Need help. Keg posts, which one where?

[Yambor44]

I understand that the grooves are for gas and the smooth for liquid. I have all ball lock kegs. Some are Challenger (Firestone?) and some are Cornelius. The following are just some of the posts I have.



The 3 on the right have a slimmer base. The one in the middle of the 3 is gas (has a small grove). However, they are SHORTER than the 3 that are left of them.



A shot showing the height difference. Notice the 3 on the far left are the same shorter height as the 3 on the far right, yet the 2 farthest left have a wider base. The one 3rd from the right is just star shaped (12 point) altogether.


Here you can see the difference in diameter at the base. The 2 far left are smaller in diameter than all the rest.


Could someone help label these things? From what I understand, it matters not only that the right post is in the right place (gas vs. liquid), but it also matters that the post be on the right TYPE of keg (Cornelius vs Challenger) and the same goes for poppets...???

 

[kotti270]

Yambor44

Here is a link that I found awhile back when I was building my kegorator. It is a great reference page.

http://www.dresselbrew.com/Keg_Info.htm

Hope it helps

 

[Catt22]

Apparently you have violated the number one rule of home brew kegging which is:

"Never disassemble more than one keg at a time."

The reason for this rule is to avoid mixing up the parts as you have done and now you know why. At this point, the best you can do would be to do it by trial and error. Use care when doing this and don't force anything.

First off, the "In" posts will always have the slots or grooves cut in the hex at the base or they will have the star shaped base. The plain ones are the out posts.

Next, pair them up by height and the size of the bases. The in and out posts should be nearly identical in appearance except for the slots or star base on the gas side.

Once you have that done, match up the poppets with a best guess and give them a test fit. You will need to have the dip tubes installed including the O-rings for each in order to do the test fit. Tighten them down as much as possible by hand, then put a connector on each post. The connectors should fit on easily with little effort. Remove the connector and look closely at the top of the post to see if the poppet looks like it is seating properly in the post. Use a screw driver or something similar and press down on the poppet. It should move down at least 1/8" and probably a little more than that if it's the correct poppet. If it won't budge or if you have to fight with the connector at all, then you probably have the wrong poppet installed.

Some of the on line suppliers have pictures of the various post and poppet styles with the corresponding manufacturers names. I don't have the links handy, but some quick searching should get you there I would think.

Good luck figuring this out and don't forget rule #1 next time.

 

[Catt22]

...

 

[Yambor44]

Yambor44

Here is a link that I found awhile back when I was building my kegorator. It is a great reference page.

http://www.dresselbrew.com/Keg_Info.htm

Hope it helps

WOW! Perfect! Thanks a lot kotti!! That will be a huge help. I have already copied and pasted to a word file and printed it out. I will now 3 hole punch it a put it in my brew book.

Catt - I hear ya. My only challenge with that is buying used kegs and they come with whatever on them. When I clean my kegs, I do more than one, but I always try to keep them separated as far as components (even dip tubes). I have all of my kegs labeled (A,B,C 1, 2, 3, etc) and keep a log of when I do what to them.

As you mentioned some retailers do provide some info. I recently found that Northern Brewer offers good pics and a description of which poppet goes where. I printed these out just last night and it was a help already. I found that one of my Spartanburg Challenger kegs had poppets for a Cornelius in them.

Here's a link of Type A:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/poppet-valve-type-a-fstone-v-vi-challenger.html

Type B
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/poppet-valve-type-b-all-cornelius.html

and Type C (if you look under product description it lists which kegs they "should" fit providing you received the keg with the right one to begin with).
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/poppet-valve-type-c-challenger-john-wood-85.html