How Long Does Your CO2 Tank Last?

[NBBrewer]

I have a 20 lb tank lasted about 6 months with a keg a week on the tap plus some transferring and washing. I have a 4 way manifold. I may have had a leak for a bit too. I'm on my second 20 lb tank. I am checking religiously for leaks. In the meantime I turn my tank off and see if the pressure drops. Turn it back on... rinse and repeat. Depends if you have carbonated beer in your kegs or not. My tank weighed 39.6 lbs full on sept 23, 2020. It is down to 38.6 lb on Oct 2, 2020. Looks like a pound a week or so. Comes out to $15 to $20 a month. I have my pressure set to 10 to 12 psi with 4 foot hoses. Fridge is at about 2 or 3 degrees Celcius. (So many variables)

 

[ITV]

I have a similar setup as you (20 lb tank with 4 beers on tap) and I get 18 months out of my 20# CO2 tank. The difference is that my kegs last about 3-4 weeks.

To minimize leaks I store my kegs pressurized with 5# CO2, when I go to use a keg I check the pressure. If it leaks the pressure drops and I wont use it until I can locate the leak. I also use oetiker clamps on my gas lines, I don't trust worm drive clamps or MFL swivel nut connectors with gas.

 

[bracconiere]

i drink a 5 gallon corny every 4 days, and a 20lb'r lasts me 10 months, with the occasional leak, i hope to avoid from now on.....i recently learned 5 gallons of co2 weighs 1.23oz's....so one 12oz pour would weigh 0.65grams....and at my prefered carb level it takes 1.3oz's to burst carb.....you got a leak somewhere.....

i see you're weighing it...i keep mine on a scale all the time so i can notice even the slightest change.....my scale drops about 0.2oz's-0.3oz's a day without a leak....


here's the one i use...stays on 24/7 if it's plugged into the wall....and accurate enough to detect the gravity of sun and moon!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KYA0RC2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[bracconiere]

wait $80 for four pounds of co2? if i'm doing my math right......

(which i'm not...sorry )

 

[NBBrewer]

i drink a 5 gallon corny every 4 days, and a 20lb'r lasts me 10 months.....i recently learned 5 gallons of co2 weighs 1.23oz's....so one 12oz pour would weigh 0.65grams....and at my prefered carb level it takes 1.3oz's to burst carb.....you got a leak somewhere.....

i see you're weighing it...i keep mine on a scale all the time so i can notice even the slightest change.....my scale drops about 0.2oz's-0.3oz's a day without a leak....


here's the one i use...stays on 24/7 if it's plugged into the wall....and accurate enough to detect the gravity of sun and moon!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KYA0RC2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My ambient temp is going from 77 to 55f 25 to 10 c from summer to winter

 

[bracconiere]

My ambient temp is going from 77 to 55f 25 to 10 c from summer to winter

i was just saying....when i pour 10-12 12oz glasses my co2 tank loses 0.2-0.3oz's? but for that presices a measurement i have to consider the sun and moon.....

 

[NBBrewer]

i was just saying....when i pour 10-12 12oz glasses my co2 tank loses 0.2-0.3oz's? but for that presices a measurement i have to consider the sun and moon.....

I should add I do a fair bit of purging and by a fair bit I mean a lot

 

[jseyfert3]

Comes out to $15 to $20 a month.

How much do you pay for a 20 lb refill!? That's implying you pay $180 for a 20 lb refill. That can't be right, I paid $220 for a full 20 lb tank, after which refills (actually exchanges) are $30 each.

Or are you using the price of a new bottle and amortizing it over a 6 month period for some reason?

 

[NBBrewer]

How much do you pay for a 20 lb refill!? That's implying you pay $180 for a 20 lb refill. That can't be right, I paid $220 for a full 20 lb tank, after which refills (actually exchanges) are $30 each.

Or are you using the price of a new bottle and amortizing it over a 6 month period for some reason?

$70 for yearly contract. $55 for a tank full of CO2 ( well almost 20 lbs). 70 plus 55 plus 55 divided by 2 equals about $15 a month. That's Canadian

 

[jseyfert3]

$70 for yearly contract. $55 for a tank full of CO2 ( well almost 20 lbs). 70 plus 55 plus 55 divided by 2 equals about $15 a month. That's Canadian

Ah, Canadian makes those numbers slightly better. No option to buy a tank outright then?

 

[bracconiere]

ok, when i was still purging way more then i needed to be, i keep my tank on a digital scale, and would cry that purging at 50psi cost me about an ounce of co2...thanks to this chart courtesy of doug293cz

I should add I do a fair bit of purging and by a fair bit I mean a lot

for your gas emmission problems....maybe this would help? i realized i only need to burn about 0.1oz's co2 a keg, not an entire ounce!

 

[kmarkstevens]

Once I started spunding, the 10 pound tank seems to last forever. I have no evidence but my wag is that the initial forced carbonation uses up the majority of the CO2, whereas just pushing already carbonated beer thru the tap is pretty minimal.

 

[TechFanMD]

i drink a 5 gallon corny every 4 days, and a 20lb'r lasts me 10 months, with the occasional leak, i hope to avoid from now on.....i recently learned 5 gallons of co2 weighs 1.23oz's....so one 12oz pour would weigh 0.65grams....and at my prefered carb level it takes 1.3oz's to burst carb.....you got a leak somewhere.....

i see you're weighing it...i keep mine on a scale all the time so i can notice even the slightest change.....my scale drops about 0.2oz's-0.3oz's a day without a leak....


here's the one i use...stays on 24/7 if it's plugged into the wall....and accurate enough to detect the gravity of sun and moon!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KYA0RC2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A 5 gallon keg every 4 days.....so like 12+ beers per day? Is this a typo? I'm not judging your alcohol consumption at all......I want to know how you keep up with brewing!

 

[bracconiere]

I'm not judging your alcohol consumption at all......I want to know how you keep up with brewing!

affraid no typo, no need to worry about me either..i gave up on good food and can handle it.....i keep up by brewing 10 gallon batches and getting them done in 4-5 days.....i only weigh ~175lbs too....(6'2") live off rice bran, beans, flax seeds, sunflower seeds.....kale and oj for A,c & K.......

and that's 9% alcohol beer too! lol i add gluco to cut empty calories from extra carbs!

 

[TechFanMD]

affraid no typo, no need to worry about me either..i gave up on good food and can handle it.....i keep up by brewing 10 gallon batches and getting them done in 4-5 days.....i only weigh ~175lbs too....(6'2") live off rice bran, beans, flax seeds, sunflower seeds.....kale and oj for A,c & K.......

and that's 9% alcohol beer too! lol i add gluco to cut empty calories from extra carbs!

wish you weren't so far away. I'd love to meet you and chat

 

[bracconiere]

wish you weren't so far away. I'd love to meet you and chat

well, it may seem creepy, but unlike when i'm safe behind my keyboard i'm kinda the quite type.....lol

 

[NBBrewer]

Ah, Canadian makes those numbers slightly better. No option to buy a tank outright then?

Looked at it. They generally don't refill on the spot only exchange. If you do want it refilled they take it away for who knows how long. I am an hour from Praxair so I arrange through a local supply company that deals with them. I know long and convoluted. If you do opt to buy a used tank and if you don't have a contract they charge an inspection fee which is more than the contract price so they got you by the bojangles. There is another place about 4 hours away that sells new and refills. I might turn to them one day.

 

[NBBrewer]

ok, when i was still purging way more then i needed to be, i keep my tank on a digital scale, and would cry that purging at 50psi cost me about an ounce of co2...thanks to this chart courtesy of doug293cz



for your gas emmission problems....maybe this would help? i realized i only need to burn about 0.1oz's co2 a keg, not an entire ounce!

View attachment 700994

Nice chart. What does a purge cycle consist of?

 

[NBBrewer]

i drink a 5 gallon corny every 4 days, and a 20lb'r lasts me 10 months, with the occasional leak, i hope to avoid from now on.....i recently learned 5 gallons of co2 weighs 1.23oz's....so one 12oz pour would weigh 0.65grams....and at my prefered carb level it takes 1.3oz's to burst carb.....you got a leak somewhere.....

i see you're weighing it...i keep mine on a scale all the time so i can notice even the slightest change.....my scale drops about 0.2oz's-0.3oz's a day without a leak....


here's the one i use...stays on 24/7 if it's plugged into the wall....and accurate enough to detect the gravity of sun and moon!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KYA0RC2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Nice Looking unit braconiere. Gotta get me one. Thanks.

 

[catalanotte]

I have a 20 lb tank lasted about 6 months with a keg a week on the tap plus some transferring and washing.

Sounds a bit high on use. That’s only 26 kegs (assuming 5 gal corny). I get about 8-10 kegs out of a 5lb tank. Fill and purge twice (oxy/starsan), force carb, and serve at about 12 psi.
Check my math, but with 2 purges, carb to 2.5 vol, and serving at 12 psi it should take about 6 volumes (30 gal) of CO2. The 1.3 oz CO2 per 5 gal mentioned earlier is close. So each keg should use about a half pound of CO2, more or less depending on how you purge kegs. Should get at least 40 kegs from that 20 lb tank. Good luck finding the leak, soap water in a spray bottle works well.

 

[ITV]

affraid no typo, no need to worry about me either..i gave up on good food and can handle it.....i keep up by brewing 10 gallon batches and getting them done in 4-5 days.....i only weigh ~175lbs too....(6'2") live off rice bran, beans, flax seeds, sunflower seeds.....kale and oj for A,c & K.......

and that's 9% alcohol beer too! lol i add gluco to cut empty calories from extra carbs!

I'm guessing that you are under 50 years old, based on my own experience drinking pleanty of beer without gaining weight in my younger days.

I enjoy my BBQ too much so I have to sacrifice drinking less "quallity" beer, at least I haven't succumbed to drinking "light" beer.

 

[bracconiere]

at least I haven't succumbed to drinking "light" beer.

LOL, call it Brüt! i'm getting there...i just balance my calories just like a check book, write everything down, i burn 2820 calories a day "on avg" sitting on my ass, so just make sure the monthly avg is ~2820, to maintain my weight.....some days 3800, some days 2000, but the avg is what matters.....

it's pretty accurate too, i acidently wasn't measuring my beer right for a year, went up to 205lb's before i caught it....but just had to cut down to an avg of 2750, and lost 30lb's over 3 years.....

edit: if anyone's ever curious to see what an alcoholic eats for 10 years....i got it all witten down! lol i was getting regular blood work done between 2013, and 2018 too....have all that too....

 

[marc1]

Nice chart. What does a purge cycle consist of?

You fill it to that pressure, then vent it.

 

[bracconiere]

You fill it to that pressure, then vent it.

i gotta say, it was still painfull purging with my tank on the scale....every purge at 50psi lost me 0.3oz's of co2......i only had the heart to do it 3 times....then when i was burst carbing it took what seemed like hours of shaking rattling, and rolling, to get it to even take another 0.3oz, the first ounce went quick thouugh.......i might try a carb lid....(thanks for the idea!)

sub idea... i have a flare fitting my gas can i put my flare bev QD on it, and would that work like a carb lid? damn IT! another week to wait to try it!

 

[NBBrewer]

You fill it to that pressure, then vent it.

You fill it to that pressure, then vent it.

Thanks marc1 what is the optimal ppm?

 

[marc1]

Thanks marc1 what is the optimal ppm?

The best would be 0

You can get it really low without using too much CO2 if you fill the keg with sanitizer first, then you're just pressurizing and venting the tiny headspace. Then run the sanitizer out a picnic tap.

Now I purge kegs with fermentation gas, but I still do it for my fermenter after dry hopping. 14x at 30 PSI.

 

[NBBrewer]

The best would be 0

You can get it really low without using too much CO2 if you fill the keg with sanitizer first, then you're just pressurizing and venting the tiny headspace. Then run the sanitizer out a picnic tap.

Now I purge kegs with fermentation gas, but I still do it for my fermenter after dry hopping. 14x at 30 PSI.

Yea I was just fermenting a batch and after shaking it around to infuse some oxygen(probably better with a tank of O2 and a diffuser stone) for the yeast i was wondering how much oxygen is consumed by the yeast and how much remains in solution and does fermentation or purging displace that? Also how long after adding yeast should I be worried about oxygen getting into an open or lightly covered fermenter opening? I ask this because I sometimes get a furious krausen with my IPA and with my lager I don't want suckback from the blowoff until the temp stabilizes.

 

[marc1]

Yea I was just fermenting a batch and after shaking it around to infuse some oxygen(probably better with a tank of O2 and a diffuser stone) for the yeast i was wondering how much oxygen is consumed by the yeast and how much remains in solution and does fermentation or purging displace that? Also how long after adding yeast should I be worried about oxygen getting into an open or lightly covered fermenter opening? I ask this because I sometimes get a furious krausen with my IPA and with my lager I don't want suckback from the blowoff until the temp stabilizes.

The yeast will use the O2 that you dissolve in the wort at pitching.

Like many things in brewing, different home brewers find what works best for them. If you're noticing that you're beer is becoming oxidized (and you want to stop it), you can move to more stringent processes.

I have noticed hoppy beer lasting much longer since controlling O2 during/after fermentation. Years ago I had a Bravo/Summit IPA that I kegged by open racking with an auto siphon. At kegging it had an amazing bright citrus tangerine character. Over time it darkened, lost hop flavor/aroma, and got sickly sweet. I dumped out the couple gallons that was left. This doesn't happen anymore.

If you are worried about oxidation, you should at minimum make sure that your fermenter is airlocked (or equivalent) by the time fermentation begins to slow down. I like using FermCap, ~2 gallons of headspace, and low pressure during fermentation to prevent large krausen from causing problems.
If you cold crash, find a way to prevent suckback of air (lots of discussion on here of that with balloons, positive CO2 pressure, etc.)

The next step would be a closed transfer to a purged keg (or O2 mitigating bottling techniques - I don't bottle, but I know there's at least one thread on here addressing it).

Purging your keg would probably be a waste of CO2 if you are fermenting without an airlock and open transferring.

If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, there are hot side low oxygen techniques as well, which the Low Oxygen Brewing sub-forum here goes into. For me, it isn't worth it to go into the hot side stuff, but others find great value in it (and still others think it is a myth). My understanding is if you do the hot side without doing the cold side, you've wasted your time. So if you want to start somewhere, start with the cold side.

 

[NBBrewer]

i drink a 5 gallon corny every 4 days, and a 20lb'r lasts me 10 months, with the occasional leak, i hope to avoid from now on.....i recently learned 5 gallons of co2 weighs 1.23oz's....so one 12oz pour would weigh 0.65grams....and at my prefered carb level it takes 1.3oz's to burst carb.....you got a leak somewhere.....

i see you're weighing it...i keep mine on a scale all the time so i can notice even the slightest change.....my scale drops about 0.2oz's-0.3oz's a day without a leak....


here's the one i use...stays on 24/7 if it's plugged into the wall....and accurate enough to detect the gravity of sun and moon!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KYA0RC2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I checked and initially it seems I'm using about 0.8 oz of CO2 a day. gotta gather some more empirical data

 

[bracconiere]

I checked and initially it seems I'm using about 0.8 oz of CO2 a day. gotta gather some more empirical data

one good test is to shut off your tank, leave it over night, and if it hisses when turned back on in the morning, you know you have a leak in the system...what i do to find a leak, start dissconnecting, shutting off to narrow it down.....


shut off the check valve from the reg, and tank, just try to narrow it down is about all i can say......


(0.8oz would be like 35 12oz pours!! i did use that much when i was slow carbing 4 kegs and serving one though)

 

[bracconiere]

I checked and initially it seems I'm using about 0.8 oz of CO2 a day

curious how you checked?

 

[ITV]

affraid no typo, no need to worry about me either..i gave up on good food and can handle it.....i keep up by brewing 10 gallon batches and getting them done in 4-5 days.....i only weigh ~175lbs too....(6'2") live off rice bran, beans, flax seeds, sunflower seeds.....kale and oj for A,c & K.......

and that's 9% alcohol beer too! lol i add gluco to cut empty calories from extra carbs!

 

[NBBrewer]

curious how you checked?

checked the weight but i feel the need to get the higher precision device you mentioned in a previous post. Once they are all carbed up and I didnt pour anything i should get close to zero on the weight drop no? presuming I have no leaks.

 

[bracconiere]

i should get close to zero on the weight drop no?

like weighing yourself in the morning....i'd recomend doing it at the same time of day, i notice my scale fluctuates about 0.5oz from morning to night......(but it stays on 24/7 if plugged in so i just keep it on the scale all the time, and really just look for big drops that happen fast. i do keep my tank outside of the fridge though)

edit: and no, it's not the pouring, it actually goes up at night!

 

[ITV]

For really slow leaks, I find it useful to submerse the fittings in question under water and look for bubbles if at all possible.

 

[NBBrewer]

like weighing yourself in the morning....i'd recomend doing it at the same time of day, i notice my scale fluctuates about 0.5oz from morning to night......(but it stays on 24/7 if plugged in so i just keep it on the scale all the time, and really just look for big drops that happen fast. i do keep my tank outside of the fridge though)

edit: and no, it's not the pouring, it actually goes up at night!

Ok first 24 hours after doing a quick check on the fittings nd with pressure on 4 kegs I am proud to report no drop in weight. That doesn't mean that when I reach in and move things around a bit something won't start leaking. I like the idea of a committed scale.

 

[NBBrewer]

For really slow leaks, I find it useful to submerse the fittings in question under water and look for bubbles if at all possible.

Yea that would certainly pinpoint it. My lines are all short and hung up though and inside the fridge with the kegs almost touching the ceiling and the manifold on top... its like working on a Japanese car

 

[bracconiere]

I like the idea of a committed scale.

when i wake up in the morning, and it's the same weight as when i went to bed, i breath a sigh of reliefe every time...... or well, like i said it goes up at night....but i get comfort it's about the same as the previous morning and not like 1-2oz's less....lol

its like working on a Japanese car

oh my, i've had to replace my master clutch cyclinder on this honda...3-4 times, my wrists never have to bend so much......

 

[ITV]

its like working on a Japanese car

I know what you mean, I have done several timing belt changes on Honda's & Acura's, fortunately my hands are thin but they still come out all scraped up like Edward Scissorhands had attacked them. At least I don't have to second guess if the bolt is metric or SAE on my Japanese or German cars.