Help: Premix faucet, 40' of line and I still have nothing but foam!!!

[SpeedracerIndy]

I have three taps on my kegerater. 2 for beer and one for soda. I have the beer taps on one regulator at 11psi. The soda tap is on a second regulator pressurized to 30psi. The fridge is a consistent 37 deg (Johnson Controls Thermostat). I first tried serving the soda at 30psi with 40 feet of 1/4" ID line from a Perlick faucet. It dispenses from the tap violently, spitting nothing but foam and large air gaps. I then bought a Cornelius pre-mix faucet with the pressure regulator built in. See pic:

I hooked the new faucet up with 5' of line and dialed down the pressure on the faucet for serving. Now nothing but a slow stream of foam comes out. Now there are no air gaps and it doesn't spit at me, but it still comes out nothing but foam. Once the foam dies down in the glass, I'm left with slightly carbonated soda. When I look at the line inside the kegerator, it is solid soda, no air gaps. The foam appears to be generated at the faucet. What's the issue? Any ideas? I'm getting really frustrated with this and ready to ditch the whole soda portion of the kegerator.

 

[mordantly]

that faucet looks trick. i see you have .25 id so it would take a lot more than .1875 line. .25 is .9 psi/ft iirc. the only other things i can think of could be temp of the line, kinked line, warm faucet.

 

[SpeedracerIndy]

A warm line was part of the problem. After sitting overnight, there is less foam, but it's still bad. Maybe I'll try smaller diameter line and see what happens. I'm also thinking about swapping out the o-rings in my dip tube.

I got the tap from here: http://www.chicompany.net/pre-mix-soda-faucet-shank-1150.html?zenid=0fde1463759c2391f216f63358d6b93b

It works really well (with the exception of the foaming problem I'm having) and chicompany shipped pretty quickly.

 

[marzsit]

i'd check the dip tube o-ring, most likely that's what the problem is.

with the cornelius pre-mix faucet, you shouldn't have to use a long line. that's what the adjustable compensator is for...

 

[Mirkos]

Any luck with getting this to work?

 

[SpeedracerIndy]

Not really. I replaced all of the o-rings in the keg, and I still get quite a bit of foam. When the foam hits whiskey though, it knocks down pretty quickly, so I haven't bothered to try to figure out what the problem is. I have tried dialing down the pressure on the tap until it trickles out, and still lots of foam.

 

[david_42]

Try 25 feet of 3/16ths. 1/4" just doesn't have the resistance. Regardless of what the calculators might say they are designed for beer pouring, not soda.

 

[Yooper]

Try 25 feet of 3/16ths. 1/4" just doesn't have the resistance. Regardless of what the calculators might say they are designed for beer pouring, not soda.

That's been my experience, too. I have about 30 feet of fairly rigid 3/16" (from McMaster-carr, only $.10/foot) and it works great for soda.

 

[marzsit]

Not really. I replaced all of the o-rings in the keg, and I still get quite a bit of foam. When the foam hits whiskey though, it knocks down pretty quickly, so I haven't bothered to try to figure out what the problem is. I have tried dialing down the pressure on the tap until it trickles out, and still lots of foam.

i'm still thinking that you have a dip tube/discharge sealing problem... cracked tube or leaky connections to your liquid-out post.

what kind of soda are you dispensing? does it contain a lot of honey or brown sugar?