In or Out - CO2 bottle and Regulator

[KavDaven]

I started kegging just over a year ago. At first, I was very excited. No more bottling. I could walk over to my 7 cuft freezer, open the chest, grab one of my picnic taps and have a beer. Tall or short with no bottle to rinse and store for the next batch.

Then, I started noticing some issues. My carb levels never seemed static and by CO2 bottle always seemed next to empty. But check back later, and now I have more CO2 in the bottle. I replaced a number of CO2 bottles, suspiciously thinking my LHBS might be ripping me off.

Of course, I'm still on picnic taps, haven't upgraded yet. I'm viewing all these DIY keezer builds and I see all these CO2 bottles with regulators outside the keezer. OUTSIDE THE KEEZER.

So, I build a collar and epoxy it to my freezer and reattach the lid. Drill a hole in the collar and run the CO2 line outside. Now, my CO2 bottle and regulator sit outside my chest freezer at room temp.

Now, my carb level remains static or as expected. My regulator accurately reflects the amount of CO2 I have. More importantly, I'm saving money on CO2 bottles and I'm trusting my LHBS more.

I suspect, that my temp controller dips the actual freezer temp below freezing on occasion and freezes my controller and probably has some sort of weird chemistry effect on the CO2 within the bottle.

Placing the CO2 bottle and regulator outside is the quick fix. Would better temp control in the freezer avoid all this hassle and allow me to store the bottle and regulator back inside on the hump? Or is it common practice to keep the bottle and regulator outside?

 

[paperairplane]

I keep mine outside and a 5# bottle made it about 6 months and carbed / served about 45 gallons of beer.

 

[zachattack]

You can keep the bottle and regulator inside or outside, depending on your preference. As long as you set the pressure appropriately, the temperature of the bottle won't affect carbonation. When the regulator is cold it can take a little longer for the diaphragm to respond, so it might creep up a couple PSI after a day or two. But after that first adjustment there shouldn't be a difference. So you must have another problem.

One big assumption you're making is that the tank pressure gauge tells you how much CO2 you have left in the bottle; that is never true, no matter what the temperature. The tank pressure starts to drop right before the tank is empty, but otherwise will read a constant pressure that's a function of the temperature inside the tank. The only way to know how much CO2 is left in the tank is to remove the regular, weigh the tank, and subtract the tare weight stamped on the tank.

If your carb levels are not static and the pressure in the bottle is swinging wildly, you must have some very serious temperature cycling in that keezer.

I suspect, that my temp controller dips the actual freezer temp below freezing on occasion and freezes my controller and probably has some sort of weird chemistry effect on the CO2 within the bottle.

What do you mean "freezes your controller?" I don't understand this. Regardless, the CO2 will be fine. There isn't any weird chemistry going on, the bottle contains liquid CO2 that boils off to maintain a headspace of CO2 vapor within the tank. The pressure of the CO2 vapor is a function of temperature.

Would better temp control in the freezer avoid all this hassle and allow me to store the bottle and regulator back inside on the hump? Or is it common practice to keep the bottle and regulator outside?

It's common practice to keep the bottle wherever it's most convenient :cross:. I think people are about 50/50 here. Mine is kept inside the keezer with no problem.

What kind of temperature controller do you have? How is it set? Where is the probe located?