CRAZY Sweaty faucets

[dinokath]

Hey all,

Just did my fridge conversion last night for my new kegging set up and all went really well. I now have three faucets sticking out of what was an old, semi useless fridge! How all I need is to fast forward the clock and get the three batches I have in the fermenting fridge all finished up!

To test out the kegs, I mixed up some orange soda base from Rainbow and force carbed it.

This afternoon I came home and the faucet heads are crazy sweating. The last kegerator I had when I was in college never did that and we kept it on the porch in Florida. Any ideas? Did I do anything wrong? Thanks.

Dean

 

[lotbfan]

Have you tried some Speed Stick?

Seriously though, the good news is you wont have warm beer in the lines causing foam, I imagine the sweating is a sign that your beer is nice and cold all the way to the glass. Is your fridge temp especially low, or maybe your humidity is especially high right now? In general condensation is exacerbated by moist air more so than hot air. My old reef tank made condensation on the windows and on all metal items in my house with even a minute atmospheric temp change.

 

[MikeRoBrew1]

Not sure, mine does it too! Assuming it's the shanks getting cold

 

[rawlus]

in this fridge in the basement or garage? sweating taps is a result of cold metal taps in a high moisture environment. in a sense, it is good the taps are cold, i would prefer it over warm taps... but if in a basement, you may want a dehumidifier to control the moisture in the air.

 

[dinokath]

Thanks for all the replies and personal hygiene advice!

It's in the garage and I figured it was a good thing, but was really surprised at just how much there was on the faucets. The last kegerator I had sat on the porch (in Florida) and I really don't recall it sweating like that but I was younger, less drunk and a whole lot less anal about things.

I insulated the shanks with some of that pipe insulation for AC lines and it seems to have helped but it may be less humidity in the air too. It rained yesterday so that it probably it.

Thanks again for all the advice!

Dean

 

[rawlus]

insulating the shanks is not necessarily the thing to do.. making them warmer risks blowing co2 out of suspension and foaming when pouring... its generally recommended to have longer shanks that protrude into the fridge/freezer cavity so they can pick up the cold temp and transfer it to the tap nozzles.... thus keeping the entire line from keg to tap nozzle cold.

 

[dinokath]

Thanks rawlus. That makes sense. I am cutting that stuff off now. Thanks again!