Force Carb with portable co2 carger

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Hoppy_Chulo

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I was wondering if you can fully carbonate a keg with a co2 charger like this one.
Keg-Charger-web.jpg
 
You may be able to do it but it would take so many CO2 cartridges that it wouldn't make sense financially. It would also be very difficult to get your carbonation dialed in without accurate psi control.

It would be much cheaper to get a 5lb CO2 bottle and regulator. I think it takes like 2-3 cartridges just to push a keg of carbed beer. I don't want to know how many it would take to force carbonate it.

Another option is to naturally carb in the keg with priming sugar and push the beer with the charger. Although, in the long run, I think you'll be happier with a CO2 tank and regulator.
 
thanks for all your help. I thought I'd try to save money but I guess It would be the opposite. I was going to buy a tap rite regulator bc a friend let me use his co2 tank but I'm going to have to eventually buy one. So it also got me thinking about just getting the portable co2 from lowes. Any suggestions?
co2.jpg
 
Penny-wise, pound foolish. It'll be a lot cheaper in the long run to get a proper 5- or 10-pound CO2 tank. That portable charger is what, $90? Not a lot more than that to buy a normal primary regulator and a decent-sized tank. You'll make up the difference in the savings between refilling a big tank every once in a while versus having to get those little tanks refilled all the time.
 
I agree with the_bird. Save yourself the constant frustration of filling those small tanks and get a 5lb tank. If you end up getting the smaller portable tank, I can almost guarantee you'll end up with a larger tank later.
 
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