• Please visit and share your knowledge at our sister communities:
  • If you have not, please join our official Homebrewing Facebook Group!

    Homebrewing Facebook Group

newbie kegging rant

Homebrew Talk

Help Support Homebrew Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

shamrockdoc

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2009
Messages
1,320
Reaction score
13
ARRRGH I just got another bottle of CO2 and thats already in the red ! GRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAGH! .......ok ..ok .....ok I survived Fallujah and Najaf I can handle this right yes ok then .....tighten all leads and post ....ok check .....we shall see in the morning .......grrrrrrrrr
 
Starsan works great for this. It is a big pain in the ass when you have a leak. I painstakingly went over my entire system before I declared it leak free. This was after I emptied an entire bottle of CO2 in a night.
 
I chased a CO2 leak over the course of 3 fills, I sprayed down everything I could and never found the leak until I was removing the now empty tank and noticed a small crack in the CO2 inlet stem between the rubber seal and the outer hex, it was slow enough to not detect it at ambient temps, but must have leaked once cooled to the temps in the kegerator, drove me nuts! I now have a spare one in the parts box along with every seal and coupler in my system.
 
Also, keep in mind that there might not be a leak.

If you put the co2 tank into the fridge, it seems like even a full 5# tank is "in the red". That has to do with the amount of pressure in the tank, not the volume. CO2 is liquid and dispensed as gas, so those gauges are pretty useless. It'll show 400 psi even when it's nearly full, and also when it's nearly empty, then it'll go to 0 out of nowhere.

So, if you have a leak and actually have an empty tank, fix the leak! But if you don't have a leak, don't worry.
 
Leaks are a pain! Both of my regulators leak, one in a gauge and the other somewhere in the stem. I've given up trying to track them down (the latter probably would require replacement anyway) and just open the tank valve when I draw a pint and shut it after.
 
OK so i woke up early to check it and it was still in the red so after work i took it out of the fridge and the pressure went back up so .....i still re tightened and tefloned it as well and it seems to be holding we shall see
 
Also use genuine Swagelock fittings. Not the Watts you get from Lowes and Deep Homo. Swagelock also has a spec on tightening compression fittings; finger tight and 3/4 a turn for first seating. Finger tight, and 1/8 turn for others. Can also mark with a sharpie where to stop for disconnects. (though I tend to tighten to my 'feel')

Also if using plastic tubing, over tightening can very easily crack the line in the fitting causing leaks.

I've used Swagelocks on helium (thats a tiny molecule compared to the fat CO2 molecule) and can get zero leak (and it needs to be zero leak). Way I'll do for a leak test is pressurize the system then turn off the bottle and go home. Next morning, see if the needle jumps when opening the bottle. Of course you can't do this hooked up to a keg, you would have to plug the end that hooks to the keg.

Also NEVER use teflon tape on the compression fitting threads. (or flare fittings for that matter)
 
Back
Top