DAMNED POPPETS!

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bracconiere

Jolly Alcoholic - In Remembrance 2023
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this might be reponsible for that ounce of co2 i lost! just good luck i keep my tank on a scale.....and hooked the keg up when i saw an ounce drop on the weight.....and happen to have extra poppets.....


poppetwasherfailure.jpg


i haven't taken the post off yet to replace it, but that does appear to be the poppet washer sticking out, i bet when i had my keg settling after burst carbing without the gas hooked that SOB was leaking!
 
Better CO2 than beer! I pulled a spunding valve off a naturally carbonating keg and the poppet failed to properly re-seat -- can you say "BEER GEYSER!" I lost between 1 and 2 gallons of beer. Luckily, I was able to drag the keg out of the garage and onto the driveway quickly. I pulled the pressure relief valve and even that didn't stop the geyser. I ended replacing that poppet and then checked all of my other kegs for weak poppet springs.
 
for weak poppet springs.


this wasn't the spring....this was an original poppet from 15 years ago......the rubber just failed....glad it failed completly and stuck out the post for me to see, or i would have probably lost another ounce or two to it.....(off to ebay to buy a 20 pack of poppets, and replace them all....)
 
Be careful about bulk poppet purchases - unless they're "universal" - as there are at least five different oem post poppets types out there to fit the breadth of Cornelius keg types...

Cheers!


thanks for the tip...i was panning on the "universal, which sometimes need to be trimmed a bit....but i have 4 ball locks and 2 pin locks....i just had to buy a new lid for one of my pin locks (my first keg, 🥳 it's 24 now!) because the PRV was shot and it was different....
 
Better CO2 than beer! I pulled a spunding valve off a naturally carbonating keg and the poppet failed to properly re-seat -- can you say "BEER GEYSER!" I lost between 1 and 2 gallons of beer. Luckily, I was able to drag the keg out of the garage and onto the driveway quickly. I pulled the pressure relief valve and even that didn't stop the geyser. I ended replacing that poppet and then checked all of my other kegs for weak poppet springs.
I have had that, looks like a WW2 submarine movie after a depth charge attack
 
unless they're "universal"
Are they as good as the original ones? I'm a bit leery about those Universal poppets/springs, even when shortening the spring appropriately.
I prefer using the original ones that came with my (used) kegs as long as I can. There are a couple that are suspect to leaking, I marked those kegs, and always check them.
 
I will state I am not a true fan of universal poppets due to a few unfortunate experiences. I have had their tiny O-rings stick to the inside top of the post when a QD was attached, then have them pushed half-way out the post when the QD was removed. When that happened on the beer side it resulted in excitement and subsequent clean-up. Bad juju.

I only have a couple in use now - on the carboy caps I use for cold-crashing under CO2 pressure. All of my kegs and the gas feeds to my keezer and fridges sport oem-style poppets. I do have a few spare universals for just-in-case needs in excess of my small collection of spare oem poppets...

Cheers!
 
well i replaced most of my posts with them...haven't had pressurized kegs sitting in the fridge without gas hooked up till now.....so gas posts were a low priority, but i bought these back in 3-19, and they've held up ok...at least my crisper drawers haven't been full of beer in a while.....(at least they work as drip trays! ;))
 
I will state I am not a true fan of universal poppets due to a few unfortunate experiences. I have had their tiny O-rings stick to the inside top of the post when a QD was attached, then have them pushed half-way out the post when the QD was removed. When that happened on the beer side it resulted in excitement and subsequent clean-up. Bad juju.

I only have a couple in use now - on the carboy caps I use for cold-crashing under CO2 pressure. All of my kegs and the gas feeds to my keezer and fridges sport oem-style poppets. I do have a few spare universals for just-in-case needs in excess of my small collection of spare oem poppets...

Cheers!
Thank you, that supports my reservations about using Universal poppets.
At an event we had a universal poppet o-ring go sideways, sticking halfway out the hole when we removed the QD. Probably because it got partially stuck inside, as you described. There was quite a bit of oozing, but not as much as one would expect.

One of our club members always brings a "beer" toolbag, and then some. I bring schlep a 20# tank with double regs and a manifold assembly.
 
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I've had bad luck with universal poppets, when I disconnect the gas the oring partially blew out and was sticking out of the post. Happened a second time and that's when I yanked them all out of service. Thankfully, I saved the originals and was able to get them sorted properly and haven't had a problem since. I believe AIH sells used poppets individually and stocks several different kinds, that's my plan when one of mine eventually fails.

I had similar issues with all-stainless PRVs, threw them all out and went back to the 20+ year old plastic originals. Seriously, don't replace old keg parts unless they fail. Brand new "upgrades" are hardly upgrades at all. Pretty but total crap, at least IME.
 
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i was just looking at a wifi scale too! i think it had DB-9 also....of course, with the price they wanted for it, i think i could just buy some telephone wire and extend the remote display to reach all around the house and carry it with me everywhere......kinda like a smart watch for my co2 tank! ;)
 
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