Is My Tubing Sufficient For Holding High (50 psi) Pressure?

Lady at the homebrew shop said the smaller tubing in the photo would work fine for my primary regulator valve. I set my primary at 40-50 PSI. This tubing isn’t very thick but it’s what she recommended and my run is very short so it was less than $3. I could find out myself if it’ll work in practice but wanted to hear from others if standard tubing like this is sufficient to hold that type of pressure.

The thicker/larger tubing is a bottle fill setup I got from NB or morebeer and is 5/16” ID and 9/16” OD for perspective

Thoughts?

 

Proper hose for a CO2 pressure regulator gas line is 5/16" ID and 9/16" OD. The hose on the right is not that thick as you identified. Will it work? Probably, maybe short term, watch for bulges/weak spots.

You really want a 1/4" thick wall. Amazon sells hose designed for brewing pressures.

 

I wanted to make sure before I made the hole in my keezer larger.

I’ll look for the thicker wall tubing. Thanks for the confirmation

 

Thickness can be over-rated. And there's actually no reason to go with a large bore tube like 5/16" for gas. I don't even know where or why that paradigm began but it is old school and these days nonsensical as a metric to strive for.

fwiw, the EVAbarrier tubing that is the current rage is only 2mm (or 1.5mm) thick. That's ~.08 to .06". But it's rated to 100 psi at 50°C.
I'm running the 5mm ID/8mm OD tubing for all of my gas lines (4mm ID for beer) and appreciate its lack of bulk, not mention it not letting O2 to get to my kegs.

Solid non-reinforced PVC line as shown by the OP will work but are like sieves when it comes to gas permeability and are stiff as hell in a keezer...

Cheers!

 

Stuff on the right is not meant for more than maybe 5 psi if that...
Stuff on left will probably hold 15-20....
Typical thick wall tubing is not meant for as much as 50 psi if I remember correctly.

Anything that's pressure rated generally has a label stamped on it as an fyi... if theres no label then don't pressurize it ...

Much of the ASME pressure vessel code is predicated on the assumption that the material or geometry can find relief to avoid catatrophic rupture if so stressed. So do yourself a favor and be careful using unmarked things with pressure...

 

I would not trust the one on the right to 50 psi. I bought the red tubing off amazon made for gas. Looked like the same stuff that came with one of my regulators. I carb my wife's sparkling water at pretty high psi with it.

 

It looks similar to what I run for gas, which I often use up to 40psi. I really doubt you'd have issues at 50psi. But, importantly, what is the outcome if there is (unlikely) a leak/burst? For me, it's only the loss of a bottle of CO2. About $20 if the bottle was full to start with. It's in a well-ventilated area so isn't a health risk. If yours is in a small, closed room you might think about thicker line to be safe (or put in a CO2 alarm).

 

Yep, that's the stuff I have. It's hard to tell from the photo, but it looks similar to the OPs.

 

https://datasheets.globalspec.com/ds/2212/USPlastic

OP, your product may not be built to this spec, but this lists 43psi max for those dimensions.

Again, your tubing may actually be weaker than this if not marked...

 

The OP has two sizes of solid PVC tubing. Nothing like EVAbarrier...

Cheers!

 

My thoughts are that the lady at the homebrew shop should think about a new profession. The thin wall tubing in your picture looks like siphon tubing to me... definitely not for pressure.
Get something that's marked specifically for what you intend to do with it.

 

I ordered the red tubing from Amazon. It's walls are double in thickness and seems to be much better for support in my application.

Thanks all for the advice.