1/4" ID gas line tubing?

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

Hi all,

I have a bunch of 1/4" swagelok stuff my buddy gave me from which I can build a gas distribution manifold. I'm going to use 1/4" hosebarbs from this and want to use 1/4" ID gas lines from here to the kegs.

Can someone give me a good source for 1/4" ID gas line? Can I just use the standard braided PVC stuff I can buy by the foot at my local hardware store, or does the gas line need to be food grade as well? The stuff from my hardware store would be like this

Any info or places to purchase online would be helpful.

Thanks!
Steve

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I use Kuriyama K3150-03 braided PVC tubing. It sports pretty much every positive food/safety/health/etc rating you can find (overkill, likely) and at 250psi room temp rating it's not going anywhere in our application.

I like it because it's still fairly flexible when cold, and clear enough that if beer were to back up it (in spite of all the gas line check valves in my keezer) it would be visible. I got about half what I needed from my LHBS and the rest from the interwebs...

Cheers!

 

[orangemen5]

Hey hausbrauerei. I was looking to use the same tubing you posted. Wondering if you used it and if so how it worked out.

 

[zachattack]

Are you talking about Swagelok compression fittings? If so, 1/4" refers to the outer diameter, not the inside. And if you're swaging onto plastic it helps if it's nice and stiff (in the lab I've found PTFE or PFA are easiest) otherwise it can slip from the ferrules after a while.

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

Hey hausbrauerei. I was looking to use the same tubing you posted. Wondering if you used it and if so how it worked out.

You know I haven't made my manifold with the 1/4" swagelok yet but I can answer your question, for what we do it seems these small ID lines don't matter. I actually bought a bunch of cheap bev tubing on amazon and ordered it smaller than I wanted (i screwed up). it's 3/16 ID thin wall bev tubing. I needed to get my 6 taps running for our Oktoberfest party a few weeks back so I just rigged up a bunch of Co2 lines with tubing TEE fittings (splitters) and all my beers carbed/served fine. In fact i'm still rocking this setup as I'm busy with home reno projects and haven't had time to build the gas manifold yet.

 

[solbes]

Good deal on having the 1/4" ID setup for free.

No need to find 1/4" gas line though. Just use regular 3/16" liquid line. You don't need hose clamps if you slide the 3/16" over a 1/4" barb. Tip is to heat up some boiling water to soak the 3/16" line for 30-45 seconds first. It softens and expands. Then you slide it over the barbs and it shrinks as it cools. W-alla, Done

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

Are you talking about Swagelok compression fittings? If so, 1/4" refers to the outer diameter, not the inside. And if you're swaging onto plastic it helps if it's nice and stiff (in the lab I've found PTFE or PFA are easiest) otherwise it can slip from the ferrules after a while.

Yeah i'm talking swagelok compression fittings. My idea was to build a manifold with 1/4" copper and using the shut-offs, tees, etc with swagelok stainless, and then run the copper for each line into the keezer, where I will transition to pastic lines by jamming a 5/16 or 3/8 ID line onto the OD of the copper and secure it with a few hose clamps. sound like a good idea?

 

[zachattack]

That should work. You can also buy adapters to get a barb from swagelok-style compression fittings. But they're pricey. You can get them from McMaster or through a swagelok distributor:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#5182k422/=u2siws

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

That should work. You can also buy adapters to get a barb from swagelok-style compression fittings. But they're pricey. You can get them from McMaster or through a swagelok distributor:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#5182k422/=u2siws

yeah i know those would be best but if i added all those up I'd be at the cost for a commercial manifold! I'll just trying the tubing-over-tubing and see how it goes from there.

 

[zachattack]

Yeah I hear that! The tubing-over-tubing will probably work fine. Especially if you use a gapless oetiker-style hose clamp.