leaking keg from top of body connect/poppet?

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brewshki

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I have a new begging system and am having some issues with leaks in my kegs. I know where the leak is coming from. When i attach the quick disconnect to the body connect, i can clearly hear Co2 coming out from it. when i push down on the top of the disconnect, like the part where you would use a screw driver to take it apart. any thoughts? I have a bad feeling I've been losing Co2 for a while because now my regulator shows in the red (it is in the fridge though). I have had problems with all of my kegs but this is the first where i can continually clearly hear it.
 
If the leak only occurs when the disconnect is attached to the keg, the problem is not the poppet. The poppet's only purpose is to seal the post when there's no disconnect attached.

So the leak is either due to a bad post O-ring, or the disconnect itself is leaking. Wrt to the disconnect, that cap with the screw driver slot may be loose, or the thin black delrin gasket that should be under that cap is damaged or missing.

If this only happens with the one keg, it must be a bad post O-ring...

Cheers!
 
Well, it's only happening with one keg without being able to stop it. I've had issues with 4.
 
Yeah, definitely keg lube on both of your posts. It will make connecting/disconnecting go smoother, cause less wear and tear on your o-rings, and help create a nice seal.

If you're sure it's the keg (you've used the liquid disconnect on other kegs with no leaks), and keg lube doesn't help, just replace the o-ring on the post. You can buy them in bulk from McMaster-Carr for dirt cheap, so I just keep a jar of them around.
 
Yeah, definitely keg lube on both of your posts. It will make connecting/disconnecting go smoother, cause less wear and tear on your o-rings, and help create a nice seal.

If you're sure it's the keg (you've used the liquid disconnect on other kegs with no leaks), and keg lube doesn't help, just replace the o-ring on the post. You can buy them in bulk from McMaster-Carr for dirt cheap, so I just keep a jar of them around.


It won't matter if this problem is on the gas disconnect will it? I'm really not sure what it is to be honest. The keg doesn't leave until the disconnect is on it and the disconnect is all sealed up to the tubing.
 
Well, if it's on the gas side, you will lose CO2. If it's on the liquid side you could lose CO2, beer, or both.

right. its just the gas side so its been easy enough to not lose beer. i can't say the same for the Co2 haha. ill try out the lube
 
ill try out the lube

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Idk if it's a coincidence or not, but something wasn't sealed on my system and the tank ran itself empty. I did move all the kegs around to get a fourth one in the fridge so I am hoping it wasn't something putting the lube on made it so I could hear it or something. Oh well.
 
Idk if it's a coincidence or not, but something wasn't sealed on my system and the tank ran itself empty. I did move all the kegs around to get a fourth one in the fridge so I am hoping it wasn't something putting the lube on made it so I could hear it or something. Oh well.

Refill your tank, then it's time to go hunting with a spray bottle of soapy water!

What type of clamps are you using? Replace them all with stepless clamps to end all leaks. Make sure you have thoses little plastic washers inside your connections where it's brass on brass too. After checking the entire system, start spraying the kegs. This is the bane of kegging, but once you've got it sealed with the right components, kegging becomes a blessing. Go all out now, and it will afford you to be lazier later. Lol!

My assumption is the kegs leak. My reasoning being that you've never heard of keg lube until making this thread. Check everything first though.


Do you know what a kegger and an Eskimo have in common?


They both love a tight seal! Thank you! Try the veal! Enjoy your evening, folks!
 
I'd actually go a little better than soapy water and use an actual leak detector spray. You'll spot leaks instantly with this stuff, and it's far cheaper than a CO2 tank refill.

I would also guess it's a keg since you just started using keg lube and also moved all your kegs around. You probably had a reasonably tight seal which got loose when you moved things around.

Get the spray, lube up all your posts and O-rings (don't forget the keg lid o-ring), and turn on your gas before you hook up any of your kegs.

Do a leak check on your regulator(s), the barbs where your gas line connects to your regulator(s), and the barbs where your gas line connects to you disconnects.

Once you're satisfied with that, start hooking kegs up one at a time, and check for leaks around each post and the keg lid. Keep going until you find the leak (or you're satisfied that the leak is gone).

Not sure if you're using new kegs or old kegs, but either way it's a good idea to get a supply of all the o-rings and be prepared to switch them out regularly. They're really cheap, so if you even suspect one is bad, toss it.

This post gives you all the Mcmaster-Carr links and part numbers. Very cheap. A lot of folks use the red silicone ones on the gas side as they're better and will hopefully help prevent a leak where it's just gas and thus less obvious, and then they use the cheaper rubber ones on the liquid side with the thought that if it's a liquid leak the cheap o-ring will make it really obvious.

Hope that helps, and good luck! I was pretty anal about checking for and locking down all leaks when I got my kegging setup going (and again when I setup a force carbing setup out in the garage), and it's definitely a piece of mind knowing you're not going to come home to empty tanks or freezers full of beer!
 
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Oh, one other thing I do to give me a piece of mind - when I clean my kegs between use I fill them up with about 1/2 gallon of StarSan or so and give them a good shake to sanitize them. Then I turn them upside down to check for liquid leaks around the posts and keg lid. If that's all good I then pressurize them to 15-20 PSI and use a picnic tap to squirt some StarSan through the dip tube. Now I've got a completely sanitized, pressurized keg ready to go. When it comes time to fill a keg I just pull on the PRV, and if it's no longer pressurized I know I've got a leak somewhere so I set it aside and fill another keg. Avoids any issues of discovering that you've got a leak after you fill it.
 
I'd actually go a little better than soapy water and use an actual leak detector spray. You'll spot leaks instantly with this stuff, and it's far cheaper than a CO2 tank refill.

I would also guess it's a keg since you just started using keg lube and also moved all your kegs around. You probably had a reasonably tight seal which got loose when you moved things around.

Get the spray, lube up all your posts and O-rings (don't forget the keg lid o-ring), and turn on your gas before you hook up any of your kegs.

Do a leak check on your regulator(s), the barbs where your gas line connects to your regulator(s), and the barbs where your gas line connects to you disconnects.

Once you're satisfied with that, start hooking kegs up one at a time, and check for leaks around each post and the keg lid. Keep going until you find the leak (or you're satisfied that the leak is gone).

Not sure if you're using new kegs or old kegs, but either way it's a good idea to get a supply of all the o-rings and be prepared to switch them out regularly. They're really cheap, so if you even suspect one is bad, toss it.

This post gives you all the Mcmaster-Carr links and part numbers. Very cheap. A lot of folks use the red silicone ones on the gas side as they're better and will hopefully help prevent a leak where it's just gas and thus less obvious, and then they use the cheaper rubber ones on the liquid side with the thought that if it's a liquid leak the cheap o-ring will make it really obvious.

Hope that helps, and good luck! I was pretty anal about checking for and locking down all leaks when I got my kegging setup going (and again when I setup a force carbing setup out in the garage), and it's definitely a piece of mind knowing you're not going to come home to empty tanks or freezers full of beer!


I would have guessed it was a keg too except that after I moved all them, I lubed all of them up instead of just the one. The tank emptied after they were all lubed so I am thinking that the move jostled or loosened one of the fittings in the tubing.
 
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Good advice there! ^

Aside from all 5 O-rings on the kegs, don't forget to check there's actually an O-ring on the "screwdriver lid" of the quick disconnects. It's easy to lose those after disassembly and cleaning. They're definitely hard to see on the black (liquid) QD's.
 
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