Splicing 3/16 beer line?

[shroomzofdoom]

So...I used all the various keg balancing equations for my setup and they all pointed to lines about 5-6 feet long. So I made 6 ea 6 foot runs (mistake)

When I hooked up everything and gassed to 12 psi, just kept getting foam. Dropped to 10 psi and still foam.

So decided to 'lengthen' a few lines to test. Beer line being pretty pricey, I don't want to scrap all my 6 foot lengths and was hoping to simply 'splice' another 4 feet to each line.

Bought some SS barbed couplers from mcmaster and added 4 feet to one of the 6 foot beer lines. 10 feet total. Still getting about 1/3 glass foam on each pour, better...but still not 100% happy.

Are my SS splices the problem, in other words--lengthening beer line a bad idea? Should I just bite the bullet and get all new 10 foot lengths? Will the results be any better?

 

[brewingkitty]

the coupler wall thickness is adding some turbulence to the line... i hope the longest piece is on the tap side. also insure that your hose clamps are nice 'n tight.. i use 1/4" stainless for all my 3/16" line connections and i darn near don't need a clamp but put one (stainless) on "just to be safe."

 

[shroomzofdoom]

Yes, I should have clarified 1/4" ID on the SS couplers and 3/16" ID on the beer line

 

[SweetSounds]

I'd start with a long (15'+) beer line. Trim it until you find the "right" length for your system. Then you can try one spliced to that length. Then you'll know for sure if it's the splice, or if you're still short of balanced.

 

[devilishprune]

Just buy new beer line. The space between the two beer line sections is probably causing some turbulence in your pour.

10' seems to be the sweet spot for me, good amount of foam, good amount of beer coming out also.

 

[shroomzofdoom]

Yeah, this was a bad idea...the SS coupler isn't machined very cleanly so it's creating nucleation sites....not good. More line ordered, lesson learned.