standard tailpiece is just as good.

Even kegconnection sells these:

Price: $22.95

$28.95 Stainless Steel Shank upgrade
$22.95 Standard Chromed

This Shank assembly is for replacing shanks on beer towers, or adding an additional shank to a beer tower. It has all the componants to attach to a beer tower. Barbed end will fit 1/4 or 3/16 beer line. We recommend using 3/16" beer line for proper restriction. Also available in Stainless Steel. Most stainless steel towers come with the chromed brass shanks, so it is not neccessary to use the stainless.

Click to expand...

So I'm not certain if the draft tower should have this style tailpiece or not.

I'm assuming this came directly from Taprite this way, and I'm also assuming kegconnection does not build these towers themselves, so I am trying to rationalize that if the manufacturer put it together this way, then it must be okay.

However, I wanted some expert keggers opinions on it.

So the count is 2 for it, an 0 against it, anyone else care to lend their opinions?

I'd appreciate it just for peace of mind.

I would contact the manufacturer and ask what their product should contain. I would expect tower shanks if I ordered a tower...

I received the same tower setup with the hose connected to the barb. don't worry about it, it works fine with no foaming.

If that had the elbow tower shanks, wouldnt they contact each other due to the angle of the shanks to each other? (in your elbow tower pic they are overlapped, they look to be different lengths or were they bent to fit?) I have a 3" dia tower with two elbow shanks, mine are 90° from each other, and the lines are close but have no issues contacting each other.

At a minimum I would put some clamps on those lines, I would hate to have a line pop off and empty a keg via the tower fountain

Gremlyn1 said:

I would contact the manufacturer and ask what their product should contain. I would expect tower shanks if I ordered a tower...

Click to expand...

I actually called and spoke with the owner, Todd, hes a very nice guy and their customer service rocks!

He said that this is an actual American made Taprite tower, and some of the towers they use are India made. He explained that there is no right or wrong when it comes to the shank/tailpieces there are just differences with how each are made.

I have only seen the towers with the elbowed tailpieces, and that is why I questioned it to begin with, however, Todd explained it really comes down to the manufacturer, and even then some manufactureres will modify things slightly for cost and availability puposes.

d_m_s_00 said:

I received the same tower setup with the hose connected to the barb. don't worry about it, it works fine with no foaming.

Click to expand...

Awesome, I was hoping someone with the same setup would chime in here and stop me from sweating. I have a question for you, are you using the standard 5' lines that came with it, or did you lengthen your beer line?

I want to switch out my beer lines to 10' so I can serve higher pressures w/o excessive foaming, and I'm gonna have to cut up a $20 craftsman 1 1/16" wrench to get the shanks off. I was just curious if you have dealt with removing the shanks or not.

azscoob said:

At a minimum I would put some clamps on those lines, I would hate to have a line pop off and empty a keg via the tower fountain

Click to expand...

The reason I started questioning everything was because I want to add 10' lines to my tower, and my setup was different than what I have seen.

I plan on adding clamps to everything, even cutting the existing spring style clamps off and using worm drive clamps on all my hoses.

You make a valid point about the elbows though, my tower is also 90° away, and I would see how they would interfere with on another if they were identical.

I have the same tower. i kept the original hose, first glass forms up but it fine afterwards. i am thinking of changing my line to 7-8 feet. also cooling the tower/ line in tower should solve the forming issue.

whale said:

I have the same tower. i kept the original hose, first glass forms up but it fine afterwards. i am thinking of changing my line to 7-8 feet. also cooling the tower/ line in tower should solve the forming issue.

Click to expand...

I'm going to use 10' hoses, and I can cut them back if necessary, I am using copper piping to run the hoses through, and said piping will extend into the fridge. I'm hoping that the longer lines, and the copper tubes will reduce/remove the foaming.

I just looked at mine today. the barb on the tap seems to be fatter than quick disconnect barb. I just wonder if i will be able to hook up 3/16 line.

Schnitzengiggle said:

I actually called and spoke with the owner, Todd, hes a very nice guy and their customer service rocks!

He said that this is an actual American made Taprite tower, and some of the towers they use are India made. He explained that there is no right or wrong when it comes to the shank/tailpieces there are just differences with how each are made.

I have only seen the towers with the elbowed tailpieces, and that is why I questioned it to begin with, however, Todd explained it really comes down to the manufacturer, and even then some manufactureres will modify things slightly for cost and availability puposes.



Awesome, I was hoping someone with the same setup would chime in here and stop me from sweating. I have a question for you, are you using the standard 5' lines that came with it, or did you lengthen your beer line?

I want to switch out my beer lines to 10' so I can serve higher pressures w/o excessive foaming, and I'm gonna have to cut up a $20 craftsman 1 1/16" wrench to get the shanks off. I was just curious if you have dealt with removing the shanks or not.

Click to expand...

Yes, I added 10 feet of 3/16 lines, i didn't have a wrench so i had to heat up the hose ends with boiling water for a min to get them a bit softer to get on. i also added some worm clamps because i had them and wanted to be extra safe. here's a pic (the open hose is from the tower cooler)
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/95xiUMhvMA0MIH5ObtL2KQ?feat=directlink

Bought two of these towers from kegconnection.com but not at the same time. One came with the elbow shanks (it arrived packaged in a box) and the other with the tubing directly connected (no box, just wrapped in bubble wrap). Will be assembling these on the keezer in the next week or two.

Schnitzengiggle said:

I want to switch out my beer lines to 10' so I can serve higher pressures w/o excessive foaming, and I'm gonna have to cut up a $20 craftsman 1 1/16" wrench to get the shanks off. I was just curious if you have dealt with removing the shanks or not.

Click to expand...

The careful application of long nose locking pliers (vise grips) will save you from destroying that wrench. It's a tight fit, but doable.

At least that's how I removed the shanks on my tower to run new beer line.

Rushis said:

The careful application of long nose locking pliers (vise grips) will save you from destroying that wrench. It's a tight fit, but doable.

At least that's how I removed the shanks on my tower to run new beer line.

Click to expand...

I ended up making one of these to make it easy:

d_m_s_00 said:

Yes, I added 10 feet of 3/16 lines, i didn't have a wrench so i had to heat up the hose ends with boiling water for a min to get them a bit softer to get on. i also added some worm clamps because i had them and wanted to be extra safe. here's a pic (the open hose is from the tower cooler)
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/95xiUMhvMA0MIH5ObtL2KQ?feat=directlink

Click to expand...

I also added some hose clamps, things are pretty tight in there with the copper tubing , I think the shank nut wrench will be useful in the future.



Draft tower are beautiful, aren't they?