Euro Sanke Spear Removal Revisited

[foofoosalad]

First of all, apologies - I know this topic has been covered in many threads, but I need some more clarification on getting the spear out of a 30 litre european sanke keg. Because I intend to use it as a fermentor, I don't mind in the slightest if the spear is damaged beyond useful existence during removal, but I don't want to cut open the keg.

- This keg has a threaded retainer ring that I have removed. The spear housing has an "S" followed by some numbers on it (visible in the third image below).

- The spear lifts out of the keg so that it's about a 1/4" above the neck, but a safety tab prevents it from going any further.

- To sum up what I've read before, to get the spear out of keg, one needs disable the safety tab. How to do this is what I need clarification on.

- To make sure I'm clear about nomenclature, I'll define what I'm talking about with image 2
--- "inner spring valve" is the small, spring loaded valve that is about 3/8" in diameter. It can be depressed using a screw driver into the middle of the spear
--- "outer spring valve" surrounds the inner spring valve and is the diameter of the opening. This one has a black rubber seal. It can be depressed with a little more force outside the inner spring valve. In the third image I've kept it depressed by wedging a couple of nuts between the bottom of the housing and the top of the outer spring valve

--- part of the "safety tab" is just visible when the outer spring valve is depressed

In what I've read, it's the "safety tab" that's keeping the spear in, and therefore it's what must be manipulated to get the spear out. Some posts suggest, hitting the safety tab to dislodge it. Some seem to suggest hooking and pulling it towards the middle so that it no longer catches. I also read something that sounded like someone pulled out the "inner spring valve" with brute force and that helped to release the safety tab. Others made it sound like once the outer spring valve was depressed, the safety clip would disengage and the spear would lift out.

So far, none of the above have worked for me, but I might just have been interpreting the instructions incorrectly.

Could anyone clarify the steps to remove the spear? I don't mind if the spear is damaged but really don't want to cut the top (because I want to use it as a fermentor).

Thanks in advance!

 

[Protistman]

I am in the same boat. Did you get it figured out?

Can you share any additional knowledge?

 

[foofoosalad]

Wish I had some news, but I don't. I will be sure to post if I figure anything out. Could you please to the same?

 

[Protistman]

Success!

First to give you confidence, my keg looks exactly like yours. I'm still not certain of the correct name for this style...

I discovered (accidentally) that there is sing notch in the side of the spear's spring assembly that is keeping it from sliding out of the keg. There is a slot in the mouth of keg that will allow the spear to pass and be removed if they are lined up propperly. Thankfully there are no tabs to press here!

What I did was lift the spear out as far as it would come, this brought the top of the spear just above the top of the keg. Then I was able to twist it until the notch lined up and it pulled right out nice and easy.

Hope this helps, I would be happy to post a pic of the spear to show the notch if it would help.

Cheers!

Edit:
After going back to look at the spear I see that there are actually 2 separate notches sticking out of the side of the spear at different elevations. The method that I used involved lifting the spear while simultaneously rotating the spear counter-clockwise. Hope this still helps
I would be glad to take some photos of the keg, but I am using it as a fermenter and filled it yesterday so it will be a couple of weeks before it is available for closer examination.

 

[Protistman]

Another thought I had is to tell you the size of bung I used to plug the fermenter. I first tried out using a size 10 solid rubber bung that I have for a better bottle, this is just a bit too small and when pressed in will get stuck. I had to pry it out using flat head screwdrivers after doing this and probably ruined the stopper. My suggestion is that a size 10.5 would probably work very well. I am using a larger size (sorry I do not know the exact size because it isn't labeled) hollow rubber stopper and actually sort of screwed it in using the threads in the mouth of the keg to pull it tight and it is a very good seal.

 

[rpeegee]

I posted these in another thread but they explain how I got the s-type threaded valves out with little to no damage.

https://youtu.be/eJWv_gn9VOQ

https://youtu.be/l63j-ROtyNo

 

[PapaO]

I posted these in another thread but they explain how I got the s-type threaded valves out with little to no damage.

https://youtu.be/eJWv_gn9VOQ

https://youtu.be/l63j-ROtyNo

Or you could do it the easy way.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=240453#post6354318