I am also building a glycol system from a de-humidifier.
Curious about this, are you going to be condensing the glycol? If so, can you share details?
How many lines are you running?
Bringing this one back...
Heres my deal. I have a 30ft run from the garage keezer to the basement taps. On the fence between building my own trunk line or just buying pre-made. I can get bev-seal ultra for about $27 per 100' roll, and some 5/16" for glycol lines for the same price, from the same place I can get premade trunk with the same tubing for $6/ft, my dilemma is this..
The smallest premade trunk I can get is 5/16", but if I build my own I can get 1/4" and not have to change my tail pieces and shanks (currently 3/16"). What would you guys do?? How am I going to be able to balance this system?
You're right to focus on balancing the system- the happiness you get will be enough to offset minor price differences. A few key things:
- Gravity is helping you, to the tune of about -2.1 PSI.
- 30' of 5/16 is only about 5.1 PSI resistance, meaning 2.9 PSI of CO2 to balance. It'll take forever to pour and flatten the beer in your keg.
- Bev seal gives about 0.45 PSI resistance.
Your options (assuming a 6 foot drop from keg bottom to faucet):
- Push at 12 PSI and use just 5/16", but you'd need 80+ feet of it.
- Push at 13 PSI, use 26' of 5/16" plus 4' pigtails of 3/16" before each tap
- Push at 13 PSI, use 35' of 1/4" bev-seal (less of something with higher resistance).
Given that, I'd recommend a similar setup to mine: Made my own trunk using bev-seal ultra 1/4" for a 25' run (all within the basement). I use a pond/fountain pump for the glycol hooked up to 1/4 tubing. The glycol reservoir and pump is in the freezer section of my kegerator. I used smaller tubing (faster/higher pressure with a smaller pump) and a decent sized reservoir to be sure the glycol is still cold on return.
Lessons learned:
- Decide what PSI ranges you want to push at, then calculate the length of tube you need.
- If the system is just barely balanced in the winter, it will probably be unbalanced in the summer. Balance in mild weather, then adjust as needed.
- With a longer run your biggest enemy for the first pour is heat. Your faucets will want to be close to room temperature, warming the beer as it pours and breaking the CO2 out of suspension. Get longish shanks and wrap them with lots of glycol line. I originally tried copper like Kal (too hard for me to work with, but still used in most of my trunk), then 'ice maker' line (poly? not flexible enough), and I now use cheap very flexible (pvc?) tube from lowes/home depot wrapped completely around each shank.
Good luck!