co2 question

[cincybrewer]

I'll admit, I know very little about gasses and in particular, co2, so this may be a pretty dumb question, but here it goes:

before I keg for the first time I was planning on testing for leaks by filling the empty keg with co2 and then seeing if there are leaks anywhere. Considering my corny keg is bigger than my 5# co2 tank, how come I wouldn't empty the co2 tank when I test it for leaks? Is the co2 condensed in some manner within the tank or am I completely missing something? Or maybe I don't fill the whole corny with co2 but then how would it test for leaks?

 

[smakudwn]

Because c02 is liquid in the tank and gas in your corney.

 

[cincybrewer]

Because c02 is liquid in the tank and gas in your corney.

ahhh, didn't know that. thanks!

 

[Link81688]

Your co2 tank is filled at high pressure. The cool thing about a gas is that it can be compressed. You will be filling your keg at a much lower pressure. It won't empty your tank.

 

[JRems]

If you have a regular air compressor you can fill your corny from that to check for leaks. That's what I did when I got used cornys. This way I didn't waste any co2

 

[l1ranger]

or - you could fill your corney with water, then pressurize with CO2 to test for leaks...which would use even less CO2

 

[rycov]

or - you could fill your corney with water, then pressurize with CO2 to test for leaks...which would use even less CO2

good call.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

If you do use an air compressor, don't overdo it. Home/garage air compressors can go up to 175 PSI (rarely but it's possible), which could potentially make a missile out of a Corny. Up to 30 PSI is safe.

But I'd probably use a LOWER pressure than that, because you do NOT want to seat o-rings and such when you're trying to find problems.

M_C