continuous sparkling water system

[nati]

I have a kegerator in my kitchen with a single 5-gallon keg dedicated to sparkling water. I fill the keg, hook it up to CO₂ at 50 psi, and leave it in the fridge for about a day to chill and carbonate. I consume ~0.5 gallon a day, so every 10 days I am out of sparkling water.
In addition to that, right now I fill the keg using a Brita filter or by refilling 5-gallon jugs at the store—both methods are tedious and time-consuming. I’d like to simplify this process and have less idle team without sparkling water. The kegerator holds only three kegs, so adding another one to chill and carbonate isn’t an option.

I originally considered using the Kegland continuous seltzer lid (link), but the problem is routing water to the kegerator. There are four cabinets between the sink and the fridge, and the toe kick is solid, so running a water line isn’t easy. Since I’m renting, I also can’t make major modifications.

Has anyone found a better setup for this?


The options I am currently considering:

1. Grohe offers a faucet that chills and carbonates water (link), but it’s expensive (~$2,500).
2. I could upgrade to a larger kegerator and keep multiple sparkling water kegs (link).
3. I’m also considering an under-counter RO system to speed up filling—any recommendations?

 

[Whisky River]

Can you carbonate or serve warm?

If you can serve warm you could put the whole continuous sparking water keg under the sink. Maybe switch to a 2.5 or 3 gallon keg? It’s continuous so no need for a very large container.

If you want to serve cold, I see two options. You could set up a mini fridge under the sink with the continuous sparking system using a small keg (1.75g maybe) and its own tap. If there’s no room for that anywhere that you can run the water line, maybe you could carbonate warm somewhere else and just move it to the kegerator for serving. You could be carbonating several kegs while you are drinking one and then just switch them out eliminating the downtime.

I’ve never tried warm carbonating an entire keg of sparkling water before, but I don’t see why you couldn’t. Might have to raise the pressure to carbonate warm or partially carbonate warm and then finish carbonating in the kegerator?

 

[nati]

Thanks for your offers.

No, warm sparkling water is no go.
I like my sparkling water really bubbly. Warm water can’t hold in the solution a high volume of CO2.

I don’t think there is a fridge that is small enough to be under a sink with garbage disposal and also hold a small keg. I afraid a 1.75G keg will be small enough that pouring from it will get the next pouring to be warm and uncarbonated. If I fill a 32oz bottle I empty 15% of the keg. Looks to be that it will have an impact.

Connecting a keg to co2 when it is warm won’t help a lot, first the solubility at 70 deg half of the volume at 34 deg.
Also most of the downtime is cooling the keg from ambient temperature to bellow 40 takes most of the day.
I just connected a new keg 10 hours ago and the temp got down from 70F to 55F.

 

[Whisky River]

I’m a little confused by your statement. Are you saying that’s it’s not possible to carbonate water at room temperature?

I believe most standard corny style kegs can hold about 130psi of pressure and most sparkling water is carbonated to about 3-4 volumes of co2. Even at 5 volumes of co2 you only need 30psi at 65f. I don’t have a carbonation chart that goes any higher than that but I would imagine there is a pressure at which you can carbonate your water at room temp. After all millions of people use soda stream carbonates at room temperature with no problem.

You didn’t say if you’re in an apartment or a larger space but if you really want to carbonate cold, maybe there is somewhere like a basement or garage to add an additional fridge to carbonate in, and cool a pipeline of kegs that you can then move to the serving kegerator?

 

[Bobby_M]

I’m a little confused by your statement. Are you saying that’s it’s not possible to carbonate water at room temperature?

I believe most standard corny style kegs can hold about 130psi of pressure and most sparkling water is carbonated to about 3-4 volumes of co2. Even at 5 volumes of co2 you only need 30psi at 65f. I don’t have a carbonation chart that goes any higher than that but I would imagine there is a pressure at which you can carbonate your water at room temp. After all millions of people use soda stream carbonates at room temperature with no problem.

You didn’t say if you’re in an apartment or a larger space but if you really want to carbonate cold, maybe there is somewhere like a basement or garage to add an additional fridge to carbonate in, and cool a pipeline of kegs that you can then move to the serving kegerator?

I run my seltzer keg at 30psi for 4.5 volumes at 35F. At room temp (70F), that would require 78psi. Here's a calculator that doesn't have limits....
https://quantiperm.com/carbonation-calculator/#calc

While the corny can handle it, there are two main issues. One is that plastic ball lock connectors are sketchy above 60psi. Also, you'd have trouble getting the water to flow in.

 

[Bobby_M]

I have a kegerator in my kitchen with a single 5-gallon keg dedicated to sparkling water. I fill the keg, hook it up to CO₂ at 50 psi, and leave it in the fridge for about a day to chill and carbonate. I consume ~0.5 gallon a day, so every 10 days I am out of sparkling water.
In addition to that, right now I fill the keg using a Brita filter or by refilling 5-gallon jugs at the store—both methods are tedious and time-consuming. I’d like to simplify this process and have less idle team without sparkling water. The kegerator holds only three kegs, so adding another one to chill and carbonate isn’t an option.

I originally considered using the Kegland continuous seltzer lid (link), but the problem is routing water to the kegerator. There are four cabinets between the sink and the fridge, and the toe kick is solid, so running a water line isn’t easy. Since I’m renting, I also can’t make major modifications.

Has anyone found a better setup for this?


The options I am currently considering:

1. Grohe offers a faucet that chills and carbonates water (link), but it’s expensive (~$2,500).
2. I could upgrade to a larger kegerator and keep multiple sparkling water kegs (link).
3. I’m also considering an under-counter RO system to speed up filling—any recommendations?

The line running from under the sink would be pretty easy to manage at only 1/4" OD. Even with renting, I'd be inclined to drill a 5/16" hole in the bottom back corner of each adjoining cabinet and sneak the tubing through all the way to the kegerator. If that's a deal breaker, just have it pop out the cabinet door and secure it under the toe kick. Not pretty but solves an ongoing hassle.

The thing about RO and seltzer is that you have to balance the water pressure against the pressure in the keg. I'd start by hooking a pressure gauge up to a hose bib on the property to get an idea of the system water pressure. I think you'd want to see at least 70psi for a simple RO system. I ended up going with an RO system with an integrated booster pump so that the line hitting the kegerator and the continuous seltzer lid at about 38-40psi (AFTER the check valve) so that I can run 30psi of CO2 and still have it fill.

Although a bit of a project to get up and running, my household of five seltzer drinkers was wearing me down big time. I probably spent more time filling and shaking a keg than brewing beer on any given month.

 

[Whisky River]

I run my seltzer keg at 30psi for 4.5 volumes at 35F. At room temp (70F), that would require 78psi. Here's a calculator that doesn't have limits....
https://quantiperm.com/carbonation-calculator/#calc

While the corny can handle it, there are two main issues. One is that plastic ball lock connectors are sketchy above 60psi. Also, you'd have trouble getting the water to flow in.

That’s a great link thanks. It looks like the keg could accommodate up to around 7.5 volumes at room temperature not that I would have any need to go that high.

I wonder if the stainless ball locks would tolerate higher pressure better than the plastic ones. It certainly seems like you could carbonate to a reasonable level or mostly carbonate at room temp.

I wonder about just filling the keg from the faucet and doing a set it and forget it carbonation in a corner somewhere until it was ready to be moved to the kegerator for serving. I too would love a constant carbonation system some day but I might have to give this a try to start with.

I definitely agree that using the continuous carbonation system in the kegerator would be the best if there’s some way that the OP can swing it. I was wondering if there was a way for OP to tuck the water line inside the toe kick at the top but it’s hard to speculate about installation without knowing more.