Help! Is this dangerous?!!!!

[Bayern1987]

I dropped my co2 tank on it's sidebwhen tehing to force carbonate my beer. The plastic screen came off and the dial gauge thing that tells you how much pressure is in the cylinder is all bashed and broke. Will this still work okay and is it dangerous? Thanks in advance

 

[Bayern1987]

This...

 

[Mr. Vern]

CO2 tanks are inherently dangerous!

500-800 PSIG is 35-55 times the atmosphere, that's a lot of power. your damage is on the High-side gauge for the tank pressure. If it is leaking CO2, which can displace oxygen, that is potentially dangerous as well. replace the gauge

EDIT to also advise the use of a chain to secure the tank to the wall in a safe area.

 

[bkboiler]

Good comments.
Also they make gauge-cages to protect your investment should it fall over again (very easy to occur).
cracking the gauge does not risk any sort of explosion, but bashing the valve on top of the cylinder does.
Treat it like a bomb.

 

[Barbarossa]

Get out of the house, run away, never come back.

Also, don't listen to me. The homebrews are hitting hard right now.

 

[marc1]

Milk crates work great for holding them so they don't tip over

 

[Transamguy77]

I’ve had that happen too, about 7 years ago, it’s still broken. And yes a milk crate works great.

 

[TheBluePhantom]

If it is not leaking, not really dangerous. The fall was dangerous, it could have snapped off something completely and caused harm.
-Accurate, NO. But who cares, the tank gauge really only tells you when it is empty.
-Replacement, about $10.
-Stand or chains or milk crate, worth it, another fall may finish it off.
-Guards, another good idea. But the stand is better. the guards only minimize the fall damage, a stand prevents the fall.
-Have I done this, Yep. Still have not replaced the tank gauge. If it were the output gauge it would have been replaced the next day.

 

[Bayern1987]

You guys are too kind. Feel better now. Got some hangover haha. Thank you. Going to just stick with it

 

[jerrylotto]

A full CO2 tank typically reads between 800 and 1000 PSI. Looks like your high side gauge goes up to 250 bar which is over 3500 psi, so you might want to replace it with a 1500 or 2000 PSI gauge anyway.

 

[T Murph]

Also note the manufactory of you gauge body when purchasing a replacement gauge. Pay close attention to the threads on you broken gauge to determine if they are right or left hand threads. Tap right is one of the better regulators and they use left hand threads. I agree with jerry lotto go with a lower pressure gauge to be more accurate.

 

[Bayern1987]

Thanks for all the help and advice much appreciated! I was drinking that batch into the night drowning my sorrows and ended up being sick my beers are lethal and I think there might be fusels in there... any ideas how to curb that? Thinking of just mashing around 70C and pitching at a cooler temperature. St least the regulator still works and I can see the psi... I suppose I will know if it is running out of co2

 

[jerrylotto]

Way off topic but if you're just "thinking about pitching at a lower temperature than 70°C" you probably don't have proper fermentation temperature control and that very well could lead to fusel alcohols.

 

[Bayern1987]

I live in Scotland and it doesn't get rok hot here so I think I pitched saflager 34/70 at around 12C and the temp didn't get much above 16C which has been fine in the past and plenty of people said to hse this yeast if don't have temperature control. I'm thinking about mashing at 63C for only 10 minutes and then the rest at 70C which worked well before and would have had leas fermentables and more body... this time I mashed at 63C for 20 minutes... I wonder if this affected the gravity etc. And led to this blowing the head off of me ha! I used 6kg of bohemian pilsner malt... mashed with 20L and sparged with 10 L... squeezing the bag. I wonder if this was too much malt! What you guys think? Still learning to perfect my water volumes etc. Thank you again

 

[balrog]

A full CO2 tank typically reads between 800 and 1000 PSI. Looks like your high side gauge goes up to 250 bar which is over 3500 psi, so you might want to replace it with a 1500 or 2000 PSI gauge anyway.

The damage is the high pressure side, which can be useful to know when approaching keg refill time (see this post and chart for instance). And since it is the high pressure side gauge, and so long as it is not leaking, you are likely ok.

 

[jerrylotto]

I live in Scotland and it doesn't get rok hot here so I think I pitched saflager 34/70 at around 12C and the temp didn't get much above 16C which has been fine in the past and plenty of people said to hse this yeast if don't have temperature control. I'm thinking about mashing at 63C for only 10 minutes and then the rest at 70C which worked well before and would have had leas fermentables and more body... this time I mashed at 63C for 20 minutes... I wonder if this affected the gravity etc. And led to this blowing the head off of me ha! I used 6kg of bohemian pilsner malt... mashed with 20L and sparged with 10 L... squeezing the bag. I wonder if this was too much malt! What you guys think? Still learning to perfect my water volumes etc. Thank you again

There are literally thousands of posts about brewing a lager in other fora. Please look through the extensive documentation available here and then post this question in an appropriate forum if you still have it. I can tell you for sure that people are going to ask you for a lot more information about what you're doing. Lagers not only use step mashes, but they favor decoction mashes, which is a complicated topic on its own. I'm not trying to discourage you in any way. You are starting to ask good questions.