poppet valves

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astropunk

astropunk

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I was wondering if anyone has replaced this style of poppet

KP304%20Pin%20Lock%20Cornelius%20Poppet%20copy_thumb.jpg


With a "universal" poppet:
unipoppet.jpg

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/universal-poppet-fits-most-kegs.html

I was all ready to keg, but my keg leaks! :(
Will these work as replacements, or should I stick with kind that is in there?
 
Never used one, but why not just get the proper poppet valve? They all seem to be similarly priced. Just check what kind of keg you have and order the right poppet valve.
 
Thats the problem, im not sure of the specific type I have. I dont know if I can trust the photos. The one I posted is my best guess, but Im not positive.
 
astropunk said:
Thats the problem, im not sure of the specific type I have. I dont know if I can trust the photos. The one I posted is my best guess, but Im not positive.
Click to expand...

What type of keg is it (the type is stamped on the outside)? The poppet type is based off the keg type, so you don't have to match photos. Just find the type of keg that you have, and order the poppet for that type of keg.

If it looks different, it may be that you have the wrong type to begin with. I know I've received kegs in the past with the wrong type of post for that particular keg.
 
I plan to buy some of the universal poppets from Midwest and give them a try. The advantage I see immediately is that they appear to use a common and replaceable O-ring to make the seal. The rubber seal on a standard poppet is not replaceable AFAIK. This is a major improvement IMO. The universal poppets are not expensive, so there is little risk in giving them a try.
 
Catt22 said:
I plan to buy some of the universal poppets from Midwest and give them a try. The advantage I see immediately is that they appear to use a common and replaceable O-ring to make the seal. The rubber seal on a standard poppet is not replaceable AFAIK. This is a major improvement IMO. The universal poppets are not expensive, so there is little risk in giving them a try.
Click to expand...

Well, post back with your results and experience. I didn't even notice that the o-ring may be replaceable. I'd be very interested if they end up working.
 
Thanks for the help guys.

The only marks I can find anywhere on the keg are "1978" stamped on the bottom (dang thats old!) and "CORCO" on the lid.

phrogpilot, according to that pdf, I have the "Older style challenger (no V or VI) or John Wood 85". That helps a little bit, but what is still confusing is that document, and many websites show 3 styles of posts, and 4 styles of poppets. ??? So I assume there is an overlap somewhere....
 
Ace_Club said:
Well, post back with your results and experience. I didn't even notice that the o-ring may be replaceable. I'd be very interested if they end up working.
Click to expand...

Will do. I'm sure they will work OK. Midwest is a reputable outfit and I don't think they would be selling these if there was a problem of any kind. We shall soon find out.
 
astropunk said:
Thanks for the help guys.

The only marks I can find anywhere on the keg are "1978" stamped on the bottom (dang thats old!) and "CORCO" on the lid.

phrogpilot, according to that pdf, I have the "Older style challenger (no V or VI) or John Wood 85". That helps a little bit, but what is still confusing is that document, and many websites show 3 styles of posts, and 4 styles of poppets. ??? So I assume there is an overlap somewhere....
Click to expand...

The name will be stamped on the side, about 3/4 of the way up. It will most likely be hard to read.
 
Danger: When shopping online at Midwest supplies try not to be tempted with everything they have! My $3 part ended up costing me almost $100! Of course it will come with another keg & misc. parts... ;)
 
My fairly new poppet on one keg started to leak the other day. I was an unhappy camper for sure. Turned out to be a tiny piece of dried up keg lube on the o ring. Those universal poppets are an awesome idea, instead of having to buy 5 different kinds that I now have to deal with.
 
Catt22 said:
Will do. I'm sure they will work OK. Midwest is a reputable outfit and I don't think they would be selling these if there was a problem of any kind. We shall soon find out.
Click to expand...

Catt22, have you tried out the universal poppets yet? How do they perform?
 
astropunk said:
Catt22, have you tried out the universal poppets yet? How do they perform?
Click to expand...

I received the universal poppets from Midwest. I bought eight of them and plan to try them out tomorrow. I will post back with the results. They appear to be very well made and the o-ring on top is, indeed, replaceable.

My intended $30 dollar order to Midwest grew to nearly $100 after adding a few more items to the basket. Why does that inevitably happen? I bought two of the replacement "dome type" pressure relief valves for corny kegs. Not long ago no replacements were available for these.

I will report back on the universal poppets, but I predict they will work as advertised.
 
Catt22 said:
I received the universal poppets from Midwest. I bought eight of them and plan to try them out tomorrow. I will post back with the results. They appear to be very well made and the o-ring on top is, indeed, replaceable.

My intended $30 dollar order to Midwest grew to nearly $100 after adding a few more items to the basket. Why does that inevitably happen? I bought two of the replacement "dome type" pressure relief valves for corny kegs. Not long ago no replacements were available for these.

I will report back on the universal poppets, but I predict they will work as advertised.
Click to expand...

Would love to see better pics of them as well...
 
Guess I will probably just order a set of those which each new keg then, that way they would all be interchangeable. It would nice if the replacement o-ring kits they sell also came with these poppet o-rings!
 
Sweet! Thanks for the pics...I may have to pic some of those up as well...

Astropunk: I'm sure once you get some, you can measure the o-ring size and just order a butt-load (scientific term) from McMaster-Carr. That's what I do for my existing keg o-rings, and these should be no different, and much cheaper than getting them from a HBS.
 
Ace_Club said:
Astropunk: I'm sure once you get some, you can measure the o-ring size and just order a butt-load (scientific term) from McMaster-Carr. That's what I do for my existing keg o-rings, and these should be no different, and much cheaper than getting them from a HBS.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I plan to do. Should be able to buy about 100 of the small o-rings for about $1.50 or so. I'm in the process of researching the correct size. I think I will order silicone o-rings if the price is right. I'll post back if I can locate the right ones which should not be too much of a problem.
 
astropunk said:
I was all ready to keg, but my keg leaks! :(
Will these work as replacements, or should I stick with kind that is in there?
Click to expand...

Just an FYI as an emergency solution... Poppits only seal when there is no disconnect on the post. So, if you can put a disconnect on the keg, you can keep it from leaking. I have a jumper for doing keg to keg transfers that I've used in an emergency with a gas & liquid QD on the ends and then just put it across both posts on the same keg.
 
Update on the universal poppets. All I can say is that they work better than I ever expected. The spring they use is much stronger than the OEM poppet springs. The stronger spring makes for a very positive seal first time, every time. Best thing since canned food. I give them a thumbs up for sure.
 
Catt22 said:
The O-rings appear to be #008 size. McMaster-Carr has them in a silicone version at $4.68/100 +shipping. That should be about a lifetime supply:

http://www.mcmaster.com/#silicone-o-rings/=bczdid
Click to expand...

I just ordered 2 sets. They look like the way to go. And keep things consistent.
Are you sure about the size of the O-Rings? I am going to order some to have on hand. I really don't have any way of telling what size they are.
Especially since I don't have the original yet.

Thanks for the info in this thread. I am a first time kegger and got 2 kegs with completely different fittings between the 2. At least now the poppets will be the same.
 
I sized the O-rings according to a chart that I downloaded and printed out. They match the standard #008 very closely. I'm sure they are a close enough match for this application.

I really like these poppets a lot and they are performing well. They do rquire a little more force when attaching the connectors to the kegs as the spring is stronger than a regular poppet spring. This sure makes them seal very tight and secure. Worth every penny IMO and I plan to convert all of my kegs to these new poppets very soon. They are that much better.
 
Catt, that is great to hear! I'll be picking some of these up in my next order. Thanks for the research, info and pics!
 
Does anyone know if these universal poppets from Midwest also fit pin lock kegs? I take it most in this thead are using ball lock.
 
Oops, guess I should have checked out the webpage first. Now if I can just keep from adding a dozen other items to the shopping cart. :)
 
I got mine and they fit great on my ball kegs.
I havnt done a pressure test yet but seem better than the originals. Best part is all my parts are the same now. No worrying what one goes to what fitting. And I can replace the O ring. Last poppet I will need to buy.
 
Thanks for the info on this. I ordered a bunch of the poppets, plus a pack of o-rings.

Obviously it will be great to have all my poppets be consistent, but it seems like sanitation is an even better benefit. According to the pics, it looks like these poppets are all stainless and can be fully disassembled. I've never felt 100% confident in some of my plastic-y, nook-and-cranny-filled old style poppets.
 
Yep, just ordered some last night. Also, I was looking around at getting more cornies, but due to the ball-lock shortage, there aren't many reasonably priced options.

However, I did notice that cornykeg.com offers converted pin locks for ~26 each. These are old pin locks that have new ball-lock SS conversion posts on them. The posts all come with the universal poppets. I think I may be picking some of these up in the near future...
 
Ace_Club said:
Yep, just ordered some last night. Also, I was looking around at getting more cornies, but due to the ball-lock shortage, there aren't many reasonably priced options.

However, I did notice that cornykeg.com offers converted pin locks for ~26 each. These are old pin locks that have new ball-lock SS conversion posts on them. The posts all come with the universal poppets. I think I may be picking some of these up in the near future...
Click to expand...

I was not aware that there was a Corny keg shortage. The prices seem to have gone up some, but that's true for just about everything:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/5-gallon-reconditioned-ball-lock-soda-keg.html

The think I don't like about the converted pin lock kegs is the pressure relief valve in the lid. They have no pull ring like the ball locks do. Major PIA IMO. I think if they came up with a retrofit of some kind they could sell a lot more of those kegs.
 
Catt22 said:
I was not aware that there was a Corny keg shortage.
Click to expand...

I mentioned this on the forum 3 years ago after watching millions of corny's as well 15.5 & 7.75 kegs being shipped out of the Port of Oakland to China, Hong Kong and other Malaysian countries. They laughed, "what shortage?"
The above corny's cost $37.50 each after shipping to the left coast, I paid after shipping $11.42 each ball lock corny times 28 in my collection. Who's laughing now, besides the LHBS that stocked up cheap and now selling high?
Finding 15.5 kegs hard to get lately or priced higher than $15 to $20 they went for just a few years ago each?
 
BrewBeemer said:
I mentioned this on the forum 3 years ago after watching millions of corny's as well 15.5 & 7.75 kegs being shipped out of the Port of Oakland to China, Hong Kong and other Malaysian countries. They laughed, "what shortage?"
The above corny's cost $37.50 each after shipping to the left coast, I paid after shipping $11.42 each ball lock corny times 28 in my collection. Who's laughing now, besides the LHBS that stocked up cheap and now selling high?
Finding 15.5 kegs hard to get lately or priced higher than $15 to $20 they went for just a few years ago each?
Click to expand...

Yes, those damn Chinese have us out pigged at the moment (as in capitalist pigs). How dare they compete with us The bastards are buying up all of our materials and resources. I think we've been owned and do not yet fully realize it. Kegs still aren't too bad at near $40. Thankfully, they are mostly a one time purchase and they last forever. I've got 18 currently and those should be enough to handle my capacity for some time to come. I came buy most of my cornies for little to no cost. Bunches of them seem to turn up now and then. I suppose many are recovered from the basements of defunct restaurants and bars. You can still buy brand new ones, so someone must still be manufacturing corny kegs somewhere.
 

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