Need help with kegerator!!!

[Rob2010SS]

Hey Guys. My wife bought me a kegerator for my birthday last week. Pretty sweet present! We were up at NB this weekend picking up supplies and I grabbed a keg for it. So, in reading reviews of the kegerator online, one of the reviews I read was that ball lock keg didn't work for this one and you had to go to a "type D coupler". Not sure what that means as I have zero experience with a kegerator. Here is the link to the kegerator I have - https://www.insigniaproducts.com/pdp/NS-BK2TSS6/4223500

That being said, I relayed this information to the guy at NB and he said "Ok, so I still recommend going ball lock keg because they're better. You'll need these (2) fittings and then you splice them to get them to work." I tried to get him to explain what he meant a little more and it didn't go well. So, I thought I could figure it out at home and that didn't go well either. So now I'm here.

I've attached (3) pictures. First one shows the attachment on the kegerator. The second one shows the keg I got. The third one shows the fittings the guy gave me at NB and said to "splice" them.

Anyone know how the heck I'm supposed to connect this?

 

[mirthfuldragon]

The first connector (the big silver one) is for a commercial keg, like you would get from a liquor store.

The second picture is a ball-lock keg. One post should say "in" for the gas in. The other post should say "out" for the liquid out.

The grey plastic connector is the gas line in. So it should be CO2 tank -> Regulator -> gas line -> grey connector -> gas in post.

The black connector goes from faucet ->beverage line->black connector-> liquid out post.

Push on your line over the barb and secure it with a hose clamp.

Also, for future reference I think the threaded ball lock connectors are a heck of a lot easier to deal with, and certainly easier to clean.

 

[Gonefishing]

The first connector (the big silver one) is for a commercial keg, like you would get from a liquor store.

The second picture is a ball-lock keg. One post should say "in" for the gas line in. The other post should say "out" for the gas line out.

The grey plastic connector is the gas line in. So it should be CO2 tank -> Regulator -> gas line -> grey connector -> gas in post.

The black connector goes from faucet ->beverage line->black connector-> liquid out post.

Push on your line over the barb and secure it with a hose clamp.

Also, for future reference I think the threaded ball lock connectors are a heck of a lot easier to deal with, and certainly easier to clean.

All great information. You will need to cut the tubing off the fitting on the big silver connector and then, as posted above, slide it on the ball lock fittings and secure with a clamp. Be careful if you use regular automotive type clamps that you don't tighten them too much because that will distort the tubing and you'll likely have leaks ( I learned that the hard way!). Be sure you check for leaks on the gas side too. I use starsan for that, but any leak-finding liquid would work.
I second the future reference... next time you buy keg fittings get the ones with removable hose barbs. The barb and nut stay attached to the hose, but you can unscrew them from the keg fitting when you need to, like for cleaning. I have both and really like that type better.

 

[Brian77095]

Looks good.

First you might want to read up on hose length and co2 pressure.

For now you would set it up like this:

In the bottom pic the black fitting is the beer line.(Black = Beer) It connects to the hose that goes to the kegerator beer faucet and goes on the left hand post in picture two.

The gray fitting is the gas fitting. (Gray = Gas) It connect to the hose that goes to your CO2 bottle and connects to the right hand post in picture two.

You will want to make sure you have some kind of clamp on those hoses and connectors.

Do you have a CO2 bottle?
Do you have a CO2 regulator?

You will only use the connector in pic 1 if you buy a commercial keg.

Let me know if that helps or what questions you have.

 

[Rob2010SS]

wow thank you guys for the information. that really does help a lot. I should be able to set it up now. It didn't come with extra hose clamps so I'll have to get a couple of those but that should be easy enough.

In answer to Brian77095, the kegerator came with the co2 bottle and regulator. I should be good in that department. Just have to find a place that'll fill the CO2.

I'll work on it sometime this week and follow up if I have any more questions.
Thanks.

 

[day_trippr]

Before you run out to the dispensing system parts store, it's entirely likely that the beer line supplied with your kit is too short to provide good pours on anything other than cask style brews. If it's the typical 5-6 feet of 3/16" ID Bevlex 200 line that's almost ubiquitous, it's too short.

When you go to set up your kegerator, here are two links you will need.
The first is our favorite carbonation table.
You will decide what temperature you want to hold your beer, plug that value into the Y-axis, scan across that row to find the level of carbonation you desire (hint 2.4-2.5 is typical for most ales, 1.2-1.8 is stout territory, and 2.8-3.something is for boisterous styles like hefes).
When you hit your preferred value, run up that column to find the correct CO2 pressure to use.

With the CO2 pressure in hand, you can refer to the only beer line length calculator worth using to determine the optimal line length for your dispensing pressure.
Comes with a totally free education on the topic.
Or you can take the short-cut and just use 1 foot of 3/16" ID pvc beer line per CO2 PSI, and you won't go wrong doing so...

Cheers!

 

[Rob2010SS]

So people change their lines with different styles of beer?

 

[day_trippr]

Probably not. Once you have sufficient line for a typical pale ale carbonation you don't slow the pour down that much by adding a few more feet of line to handle higher-carbed beers.

In my case I have one longer line for weizens and effervescent Belgians and the other five are for middle of the road brews (and a nitro line for the stout).

fwiw, there are flow control faucets that can tame higher pressures across a "normal" line length...

Cheers!