need high pressure to dispense

[ridd]

So I've resolved a lot of my kegging issues so far, and this is the one that remains...

I have to set the pressure on my reg to about 20+ psi for any liquid to dispense, whether the temp of the liquid in the keg is 72F or 38F. 2 diff kegs, I have a dual-body reg so either gas line has the same problem. What gives?

edit: Well I figured it out. Apparently on the QD's, you have to pull up on the little rubber stopper around the outside while you're putting it on the posts. I did that and now it's flowing like a champ. 10 PSI is almost too much. My god, I mean I'm not a keg-genius, but I am good with my hands and I am really geeky so I research the hell out of things, and this would have been REALLY good to know before going through all this bs. Hope this helps a new kegger somewhere, somehow.

 

[beerthirty]

What temp do you serve? Could you have ice build up in your line?

 

[ridd]

Don't think so...I serve it around 40F. I took the liquid QD off, pushed the lever and the liquid left in the line won't come out. It should come out though shouldn't it?

 

[ridd]

Yeah I just took apart the QD and hit the lever on the liquid line and it came out fine...tried hooking up another picnic tap and I've got the same problem.

Does this have anything to do with balancing? The picnic taps are Kegconnection standard, 4 ft or so. The QD is really snug on the post too.

 

[beerthirty]

Its possible that the wrong poppits are installed in the posts. If they are too long, it will be a little difficult to install the QD and they wont open all the waycausing very slow pour. I had this problem on one of my kegs and was almost ready to throw the keg out before I figured it out. Remove the post and check the lenght of the poppit. if it is about 1" long then try the shorter popitts. IIRC northern brewer has all the different parts with pics so you can see the difference.

 

[ridd]

Well they're all about an inch long, but I think it's the right size because the bottom of the poppets have this 3-prong claw-looking thing that fits snugly against a groove inside the post, preventing it from coming out of the top of the post any further.

I'm guessing both of my picnic taps are faulty? Liquid does NOT flow easily through them when I just move it around with liquid inside them. I also tried putting a towel over the OUT post of my keg with it pressured around 8 PSI and sticking a screwdriver in the post and beer flowed out nicely.

 

[david_42]

Sounds like the taps, then. Maybe you've got the reverse of beerthirty's suggestion, with short posts in the QD or the QDs are defective.

 

[ridd]

I just looked at the northernbrewer site like beer suggested and saw this:
Keg Post Assembly Liquid Type A - Soda Keg Repair Parts - Soda Kegs & Disconnects - Kegging

that's what my liquid out posts look like. my gas in looks similar to the other 'Type A' on their site, except mine have the 12-point instead of hex.

all of my parts look exactly like the one seen here: Illustrated Beer Brewing Primer - Kegging and Conditioning

so I guess the issue is I have 'Type-A' posts and 'Type-B' poppets? it seems like beerthirty was on the right track.

 

[tdavisii]

If you have to serve at 20psi and its not coming out like a fire hose of foam something is wrong with the set up

 

[ridd]

I talked to the people at Kegconnection (Ben) and they had me find out what types of kegs they are by looking at the etching on the outside SS. The only common trend I see is that they all say "Cornelius Co." so I assume they're Cornelius-style kegs. If that's the case, the poppets are correct, but the posts are wrong. Getting more clarification tomorrow, KC is being really cool about it.

 

[ridd]

Can I bump this one last time? I spoke to KC about it again and they're getting a little frustrated with me it seems, so I'm trying to find out exactly what it is that's messed up. I don't want them to send me a bunch of stuff that isn't going to fix it. They pretty much said "you tell me what it is you want me to replace" and said they'd send me new kegs etc, but I don't want them to have to do that if it won't resolve the issue.

Basically I have the EXACT same type of keg seen here: Illustrated Beer Brewing Primer - Kegging and Conditioning

Same posts, same poppets. So it must be correct, contrary to what the links above I posted lead me to believe. The guy from KC had me test the regulator by unscrewing the QD and setting it to 20 psi or so, and gas came out pretty well. Pressure dropped to like 15 psi when I turned the valve on, but I think that's the way it's supposed to work.

Ben was saying that the picnic taps are pretty much universal, and that's what I've seen too, so most likely that isn't the culprit either. I doubt I have 4 bad kegs, also the fact that they hold seals well leads me to believe that it isn't the issue.

Should I spray some soapy water on the liquid out posts and see if there's a leak? But I really doubt a leak that isn't noticeable enough to be heard or felt wouldn't be causing 30+ psi of pressure to *barely* trickle liquid out. I'm stumped :/

 

[ridd]

well nevermind, I just looked at the liquid out QD and noticed it isn't going all the way down on the post. Lubed them both up pretty nice and the gas QD goes on the post MUCH better but liquid QD still will not go all the way down no matter what I do. 2 defective liquid QD's I guess. Also, when I removed the gas QD, it fell apart. So maybe they're just cheap. I used almost no force taking it off, so weird...looks like I'm going to have to research how to put a QD back together -_-

 

[blowmax10]

off topic I guess but I've got a slow dispensing problem with this keg I'm drinking out of but I know exactly what the problem is

This keg is a bit finicky about the placement of the fill tube - I'm sure when I reassembled it after I cleaned it last time I got the fill tube in a funky position that is slowing down the rate of flow

 

[ridd]

Well I figured it out. Apparently on the QD's, you have to pull up on the little rubber stopper around the outside while you're putting it on the posts. I did that and now it's flowing like a champ. 10 PSI is almost too much. My god, I mean I'm not a keg-genius, but I am good with my hands and I am really geeky so I research the hell out of things, and this would have been REALLY good to know before going through all this bs. Hope this helps a new kegger somewhere, somehow.