New beer lines in my kegerator - 3' too short?

[ahansen]

So I had my kegerator torn down this weekend and decided it was time to replace the line from my corny to the tap. Right now, the line is 5' and works like a champ, however, I only have 3' of line - will that work? I figure I can step the gas pressure down, but didn't know if shortening the line will be a problem down the road (and yes, this gives me ample line to play with inside the kegerator for connecting and disconnectin

Thanks,
Adam

 

[SporkD2]

Basically when your trying to balance a kegging system you have to equalize the pressure coming out of the keg. If you want 2.5 volumes of co2 at 38 deg. then you need ~12 PSI. From there you can figure out how much beer line you need. Most people I know start with 10' and cut off 1' until the beer pour properly

 

[david_42]

I use 10-12' of 3/16ths. Makes for a slow pour at some pressures, but I never have foaming problems.

 

[IrregularPulse]

The calculator that floats around here said I needed 3' of 3/16th. I thought that was too short so I went with 5'. I think I could probably use 3' and be okay, but will just leave the 5'. Like said above you want to balance your system. This will allow you to carb to your desired volumes of Co2, leave it at that pressure so you don't lose carbonation, and serve without foam. To do this you need to determine your temperature you want and level of CO2. Then use a calculator to determine the pressure for those volumes at that temp. Then figure your line length for resistance. PM me an email address and I'll send you the one I got from here and used. It takes into account Line ID, Shank length and height from keg to tap.

 

[Dave46382]

Basically when your trying to balance a kegging system you have to equalize the pressure coming out of the keg. If you want 2.5 volumes of co2 at 38 deg. then you need ~12 PSI. From there you can figure out how much beer line you need. Most people I know start with 10' and cut off 1' until the beer pour properly

I use 6 feet of 3/16th at 38 degrees F and at less than 8 inch rise to the faucet and it works fine. (For what it's worth)

 

[FlyEagles78]

I use 10-12' of 3/16ths. Makes for a slow pour at some pressures, but I never have foaming problems.

This is what I do. 10' of beer line per keg and set it at 11-12 psi and I never had a problem as of yet.

Thanks to the research I did on this message board.

 

[sily_rabit]

This is confusing to me. I've read so many things. I used the calculator and it says I should have ~53" of beer line. Then I see most kits come with 5' of beer line. Then I read several people recommending 8-10' of beer line. The system I bought was set up with only 2' of beer line and they said it worked good. I just picked it up last night. Its a freezer set up for a commercial keg. I've ordered kegs, lines and disconnects to set it up for 2 homebrew kegs. I added 16' of 3/16 beer line to my order assuming I would put 8' on each keg. But the calculator shows that being way to long. I intend to force carb, does that impact getting the balance perfect? If I start at 8' and cut it down, how do I know when the pour is right? I'm just learning and plan to set at ~12 psi to get 2.5 co2 with a 38° temp. Is that correct?