Carbonated Water Keg

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impala454

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I have done carbonated water for a while using this 2L bottle attachment along with a 5lb CO2 bottle. I recently got a sankey keg for free so decided to try and get the stuff needed to make a more permanent CO2 water solution. I will manually fill the keg from a line/valve I have under my kitchen sink hooked up to a RO system. I got the following stuff to try and make this happen:

- MRbrew Sankey coupler
- Talos Draft Shank 5-1/8" - 3/16" I.D. Bore
- 20 feet PVC 1/4" beer line
- MRbrew stainless beer faucet
- MRbrew ball lock disconnect

So I already had the gas setup w/a ball lock and just hooked that up no prob. I disassembled the sankey keg spear and cleaned it out, then got the coupler on and all that seems fine (I put ball locks on both, and (after a bad mistake of putting a gas ball lock on the beer side) and that all seems fine. I tried out a picnic beer tap. It came in a two pack and both leaked a lot out of the tap itself (about 2-3 cups per day). I returned them and bought the above tap/shank and got that together, and the ball lock->beer line does not leak at all, but the shank leaks at the 1/4" barb no matter how much I wrench on it. I tried the included hose clamps as well as zip ties and it still ends up leaking. The faucet itself and faucet end of the shank appear to work great. Before assuming I have another leaky item I just wanted some thoughts on if something was blaringly wrong. I am carbonating to 40 psi which is about what I did w/the 2L bottles and love that level of carbonation. Do these beer shanks have a limit on pressure they can handle? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Ahh I totally missed that. The website where I was looking at the shanks showed it as a 1/4" barb but the amazon link is different, ugh. Thanks!
 
Bobby, why 39 feet of 4mm ID tubing? I have a corny keg with soda water in my keezer set at 36 psi and have 8 feet of 4mm ID tubing from keg to tap. Am I missing something? My water seems fizzy enough, but maybe not.
 
So I grabbed some different tubing and now no more leak issues, but I get a plastic/chemical taste in the water (obviously the lines because the previous lines did not introduce this flavor. Someone in the reviews mentioned the same, which now I wish I'd read. I started reading around other reviews on other brands of lines and despite high ratings there's still the mention of the taste in other lines (even after lots of washing/rinsing). Is there something I should do to properly clean the line or is it just a bad product and I need to choose some specific brand?
 
Btw @Bobby_M I thought about the tubing you linked above but it seemed pretty hard to get the 3/16" ID onto the barb so I thought 4mm would be super hard.
 
In working to connect evabarrier 4mm to my keg I needed to use a MFL quick connect ball lock, which has a 1/4" (screw in) type connector. You then use a duotight fitting to connect the MFL to the line. The other end of the line I am using a pluto tap. The EVAbarrier doesn't 'naturally' go on to a barb, but as Bobby says you can maybe heat it over the barb. There is also a duotight to connect the pluto to the other end of the line as well.

Full list :
Ball lock MFL : CM Becker Ball Lock Quick Disconnect (QD) Beverage Out - Flare | MoreBeer
Duotight push in fitting : Duotight Push-In Fitting - 8 mm (5/16 in.) x 1/4 in. Flare | MoreBeer
Pluto Tap : Pluto Beverage Gun (Stainless / ABS) | MoreBeer
Duotight reducer : Duotight Push-In Fitting - 6.5 mm (1/4 in.) x 8 mm (5/16 in.) Reducer | MoreBeer

I will be testing all this in the next day or so, has taken a bit of time to get the right parts together here as my homebrew supply didn't carry any of them. Will report back!
 
Note: they now have Duotight ball locks that do not require the push in fitting: Duotight Ball Lock Quick Disconnect (QD) Beverage Out - 8 mm | MoreBeer
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Bobby, why 39 feet of 4mm ID tubing? I have a corny keg with soda water in my keezer set at 36 psi and have 8 feet of 4mm ID tubing from keg to tap. Am I missing something? My water seems fizzy enough, but maybe not.

I use 7 or 8 feet of the EvaBarrier at 30PSI and it works fine for seltzer. Something must be different... I use a Pluto gun to serve.

The line is cheap, though, so might as well try with the full roll and see how it performs. It's really easy to trim down if you need to.
 
Hi I know this is an ancient thread but I am about to rip my hair out! I got a pretty nice kegerator super cheap and am attempting to retrofit my CO2 water keg to the beer tower. The beer shank w/the 90 degree bend on the right hand side of the picture is a 3/16" barb. My beer line and ball lock connector has a 1/4" barb. I have both 3/16 ID and 1/4 ID line I can use but I cannot seem to find either the 90 degree bend beer shank in a 1/4" barb or the swivel nut in a 3/16" barb anywhere. It makes me think I am doing something wrong here. The kegs the kegerator came with are sankey and had a termination into the fitting that goes on the sankey coupler. I didn't want to mess with any of that and just use my ball lock keg which has only ever been used for water. So the questions are:
* If I should use the 1/4 ID line, where can I find this 1/4" 90 degree barb?
* If I should use the 3/16 ID line, where can I find a 3/16" swivel nut that goes onto the ball lock coupler?

the 90 degree bend is crucial as the beer tower is a dual faucet and there's not much room in there. Any help greatly appreciated!
 

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Thanks for those, I should have mentioned I found that 90 degree tail piece but when I dismantle my beer shank it is just one solid piece. I ordered some of the very swivel nuts you suggested but they don't seem like they're actually 3/16" which is super confusing (see the pic of all the fittings I have). the one on the right is a dumb purchase I made that I thought had the right other end but was wrong, but that one is 3/16 and properly fits the line I have. I lean towards rather finding the 1/4" 90 degree bend shank that I can replace the shank with. Do those exist?
 

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I use 7 or 8 feet of the EvaBarrier at 30PSI and it works fine for seltzer. Something must be different... I use a Pluto gun to serve.

The line is cheap, though, so might as well try with the full roll and see how it performs. It's really easy to trim down if you need to.

Yeah, I must have had a leak between the liquid out diptube and the keg injecting CO2 into my seltzer stream. I changed to a different keg and was able to pour 28psi at 11 feet just fine.
 
Ok seriously about to rip my hair out. I ordered the above, it says 1/4in draft beer tap tower shank. Am I seriously just not understanding how to order these parts? I have a 1/4" ID bevseal line I want to use and I just want the shank to have the correct diameter for the line. I tried clamping it down hard on this one but it still leaks (as expected). Any thoughts? The 3/16" ID tubing I have fits exactly as expected on the 3/16" fitting.
 

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Ok so maybe I bubba'd this pretty hard but got a heat gun out and made the bev seal fit over the 1/4" fitting lol. Looks like I have good pressure now. Still baffles me that these parts don't work like I thought they would.
 
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