Proper keg cleaning?

[plumber]

Just got a keg kit for my birthday (purchased by SWIMBO) I have spent some time cleaning the kegs figuring my tubing length and drilling holes in the spare fridge. That said I have two 5gal batches ready to bottle, uhhh keg! I am very excited to transfer beer into the kegs, but I was wondering if I need to break down all the parts to sanitize. If so how often do you go through O rings? Or do I leave it all together and just fill with starsan and call it good? Any advice would be great.

BTW any one near Big Lake, MN I'll have fresh kegged beer for sample in about a week or so. Stop by if you like.

 

[EdWort]

Here's some great info. I always soak and replace O-rings on every used keg I buy.

http://www.bodensatz.com/staticpages/index.php?page=Soda-Kegs-Maint

 

[FlyingHorse]

Among others:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=52450

 

[quixotic]

This video helped me understand how to disassemble and clean a keg:



Run a search in the forums and check the sticky's for more info.

 

[plumber]

I had them all taken apart, cleaned and put on new O rings. Guess my bigest question was do I need to take the keg all apart each time to sanitize? If so should I keep a good supply of O rings on hand.
Thanks

 

[BlindLemonLars]

Every "new" keg I get, I break it down entirely, soak everything in oxiclean, brush out the inside of the dip/gas tubes and replace all o-rings. I'll also put a tiny dab of keg lube on the poppets and the safety valve. Once the keg is in service, I give it this full treatment about every fourth refill. O-rings are dirt cheap if you buy them in bulk, I feel it's worth the piece of mind. I only replace the lid o-ring if it's visibly damaged or I'm having trouble sealing the lid.

 

[Bobby_M]

If you use keg lube, they should stay viable for a long time. Also, whenever you store a keg empty, leave the lid unsnapped because longterm compression of the lid Oring will eventually flatten it out.

I usually don't disassemble my kegs if I'm racking fresh beer into the empty one in short time. I just rinse it out with hot water, fill with about a gallon of sanizer, pressurize with CO2 and dispense the sanitizer out of both the beer out and gas in posts.

 

[jdoiv]

I've had a couple of beers get a funky taste after putting them into a keg that I didn't thoroughly clean between uses.

Now, I rinse the keg, pull the posts and tubes and put them in the bottom of the keg. Fill it half up with hot PBW and let soak for an hour. Pull the posts and tubes out, reassemble, invert the keg so the top half gets a good soak in the PBW for another 30 minutes to an hour. Dump PBW solution (usually into another dirty keg), rinse, then sanitize with star san. Drain, and pressurize with CO2 for storage. I know this lessens the life span of the lid o-ring, but baddies don't like to live in the CO2. The cleaning is an extra step, but all you have to have is one 5 gallon dumper to be convinced it's worth it.

I don't bother replacing the dip/gas tube or post o-rings unless they look bad.