general cornelius refurb

[vmpolesov]

I bought some cornelius kegs for a good price locally. I could have paid a few bucks less on-line, but shipping.

They still have a tiny amount of syrup and soft drink smell to them, in addition to being coated in places with sticky crud. Here is my plan:

1) scape off old stickers, etc.
2) general exterior clean up with brush to remove sticky debris
3) pressure wash inside and out
4) disassemble lid, posts, etc. replace all o-rings (i've got kits).
5) soak small hardware items (posts, valves, etc) in cleaning and then sanitizing solution. Should I boil parts like posts that have no rubber o-ring or where the o-ring can be removed?
6) replace any parts that are wearing out
7) reassemble and fill with cleaner solution like PBW? Shake vigorously. Should I use hot or boiling water at this stage?
8) drain cleaner, fill with sanitizer like sanstar and shake vigorously
9) pressure test
10) set aside until I have a batch ready

I think that should cover it. Any suggestions, additions, or changes?

 

[david_42]

5) Don't boil parts.
7) warm water

 

[RichBrewer]

I've heard it said that you can fill the corny with water and one cup of baking soda and leave it over night to get rid of smells. You may not need to do this unless any of the kegs contained root beer or some other strong smelling soda.

 

[adx]

I've read somewhere that if it's root beer your SOL. It's next to impossible to get that root beer smell/taste out of it. II would just replace all the O rings instead of trying to replace them. It's cheap and the rubber really holds onto syrup.

 

[Donasay]

Replacing the O rings is the only way to get rid of the rootbeer smell, luckily the O rings are cheap and easyish to replace. I would clean the posts (5) and check out the hardware before replacing the O-rings (4), sometimes you don't need to replace them, but I personally do, just for piece of mind.

 

[vmpolesov]

I've got them cleaned up with PBW in them. Replaced just the lid O-ring so far, will replace the others as I disassemble the corresponding parts. I cleaned up the lid and keg mating surfaces really good.

Is it normal for a corny keg to not form a seal until under pressure? I inverted my kegs after putting the lids on, to mix the PBW around. One of them dribbles a bit. I'll find out as soon as I put some CO2 on them.

 

[david_42]

It's normal. Sometimes I'll raise the bail and give the keg a little twist to seat the ring. Lube helps also. But, under pressure works best.

 

[vmpolesov]

They're pretty well refurbed now. I took everything apart and soaked the hardware in warm cleaning solution, then warm soak in clean water to rinse, new O-rings all around, and put them back together. They're just waiting for a batch of beer now. In the meantime I'll get a proper regulator (my welding regulator is a fixed pressure and the flow rate in CFH is adjustable, not suitable for this application other than occasional pressure testing ,etc).

Anyone have tips on a multi-stage or dual regulator setup? I'm going to convert a sanyo 4912 and would like to set the pressure to each tank independently.

 

[z987k]

try a quick rinse with oxyclean with the whole inside, the smells will be gone.

 

[sirsloop]

If it still stinks, throw in a big belgian and embrace the rootbeer smell!