Pin Lock vs. Ball Lock

[Smidey]

I'm just getting into home brewing (first brew day is sunday, Can't wait!). I've been drooling over the Kegerator Porn thread and have started looking at corny keg vendors to get an idea of how much it would cost once I start kegging. I keep coming across the 2 different styles of kegs, the 'Coke' style pin lock and the 'Pepsi' style ball lock. I was wondering what the difference was and pros and cons of each. Thanks guys for your help

 

[cincybrewer]

Pin locks are a little shorter and fatter. That is really the only difference. It just depends on your setup. For example, I have a minifridge kegerator and because the fridge is narrow, I can't fit two pin locks in it but I can fit two ball locks.

Pin locks are generally cheaper right now too.

 

[Carter1932]

As Cincybrewer states, the sizes are slightly different. You'll want ball locks for a kegerator. I learned this the hard way during my kegerator build.

I actually prefer the pinlock mechanism as opposed to ball lock, as their a bit more fool proof. At this point I only use pinlocks for long term aging of beer, or for use with my picnic jockey box.

 

[hatfieldenator]

Yeah, its kind of frustrating to me that the ball locks are the taller skinnier ones. They fit in kegerators better, but I hate their locking mechanism. I really prefer pin locks for ease of use. They are much easier to take on and off in my opinion and its always easy to tell gas from liquid lines (2 pins vs. 3 pins). However, since space is a concern and the pin-locks are generally harder to find, I tend to use the ball locks more often.

 

[Ace_Club]

As Cincybrewer states, the sizes are slightly different. You'll want ball locks for a kegerator. I learned this the hard way during my kegerator build.

It really depends on how big the kegerator is and how many taps he plans to install in it.

Personally I started with ball locks, but have recently been finding them to be climbing in price. so much so that I have been contemplating switching to pin locks.

I did, however, just purchase four kegs (all originally pin locks) from cornykeg.com and am going to use their ball lock conversion kit on them. My kegerator (a converted, standard-sized refrigerator) will easily hold three pin locks/ball locks and since I don't plan to have more than three taps, I have the flexibility to buy whatever is cheapest (two of the kegs were had for $12 each).

Regardless of which route you go, you will always have the challenge of scouring the internet for good deals on kegs. If you ever find yourself in a situation that you are offered the option of buying kegs for real cheap (i.e., less than $10-15 each) you should buy as many as you can. Because if you can't use them, you can sell them for a profit to someone who can.

 

[Smidey]

Thanks guys. I'm probably going to just do a standard Sanyo conversion, so it sounds like the ball lock kegs are the way to go for those. Then again, this is probably a few months down the road, but I figured that it's never to early to start getting more information. Thanks for your help.