All 16 of my ball lock kegs are ancient. I have no doubt some of them are a full 50 years old or more.
With a bit of rehab work when I received them they've performed very well over the years - at least under chart pressure.
But tonight I discovered one of them has a lid leak at uber low pressure - I'm talking 4 inches of water, which is like 1/7th psi.
That's the submerged depth of the bubbler end of my keg purge line.
The feet on this keg lid are clearly worn flat, and no doubt there's some relaxing in the bail bends, to combine to the less than high-tension fit.
At chart pressure the gas takes over from the bail, of course, and I've never had leaks in actual service with this keg (ironically, #16, the last one I bought from AHB).
But at this low pressure it's pretty much up to the bail tension to hold gas.
So, what to do....I was going to revert to the dimes-under-the-feet trick, but that can be a pita to get right.
Then I thought, how about removing the feet and sticking something inside - a "lift".
Ok, but what to use that'd be easy and non-destructive/non-permanent. Not glue or epoxy, and I didn't have any granular metallic substance handy...
Except table salt!
I literally popped the bail feet off, carefully poked about an 1/8" pile of salt inside each foot, assuming it would compress down by some amount (guessed half), and stuck the feet fully back on the bail legs.
Put the lid in place and latched it...
Et voila! Tight lid, no leaks!
Seems stupid AF but there it is. Something to keep in ones bag of kegging tricks I think.
I'll probably pick up some of the Williams over-size rings just the same, and some new bail feet, but this will take care of the batch in the mean time...
Cheers!
With a bit of rehab work when I received them they've performed very well over the years - at least under chart pressure.
But tonight I discovered one of them has a lid leak at uber low pressure - I'm talking 4 inches of water, which is like 1/7th psi.
That's the submerged depth of the bubbler end of my keg purge line.
The feet on this keg lid are clearly worn flat, and no doubt there's some relaxing in the bail bends, to combine to the less than high-tension fit.
At chart pressure the gas takes over from the bail, of course, and I've never had leaks in actual service with this keg (ironically, #16, the last one I bought from AHB).
But at this low pressure it's pretty much up to the bail tension to hold gas.
So, what to do....I was going to revert to the dimes-under-the-feet trick, but that can be a pita to get right.
Then I thought, how about removing the feet and sticking something inside - a "lift".
Ok, but what to use that'd be easy and non-destructive/non-permanent. Not glue or epoxy, and I didn't have any granular metallic substance handy...
Except table salt!
I literally popped the bail feet off, carefully poked about an 1/8" pile of salt inside each foot, assuming it would compress down by some amount (guessed half), and stuck the feet fully back on the bail legs.
Put the lid in place and latched it...
Et voila! Tight lid, no leaks!
Seems stupid AF but there it is. Something to keep in ones bag of kegging tricks I think.
I'll probably pick up some of the Williams over-size rings just the same, and some new bail feet, but this will take care of the batch in the mean time...
Cheers!
