EVA Barrier Length

[BDRJ]

I am about to keg my first beer in a newly built keezer and before I did that I wanted to make sure I had the proper line length.

Looking at the online calculators it appears I would need 12.5 feet of length for each keg for 8mm OD/5mm ID EVA line.

I was kind of under the impression that I would need less length vs the 3/16 vinyl tubing that came with my keezer package.

Thanks in advance

 

[sibelman]

EVAbarrier tubing come in 8mm OD 4mm ID which helps shorten the lines. There's even 6.35 OD 3mm ID available,.

 

[Broken Crow]

In my first kegerator I used about 10' of 3/16"ID Bevlex 200. my second one; 5' or 6' of 4mm ID EVABarrier, which I've recently switched out for about 37" of 3mm ID EVABarrier.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...mm-monotight-connector-duotight-shank.730515/

 

[day_trippr]

5mm ID is actually wider bore than the classic 3/16" ID beer line (0.19685 vs 0.1875).

fwiw, I've been running the 4mm ID EVABarrier tubing since the fall of 2019 and cut my lines to 6.5 feet for my 11 psi runs (most ales) and my 35 psi stout line (the stout faucet provides the resistance) and 9 feet for my 15 psi run (3 volume wheat beers, saisons, etc).

I needed the 6.5 feet to make it from the furthest corners of my 14cf keezer up the central tower to the faucets, but otherwise could have used even shorter lines...

Cheers!

 

[sibelman]

about 37"

Wow! I wonder if I could get that 3mm stuff onto barbs.

 

[jmstone617]

I haven’t gotten around to switching out the lines yet but I picked up one of these Duotight flow control QD’s and was going to try it with the 4mm ID line to see if I could go even shorter in my kegerator

 

[Broken Crow]

Wow! I wonder if I could get that 3mm stuff onto barbs.

Yup! I tried to document it inthe thread I linked above. I got kind of aggressive though, using a heat-gun instead of a pot of hot water and I screwed up one of the 4 lines I was doing: I got it too hot and slightly blobbed the end which split when I tried to shove the barb on, so had to cut off a few mm's and try again.
Here's a good one:

I just did my first keg-swap since replacing all the lines and it was a joy to finally not have dangling coils of line in the way.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I haven’t gotten around to switching out the lines yet but I picked up one of these Duotight flow control QD’s and was going to try it with the 4mm ID line to see if I could go even shorter in my kegerator

They work for me. A little hard to adjust perfectly, though.

 

[day_trippr]

Note that those flow control QDs always put restriction on the line, even at their minimum setting. Some people have run into issues with that...

Cheers!

 

[jmstone617]

I think that’s ok if I go for short line, though, right?

 

[day_trippr]

Probably. I mentioned it only because some folks found it annoying...

Cheers!

 

[DuncB]

Wow! I wonder if I could get that 3mm stuff onto barbs.

Just get the duotight or John guest push fit connectors.

 

[DuncB]

I've got some 2mm internal diameter line from Williams warn, a very short length needed for the 3.5 vol saison and raspberry sour. I have to put these kegs right next to the taps in the keg fridge.

 

[YeastFace]

I have 3mm ID (0.117”) Valpar line. It's sold as 3/16" but that is OD.

I only realised recently that all my lines were calculated and cut on the wrong figure. Have corrected this with much shorter lines and now I can pour a pint in 10-15 seconds rather than double that I was getting before.

Wil be easier to swap kegs too without loads of coiled lines in the keezer.

 

[DuncB]

I do rate the advantages of Eva barrier above the line length and diameter of any other line.

 

[Broken Crow]

I do rate the advantages of Eva barrier above the line length and diameter of any other line.

Don't forget to mention its low-O2 permeability

 

[DuncB]

Don't forget to mention its low-O2 permeability

Well spotted I forgot to mention it's number one advantage.

 

[Yesfan]

EVABarrier/Duotight is the best upgrade I've made in this hobby the last few years.

 

[JohnDBrewer]

Just started looking at making the upgrade. Prices seem all over the place, especially on the tubing. Where's everyone buying their tubing and fittings?

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I use Ebay a lot. There is a guy called Lion Brewing Solutions or something close to it.

 

[Yesfan]

Just started looking at making the upgrade. Prices seem all over the place, especially on the tubing. Where's everyone buying their tubing and fittings?

I've gotten most of mine from Brewhardware.com (aka Bobby M's store). William's Brewing and More Beer also carry the EVA Barrier/Duotight and most of Kegland's products. I think William's is Kegland's US distributor.

 

[Nagorg]

I'm guessing I need to give Duotight some consideration. Using EVABarrier now normal swivel nuts and loving it. So many advocates for Duotight on this forum.

 

[sibelman]

need

I'm guessing you really mean want.

 

[Nagorg]

I'm guessing you really mean want.

Not really want... Just need to, or should, give them more consideration. I made a conscious decision to not use Duotight with my recent Keezer build due to an unwarranted distrust for the plastic connections. But I'm noticing that more folks seem happy with the fittings and EVABarrier tubing than not.

I'm happy without them now but may consider it in the near future.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, when I went all-in on EVABarrier tubing in 2019, Duotight fittings were hard to come by, especially the 1/4" FFL to 8mm OD adapters, as folks hopped on the EVABarrier bus. As a result, out of the 49 PTC adapters I have in constant service, all but five of them are JohnGuest and DMFit - which you almost never hear complaints about vs Duotight. As the only fitting I've had fail since 2019 was due to my ham-handed overtightening with resulting blow-out, I recommend JG and DMFit...

Cheers!

 

[Nagorg]

@day_trippr I've defiantly seen you recommend John Guest multiple times. I take it this is due to your firsthand experience; do you think these are "better" than Duotight?

It looks like Home Depot and Lowes carry at least some of these but something tells me they may not cater to our specific needs or sizes we're after.

I found a post where you mentioned getting these from https://www.freshwatersystems.com/. It seems that most of the homebrew centric sites mainly carry Duotight though. Any specific guidance for how someone would identify the correct fittings for a typical draft system using EVABarier tubing?

 

[Broken Crow]

@day_trippr I've defiantly seen you recommend John Guest multiple times. I take it this is due to your firsthand experience; do you think these are "better" than Duotight?

It looks like Home Depot and Lowes carry at least some of these but something tells me they may not cater to our specific needs or sizes were after.

I found a post where you mentioned getting these from https://www.freshwatersystems.com/. It seems that most of the homebrew centric sites mainly carry Duotight though. Any specific guidance for how someone would identify the correct fittings for a typical draft system using EVABarier tubing?

My apologies for my outright wrong posts in your other thread. Let me make up for it by sharing my actual research and experience with EVABarrier. I spend days to weeks researching any product before I invest, (and then a long time after for comparative purposes) and what I found is that about 95% Duotight users are perfectly happy with perfectly functioning systems and about 5% have either flawed parts or incompetence to blame (with incompetence leading) Out of the accounts from John Guest users I've read, I can only recall one specific failure and a few instances of incompetence so; greater than 99% satisfaction with John Guest. I'm not just brain damaged, but physically incompetent, and I did have one verifiably flawed duotight fitting...(also; I'm an old fart who has distrusted plastic for most of my life) If you can't make a perfectly clean right-angled cut in the EVABarrier, you risk a leak and I suspect that's where I failed, plus; If you bend your lines too tightly the duotight fittings can leak. I'd have gone with John Guest, but finding them easily where I live is difficult, so I've swithced back to barbed swivel-nuts, but this time on EVABarrier as I'll never go back to O2 permeable lines.
If you don't mind swaging it over barbs you can forgo the plastic fittings altogether. The only place I still use them is the 6.35mm Monotight straight connector to my Duotight/Nuka tower shanks..I have seen in other threads, users who've swaged on to tailpiece barbs, but since the lines in my tower won't get shoved around I didn't feel like that much extra mucking about.

 

[Nagorg]

I've swithced back to barbed swivel-nuts, but this time on EVABarrier as I'll never go back to O2 permeable lines.
If you don't mind swaging it over barbs you can forgo the plastic fittings altogether

This is exactly what I did instead of Duotight. It just "feels" like a better connection to me.

 

[Broken Crow]

Awesome! A big part of the reason I did it was to switch to 37" 3mm lines and get rid of the 5'coils of 4mm...I have a 4-keg kegerator and the hanging coils of line were a real bugger to deal with when changing kegs...pushing them out of the way too far and I could hear the gas leak. So far I've done it with my liquid...just waiting for a good day when I have no other tasks to tackle the gas lines.

 

[sibelman]

leak

My brief experiment with push-to-fit plastic fittings for EVAbarrier was JG. Cramped kegerator, so lines get moved about during keg changes. Some modest pressure caused a bit of a beer leak, which stopped easily but left a strong impression. I'm an all barbs-and-Oetikers guy now.

If you swap lines with any frequency, the ease of JG/Duotight could outweigh the risk of some leaks. Gas lines hardly ever need swapping so there's zero chance I'd switch those to push-to-fits. EVAbarrier, at least as far as I can tell, is as good as new after more than 4 years, so I have no replacement scheduled. Other reports about its longevity vary somewhat.

@Nagorg, your setup looks great. Your web site too.

 

[Nagorg]

Your web site too.

Ahh... You found my website. I haven't updated it in some time. I used to have fun making labels but that pretty much stopped when I started kegging. lol

 

[day_trippr]

@day_trippr I've defiantly seen you recommend John Guest multiple times. I take it this is due to your firsthand experience; do you think these are "better" than Duotight?

It looks like Home Depot and Lowes carry at least some of these but something tells me they may not cater to our specific needs or sizes we're after.

I found a post where you mentioned getting these from https://www.freshwatersystems.com/. It seems that most of the homebrew centric sites mainly carry Duotight though. Any specific guidance for how someone would identify the correct fittings for a typical draft system using EVABarier tubing?

I can't say JG and DMFit are "better" but my experience with them is nearly 100% positive.

None of the big box DIY stores around here carry any PTC fittings that I could actually use - what they carry is primarily for 1/4" OD tubing for ice makers and the like. So I did in fact get the vast majority of the fittings I needed from QDs through tail pieces from freshwatersystems.com - due to both competitive pricing and their awesome fitting selector page.

These are the fittings I'm using:

1/4" FFL to 8mm (5/16") OD adapter (JG PM4508F4S) which I used for all 1/4" MFL connections like QDs, manifolds, regulator outputs and bulkheads - the vast majority of the PTC fittings I use.

5/8" BSP to 8mm (5/16") OD adapter (JG PI451015FS) for the shank tailpieces, my rinser tray water input, and the in and out of the rinser water pressure regulator. This fitting has a rubber gasket at the back wall serving as a beer washer.

3/8" BSP to 8mm (5/16") OD adapter (DMFit AFAB0506C) for SwissFlow SF800 flow meter ins and outs.

5/16" (8mm) OD Stem to 5/16" (8mm) OD push-in elbow (JG PM220808S) used for CO2 inputs and ferm gas outputs behind my fridges so they can hug the walls closer

I use some other random fittings for various needs (tees, wyes, plugs, unions, etc) but in one and two wrt quantities...

Cheers!