Flare fittings in the kegorator?

[Bmcclure8]

I have a 4-tap keezer built out of a chest freezer and I'm thinking about upgrading to flare fittings. I have four taps with beer shanks each with a hose barb. I have a four-way CO2 distributor and each valve has hose barbs on the ends, and of course the ball lock fittings have hose barbs.

I'm thinking about upgrading the ball lock connectors to flare fittings, but am wondering if anyone has flare fittings on their beer shanks or their distributors? I'm not planning to spend the money to upgrade these components, but I can't find any older posts or any companies that sell beer shanks with flare fittings or distributors with flare fittings.

If you only have flare fittings on the ball lock connectors, but hose barbs on everything else, what's the benefit in doing so? I searched a lot of flare fitting questions but couldn't find one that specifically addresses this one.

Any insights from the kegging experts is appreciated.

 

[teesherv]

I only have barb fittings on the tail pieces, flare on everything else. It does make it easy to rearrange or add to and easy to clean ball lock fittings if needed. If I remember correctly, my starting keg stuff came that way in a kit (only barbs on tail fittings) and I just kept going the same from there. That system never broke so I didn't fix it.

 

[SEndorf]

Google "beer line 1/4" MFL tailpiece" and you'll find lots of options such as this.

 

[day_trippr]

I'm a big fan of 1/4" flare fittings for my gas systems, from regulator shut-offs through manifolds/bulkheads to the QDs.
On the beer side I use 1/4" MFL QDs at the keg ends to 7/8-14 barbed beer nuts/beer washers at the shanks.
I don't see any advantage in sticking a transition fitting between shank and beer line.
At the keg end, sure, there are two different types of adapters twixt Sankes/Cornys and 1/4" FFL swivels, but that's a solution for a different need...

Cheers!

 

[PADave]

I have flair fittings on everything. Makes it easier to take the line off to clean.
Got these on my shanks.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/beer-shank-nipple-14-flare-thread.html