1/4" Shank Tail Piece, but 3/16" tubing?

[brian_n]

I'm building my first kegerator, and I bought some seemingly standard size parts: a 1/4" barbed tail piece for the shank and 3/16" Bev-Seal tubing. When they arrived at my house, I realized that I'm an idiot and they don't fit together because of the size difference. Has anybody else had this same problem? If so, how did you resolve it? I've read that 3/16" tubing is best for reducing foam out of the faucet, but I can't seem to find a 3/16" barb anywhere.

I've read on here that some people take the gas tubing and put the end in boiling water for 30 seconds or so, and then stretch it over the barb. Has anybody done this with the liquid tubing? The Bev-Seal tubing says to not exceed 150F....

Thanks

 

[Face Eater]

Put the tubing in warm/hot water and it will slide on the barb. That's how I did it on my setup.

I just used my hot tap water which is about 120 degrees. Worked easily!

 

[JRems]

Or use a heat gun, works even better

 

[Demon]

I have this same combo. The bev seal tubing is very hard to get on the barbs. Boil some water, remove from heat, dip the end of the tubing in for 15 seconds, press a Philips head screwdriver into the end of the tubing to stretch it, shove onto barb.

 

[Bobby_M]

The only think I did differently is use mini needle nose pliers to enlarge the hole since there are no sharp edges.

 

[JuanMoore]

I used small needle nose like Bobby suggested. I also heat up the barb since it seemed to cool the tubing making it hard again as soon as it touched.

 

[nashfunk]

Thank you. I have the same issue. I'll try the heat trick ASAP!

 

[Stovetop535]

Same concept as above, but I used a razor blade to round off the inside just a little bit on the tubing then heat, push on, heat and push a little more..... After two or three cycles it will go on. Wear gloves, or have a dish towel or two close by because those barbs get hot fast.

 

[NivekD]

I heated the the shank and the end of the tubing in hot water...still took some effort but it went on.

 

[mynameissean]

Once you've gotten the tubing on, how do you get the stuff off? I change out my lines to make sure I've got the right length for the beer I'm serving. Getting those things off requires a ridiculous amount of swearing and cutting myself. I think I had to get a pair of pliers to get a good enough grip that I could pull it off the nipple. Any advice/experience here?

Thanks,
Sean

 

[NivekD]

Once you've gotten the tubing on, how do you get the stuff off? I change out my lines to make sure I've got the right length for the beer I'm serving. Getting those things off requires a ridiculous amount of swearing and cutting myself. I think I had to get a pair of pliers to get a good enough grip that I could pull it off the nipple. Any advice/experience here?

Thanks,
Sean

There're really not made to come off. Use MFL fittings if you want to change things out.

 

[JuanMoore]

Once you've gotten the tubing on, how do you get the stuff off? I change out my lines to make sure I've got the right length for the beer I'm serving. Getting those things off requires a ridiculous amount of swearing and cutting myself. I think I had to get a pair of pliers to get a good enough grip that I could pull it off the nipple. Any advice/experience here?

Thanks,
Sean

Why not just use a line long enough for all of your beers? That's the "right length" IMO. The only advantage to a bunch of different line lengths would be saving ~1-3 seconds on the time to fill a pint for your beers with lower carb levels. Is that really worth all of the cost and hassle of a collection of different line lengths and changing them out constantly?

 

[processhead]

Once you've gotten the tubing on, how do you get the stuff off? I change out my lines to make sure I've got the right length for the beer I'm serving. Getting those things off requires a ridiculous amount of swearing and cutting myself. I think I had to get a pair of pliers to get a good enough grip that I could pull it off the nipple. Any advice/experience here?

Thanks,
Sean

Often it is easiest to carefully cut a parallel slit in the tubing with a sharp utility knife. Take care not to nick the hose barbs. It only costs you an 1/2 inch or so of the tubing.

 

[Doed]

Once you've gotten the tubing on, how do you get the stuff off? I change out my lines to make sure I've got the right length for the beer I'm serving. Getting those things off requires a ridiculous amount of swearing and cutting myself. I think I had to get a pair of pliers to get a good enough grip that I could pull it off the nipple. Any advice/experience here?

Thanks,
Sean

Cut it down the nipple with a utility knife then peel the line off the nipple, cut off the end piece with a perpendicular cut. If you are careful you should only end up wasting about 1" of tubing. But I agree with the others either find one length that works and leave it or put the MFL ends on so you can just unscrew them when you want to change them out.

EDIT: processhead beat me to the "Post Reply" button.

 

[zachattack]

Just use long lines for every beer. If you have time to brew your own beer, you have time to wait another 5 seconds for a pint.

 

[mynameissean]

I thought if you put super long lines on your beer, you'd get unbalanced and have still pours? I've been trying to follow equations online about getting the right length for the PSI you're serving at. So if I have a 12psi beer, a 17psi beer, and a 27psi beer, I'll need 3.5, 4.5 and 7.5 or so for each one. If I just go and get 10foot lines for everything, that'll still be fine, even for the low PSI beers? Sorry, still pretty new to this.

 

[JuanMoore]

I thought if you put super long lines on your beer, you'd get unbalanced and have still pours? I've been trying to follow equations online about getting the right length for the PSI you're serving at. So if I have a 12psi beer, a 17psi beer, and a 27psi beer, I'll need 3.5, 4.5 and 7.5 or so for each one. If I just go and get 10foot lines for everything, that'll still be fine, even for the low PSI beers? Sorry, still pretty new to this.

The ONLY side effect to lines longer than the calculators give you is a (very) slightly slower pour. The terms "line balancing" and "ideal length" are somewhat misleading. You need "balance" the pressure with enough resistance to slow the beer down enough to prevent foaming, but more resistance doesn't hurt anything. IMO the "ideal length" for a homebrewer is the one that allows a wide range of serving temps and carb levels, not the one that results in some arbitrary flow rate. If the pour is slow enough that you're not seeing the head you'd like, just hold the glass a little more upright.

Virtually every "line balancing" calculator or equation I've seen is fundamentally flawed anyway. All that most of them actually calculate is the line length that will result in a flow rate of 1gal/min. That usually works for most commercial systems where the beer is kept cold (38° or lower) and the carbonation level under ~2.8 vol, but if you want to serve your beer warmer, or at a higher carb level, the pour needs to be slower to prevent foaming. If you're interested, this is the only halfway decent calculator I've seen. You still have to figure out the pint fill rate that won't cause foaming though, which can be tough. I'd suggest no faster than a 10 sec pint fill, and slower if you plan on serving at warmer temps or using higher carb levels. FWIW I use 18' of barrier line for each faucet in my keezer, and can pour a wide variety of carb levels just fine.

 

[mynameissean]

The ONLY side effect to lines longer than the calculators give you is a (very) slightly slower pour. The terms "line balancing" and "ideal length" are somewhat misleading. You need "balance" the pressure with enough resistance to slow the beer down enough to prevent foaming, but more resistance doesn't hurt anything. IMO the "ideal length" for a homebrewer is the one that allows a wide range of serving temps and carb levels, not the one that results in some arbitrary flow rate. If the pour is slow enough that you're not seeing the head you'd like, just hold the glass a little more upright.

Virtually every "line balancing" calculator or equation I've seen is fundamentally flawed anyway. All that most of them actually calculate is the line length that will result in a flow rate of 1gal/min. That usually works for most commercial systems where the beer is kept cold (38° or lower) and the carbonation level under ~2.8 vol, but if you want to serve your beer warmer, or at a higher carb level, the pour needs to be slower to prevent foaming. If you're interested, this is the only halfway decent calculator I've seen. You still have to figure out the pint fill rate that won't cause foaming though, which can be tough. I'd suggest no faster than a 10 sec pint fill, and slower if you plan on serving at warmer temps or using higher carb levels. FWIW I use 18' of barrier line for each faucet in my keezer, and can pour a wide variety of carb levels just fine.

Awesome, thanks! I've been trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong when I put in the 'ideal' length for my lines and still get foamy pours. I'll go buy a crapton of lines and just start putting in long 3/16th lines everywhere.

 

[brian_n]

In regards to getting the tubing off, I used a utility knife to cut a slit in the tubing, and then it comes right off.

In regards to line length, I used those calculators initially, and had lines of about 7.5'. It wasn't long enough, so I upped it to 10', and it's working great now.