Sanke Keg Worth It?

After contentiously upgrading my system to bigger, better and shinier things, I have been looking at my kegging system with my beat up ugly used ball lock kegs with the rubber ends falling off not to mention i often have problems with them leaking gas and/or beer. I was just looking at a 4 pack of brand new ball locks and almost bought them, but then realized that a new 5 gallon sanke keg is actually less than a new 5 gallon ball lock.

Is there a downside to going with Sanke kegs, other than cleaning and sanitizing??

The biggest item for me would be the ease to add commercial beer to the mix if needed, as in my wife requesting keg of Angry Orchard I could easily do so.

 

If I were to start kegging again I would go Sankey. Cornies aren't that cheap anymore, and the sankey connectors are just worlds better.

 

I would say the biggest downside from my experience is that you can't just have the gas hooked up with no liquid line for standby carbing like you can do with a corny unless you want to tie up a faucet or have a spare picnic tap handy. If you don't care about that then I say go for it

 

The biggest downside is you pretty much need to have a keg cleaner to clean a sanke. Cornies are easier to clean and maintain. Sanke kegs are also a bit harder to fill, they tend to foam and make a mess out the gas port. I have used cornies at home and sanke kegs at work.
I personally would not use sanke kegs at home given the choice. Just my 2cents

 

I use Sankes for fermenting (1/4 bbl), but not kegging. I use a pressure washer with a 90 deg tip to clean them and it works way better than any other method I've found, but I have the spears out of my fermenters.

I see you're local to me. I have some 1/6th bbl Sankes (unmolested) I could let go very reasonably if you want to try it.
PM me if you're interested.

 

I had seven 1/6 sanke kegs and recently sold all of them (for the price of what corny kegs cost too ironically). Removing the ring is a bitch. Cleaning the post is a bitch because you just never know since that ball can't come out. If I ever have an issue with a ball lock, a new seal always fixes it. I buy them in bulk, so they hardly cost anything (except the lid seals are about a dollar or so ea)