Pressure Checking Used Kegs

Got a steal on 4 used ball locks last night, and I'm slowly making my way through cleaning them all up. I tore the first one down last night and it's getting a 24 hour soak in some oxy.

After that's all said and done and I rebuild it with a new o-ring kit, what's the common procedure to make sure it holds pressure? Hit it with 30psi and let it sit for a week and see if it keeps the pressure? Should I do it with a dry keg or put some water or starsan in the pressurize?

Brand new to kegging, just want to make sure I'm doing everything right before I rack my bourbon barrel porter in one to age until Christmas!


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Just pressurize it and spray with soap water where you would have leaks, so around the posts, poppets and lid... If you see bubbles, you have a leak. People use starsan too, but soap detects smaller leaks due to the foaming.

I always fill mine with 10 psi. These kegs are designed to seal under pressure, so sometimes people will fill the keg with really high pressure to hold a seal then sell it showing that it holds a seal, but at lower pressure you know it's holding a seal vs being "forced” into it.

I've dealt with literally over a 100 kegs and rarely had issues with leaking once the obvious "hiss" is maintained. If I do have a hiss, a new oring always fixed the problem. I've had some really bad looking kegs too, but they always held pressure after new seals.

I've had more lid leaks than anything mainly because the seals are a lot more money (even in bulk) so I try to avoid swapping the lid seal at all cost... Keg lube can help sometimes.

 

I put mine together and hit it with 20#'s. Spray check for leaks, then put it away under pressure until I need it. Sometimes you need to slide the lid around (or turn it 180°) to find it's sweet spot. I replace all the o-rings on used kegs I buy. No reason to play around with them to save $3. I always have a couple of extra sets laying around just in case. I rebuild all my kegs once a year, unless a leak develops sooner... which is rare.

Get some keg lube. It'll help your seals last a long time. It's worth it's weight in gold.

 

I do a leak down test. I pressurize them with 20-30# and then let them sit for a few days and see if they hold pressure. I have a pressure gauge with a ball lock disco and I click it on the beer post and see what it says. I bought 4 kegs last winter for $35 ea and wanted to see if they worked. It seems to be a good system for me.

 

Thanks for the tips guys! Got my first one all cleaned up an rebuilt last night and it seems to be holding pressure just fine! Keg lube is definitely worth it's weight in gold.


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