A couple of keggerator issues

[OHIOSTEVE]

#1 I obviously have a leaking keg since the bottom of my kegerator is full of beer. I cannot however find the leak. Even with spraying soapy water on everything....

#2my 40 lb CO2 tank is reading that I need to get it refilled even though I just did so I am assuming that goes along with the leaking keg...

#3 I have 2 kegs frozen but 4 that are fine and this thing has been up and running for a while so the temp should be settled and good to go.


I think it may be time to pull all of the kegs...do a thorough cleaning and start resetting the kegs one at a time and checking everything with a fine toothed comb.

In case anyone wishes to offer up suggestions as to the issues.. the temp setting is 3 degrees Celcius with a 2 degree temp variable....meaning it will warm up to 5 degrees then cool to 3 and shut off. yes I have calibrated the controller and the probe is hanging in the air... I tried keeping it in water but had awful freezing issues.

 

[mtnrider]

Any chance you have a leak at tailpiece end of one of your tap shanks?

 

[dbrewski]

if the beer out disconnects are not tightly screwed on (mine are threaded), you will get outflow there down the side of the keg, it would not show up as "bubbles" since gas is not leaking. Just a thought, this happened to me once. It would not explain that much gas being lost however.

I would be concerned if my freezer had swings severe enough to freeze a keg from a roughly 37-38 degree setting. What kind of temp controller? What kind of freezer?

 

[bucfanmike]

for the freezing issue, i would duct tape the probe to a keg, near the bottom. If you have the probe up high, it can get much colder at the bottom of the freezer. A fan to move the air around inside helps also. For the leak, its obviously on the liquid side. So start from the out side poppets and check each fitting along the way to the tap. I just had a poppet/qd issue and lost 2 gallons of beer to the bottom of mine last week.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, a balky poppet will only cause beer spillage if there's no QD on the post - or the post has a dodgy o-ring so the QD isn't sealing.

10-4 on strapping the probe to the lower end of a keg with a piece of insulation over it. Imo that's the best way to maintain a tight temperature range while cutting down on compressor cycling. I use velcro straps to hold the probe/insulation, makes it easier to move it to a fuller keg when the first one gets low...

Cheers!

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

My kegerator is a mess.. beer all over the bottom.. gonna take everything out tomorrow ( got the grandkids tonight) and clean it up.. the beer was from a keg leaking at the outlet valve. I will try the probe attached to a keg but I had some serious issues with freezing until I suspended it the air....this incident somehow resolved itself