Kegging/carbing question

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growlrr

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So for Christmas I am angling for my first kegging system. To date I've been doing still meads or bottle conditioning. It seems the first major decision I have to make is ball-lock or pin-lock. Any strong reasons to favor one type over the other? I'm planning on using it to force carb meads and ciders, but may try my hand at a beer or two when spring rolls around. Any suggestions on how to proceed?
 
Get whatever is cheaper for you. But whichever one you pick, it's kind of a pain to mix with the other so pick the one you want to stay with. You can get fittings that can allow you to change them out when needed, but it's easier to have all pin-lock or all ball-lock.

The on advantage I can think of to have ball lock is that they make "carbonation caps" for them, and you can quick carb up a soda bottle of something (soda, water, beer, mead, whatever) with it. I don't think they make those for pin-lock fittings.
 
Pin-locks are about an inch wider and 2.5" shorter than ball-locks. Sometimes your kegerator likes one size better.

Ball-locks have a pressure release valve in the lid. On pin-locks you have to press in the poppet.

Pin-lock kegs are usually a lot cheaper. Ball-locks are more popular so if you add to your system (craigslist,yard sales, etc) later on, you are going to see mostly ball-lock.

And the ball-lock carbonation caps ROCK!
 
If you're going to want to be buying new kegs, you will not be finding new pin lock kegs; pretty much all new kegs of whatever brand will be ball lock. Pinlocks tend to be about 20 bucks cheaper per keg, but see below, the cost may actually even out or be more expensive in the long run...

I had a mix of both in the beginning, kind of by accident, when I got a good Craigslist deal on a collection of kegs. 2 of them were pinlock, and I found having a couple of the pinlock form factor was advantageous for fitting beneath the blower assembly in my kegerator. I did also however find that the lack of a pressure release/pop off valve in the lid was annoying, and eventually replaced the lids. I can guarantee you that you *will* eventually press the wrong poppet (the liquid out post instead of the gas in post) and get a facefull of whatever is in the keg!

You can get generic lids that include the pop off, but they run 12-15 bucks each (maybe you get them cheaper on sale occasionally), which adds to the cheaper cost of the pinlock kegs. I've also slowly converted all my pin locks to ball lock fitting, which has also added to the cost of the pin lock kegs I have. I'm pretty sure that that if you're going to switch out the lid and convert the posts, it will exceed the price differential and ultimately cost you more, but if the size of the kegs is important for your setup, those are your options.

If you're going to be pinlock and only pinlock on your home system, and the lack of the manual pressure release valve in the lid doesn't bother you, the only other thing to consider is the popularity issue. If you were to take a pinlock keg to a homebrew festival or such, you'd probably have to bring your own connectors as well, and hope they have screw off connections on the liquid lines.
 
I went with ball locks mainly because of the pressure relief valve in the lid. And I figured if I wanted a new keg, then all you can get are ball locks so that made my decision.
 
In my keezer I have the usual compressor hump; can't fit a ball-lock keg on it, but the shorter form factor of a pinlock-type keg *will* fit on there.

I bought two of the shorter ball-lock Torpedo kegs from Morebeer and they fit on there. I can get six kegs in my keezer, whereas if I had only regular ball-lock kegs, only four unless I bought smaller 3-gallon or less kegs.

I went through this process 18 months ago, had to make the same choices; I decided there just too many negatives (see above) with pinlock kegs to make it worth the cheaper price.

Ball-lock kegs ARE smaller in diameter, so they may, depending on your keezer's floorspace, allow for an additional keg.

Here's a pic showing the difference in my keezer; you can see the original shorter Torpedo Keg on the left, and the newer "slimline" Torpedo Keg on the right. I can actually fit two of the shorter Torpedo kegs on that hump, leaving room for four other kegs.

keezerinside.jpg
 
I bought two used ball Locks. Got good price and they weren’t very beat up. I wanted a 2.5 gal. to bring to parties. They only come in ball lock so I bought a new Torpedo keg. My uncle got pin locks but they were converted to ball cheaper.
 
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