How much Tygon?

[Mayday99]

Well, just got my Tygon B44X after reading some threads on here.

The lines I got from KegConnection made the beer smell like a new shower curtain, so I decided to go with the Tygon.

My question, on my current set-up I have 10' per tap of standard 3/16 beer line. The flow is fine, a little slow., if I was keeping the lines I would actually cut it down to 8 feet or so.

The Tygon line has much thinner walls (it is 3/16 ID though). I ordered 30 feet from US Plastic, so should I just go straight to 15' per line? Is the resistance really that much less?
Looking at this line, I am wondering how I am going to hook it to the disconnects. Do you think it is ok to put it in boiling water (it says the temp limit is 165) or should I just try hot tap water (about 130 at my house)?

Thanks for all the knowledge on these boards. After a few years of brewing occasional extract batches, I am now kegging and will be starting all grain soon, I wouldn't have known what to do without all you guys!

 

[samc]

I emailed saint-gobain, maker of Tygon about that issue with the regular Beverage tubing. Although I got a response a few days ago, it seems the answer was not on the tip of the tongue. I can't imagine that somebody does not know how much friction is involved in the liquid flow.

BEVERAGE CLEAR TYGON PVC TUBING, 3/16" ID, 5/16 OD, 1/16" WALL THICKNESS
FORMULATION: B-44-3

 

[tincob]

The Tygon line has much thinner walls (it is 3/16 ID though). I ordered 30 feet from US Plastic, so should I just go straight to 15' per line? Is the resistance really that much less?

Looking at this line, I am wondering how I am going to hook it to the disconnects. Do you think it is ok to put it in boiling water (it says the temp limit is 165) or should I just try hot tap water (about 130 at my house)

I recently swapped out the PVC lines with Tygon 44-x.

The resistance was definitely less than the PVC line. I wound up using 10' line like my previous setup but with an insert that provided line resistance.

I put the Tygon tubing in hot tap water to soften prior to hooking up to the disconnects. The quick disconnects weren't a problem but the 1/4" barbs on the shanks were a *****.

Another unforeseen issue was the hose clamp. With the thinner wall, the worm-type hose clamps are a bit too big. I wound up putting on a thicker tubing over the Tygon line and clamping on top of that.

 

[Mayday99]

I recently swapped out the PVC lines with Tygon 44-x.

The resistance was definitely less than the PVC line. I wound up using 10' line like my previous setup but with an insert that provided line resistance.

I put the Tygon tubing in hot tap water to soften prior to hooking up to the disconnects. The quick disconnects weren't a problem but the 1/4" barbs on the shanks were a *****.

Another unforeseen issue was the hose clamp. With the thinner wall, the worm-type hose clamps are a bit too big. I wound up putting on a thicker tubing over the Tygon line and clamping on top of that.

I think we could be zeroing in on an answer. In your experience with the inserts, how much additional resistance do you think that provides? (x feet of traditional tubing) I am new to kegging and trying to stick to just the tubing for now. I guess I will use 15' per line to start and see if it is enough. Good to know the disconnects weren't a problem, I think my shanks are smaller than 1/4, so not to worried about that.

On the issue of clamping, do you think it is absolutley necessary? I have a kegerator with a tower and due to the tight space, there is no way I could fit a worm clamp on that end of the beer line.

Thanks for the replies

 

[tincob]

I have no idea if x' of tubing = y value of resistance

As another reference point, I used 2 inserts for my sparkling water setup which used 20' of Tygon tubing set at ~25 psi. I may even go with 3 inserts there.

As far as the clamps, if you are at normal beer pressures, I think you are safe, especially in the tower. Given how much trouble it was getting the tubing on, it's probably not going to come off due to the beer line pressure.

With my keezer, it's more of a precaution again pulling the line off when I open the lid.

 

[Beerrific]

Give this a shot: http://kegman.net/balance.html

It might help.

 

[Mayday99]

Well happy to report everything is installed and running fine. Taking the shanks out of the tower and reassembling is much easier when you have done it once already.

The Tygon easily slipped over the disconnects and shank barbs with a little warm water, it got pretty flexible.

Running 15' on each tap now. Did a test with the tap water out of my keg and not a hint of plastic. Just good old Bristol, CT chlorine and funk. Oatmeal Stout that flowed through it tastes perfect as well. The downside to this line is that it kinks very easily because of the thin wall. My coils aren't the sharpest looking, but they are working for now.

Totally unscientific, but my observation is that the resistance on these lines is probably 30-40% less than standard beer line. At 15 feet, it was flowing just a bit slower than 10 feet of standard line. Although I admit, my coils are not the smoothest (a few twists) and that could be slowing things down. Foam not an issue, even with the kegs sitting outside the kegerator while i was working on things. I will probably redo the coils and maybe shorten things the next time I change my kegs out. Good to know that I could cut and reattach the disconnects in just a couple of minutes.

Thanks to all the other posters. Long story short, I can recommend the B-44-X

 

[earlytimes]

I just swapped out my plastic-taste-leeching beer lines with Tygon B-44-4X last night. I had 8ft. lines previously and the pour was a tad too fast with the pressure set to 11psi. 9 or 10 ft. lines probably would have been perfect.

With the tygon lines, I started with 14ft. There was no foam, but the pour was a little too slow. the next line I did 13 ft. this was a little better. still very little foaming, but a little faster pour. I decided to do the other two lines at 13 ft. also. Because I don't have the same pour rate before and after, I can't say for sure, but I'd say the 30 to 40% less resistance is about right, maybe closer to 30%.

Also woth mentioning, I ordered from US plastics, great company to order from, but I ordered 60ft., thinking I might need 15ft. per line. Well, I got a 50ft. spool plus another 10 ft section when I was hoping for a single 60ft. section. Fortunatly, the 50ft. spool was actually 55ft, so I was able to get three 13ft. and one 14ft. line out of it without having to splice anything to the 10ft. section.