Regulator not....regulating?

[luke2080]

I've got one basic Keg Cowboy regulator hooked up in my kegerator, and have been using that with no problems. But today, the pressure on the regulator for pressure to the kegs went wonky. I could use some troubleshooting help.

I tried to turn the pressure down. It went up, I tried the other way (in case I am dumb) it went up. It then started just rising on its own. Up to 50 psi. I kept burping it.

I then turned off the main valve from the tank. It was still going up, and I had to keep burping it.

Now, the gas lines were unhooked from kegs as I was swapping them out. When I hooked the gas lines to the new kegs, it remains stable. If I take the gas line off of the keg, the regulator starts to shoot to the moon, like it is getting back pressure, but from nothing.

This was in the fridge at probably 40 degrees. Could it have frozen and mucked up?

Right now it seems to be holding at 12, outside of my fridge, hooked up to the 2 kegs I need to carb. In a safe corner of my basement in case that thing explodes.

Has anyone come across this, or have other troubleshooting ideas besides hitting it with a hammer and spending more money?

 

[zachattack]

Sounds like a problem with the diaphragm in the regulator.

A lot of the time this problem is caused by debris caught in the regulator's diaphragm; a little bit of crud in there will prevent the diaphragm from making a seal, hence the slow leak. There's a procedure to try blasting it out, it involves shutting off the tank, removing all the lines and opening the valves, setting the regulator at it's highest pressure, then quickly open/close the tank valve a few times. You should get a good burst of CO2 coming out with each purge, and hopefully the debris will come out with it.

Otherwise you can try carefully disassembling and cleaning the diaphragm. Is it a taprite? You can buy rebuild kits for those.

 

[luke2080]

Thanks - I'll try this "blast it out" method.