QD's on gas lines, or "Why didn't I do this Sooner"?

[jds]

Since I had to chase down a leak in my gas system today (lost a full 5 lb of gas, dagnabit!), I decided to take the time to add a QD in the line from my reg. to the manifold, and QD's between both manifold ports and the kegs.

Wow! Why didn't I do this sooner? It's going to be a LOT easier to use my gas for other beer chores, like pushing sanitizer through kegs. Highly recommended!.

Incidentally, the gas leak turned out to be from a sticky PRV on one keg, so there was actually no need to disassemble the gas train after all. C'est la vie!

That is all.

 

[jtd_1]

Yea, qds make life so much easier.

If you have an air compressor you can save your CO2 and use compressed air to run cleaner through lines with your keg and sanitize your keg.

Joe

 

[Montanaandy]

Funny, I just ordered gas QD's this past week because of the situations that you just mentioned. It has been a PITA to drag the tank out of the keezer each time I need to pressurize a new keg or pushing sanitizer through. I keep a spare 5# tank at the read to swap in a now it will also be fitted with QD's so that I can easily go back and forth between it and the tank in the keezer. Montanaandy

 

[jpc]

I guess I don't see the need...

There's almost never a need to change the gas lines, and it seems to me that a QD will give yet another point for a potential leak.

 

[jds]

Yea, qds make life so much easier.

If you have an air compressor you can save your CO2 and use compressed air to run cleaner through lines with your keg and sanitize your keg.

Joe

All I have at home is a little 12v jobber for topping up the car tires. Too much effort and time to get that little thing to pump out a keg. That does leave me thinking about a porta-tank so I can hook up to the big compressor at work.

Then again, a 20lb CO2 tank would make me care less about how much gas I used, since a fill-up costs about the same.

 

[rodd]

Yea, qds make life so much easier.

If you have an air compressor you can save your CO2 and use compressed air to run cleaner through lines with your keg and sanitize your keg.

Joe

That is a great idea. Thank you!

 

[DavidP]

Then again, a 20lb CO2 tank would make me care less about how much gas I used, since a fill-up costs about the same.

Yesterday I built a line cleaner from a hand-pumped garden sprayer, total cost was about $30 (I used a ball post). I built it in order to not use CO2 while cleaning lines, but after the fact I realized that the cost of the pumper would have gotten me two fills on my 20# tank CO2 is cheap!

 

[Montanaandy]

"I guess I don't see the need...

There's almost never a need to change the gas lines, and it seems to me that a QD will give yet another point for a potential leak."

You may not need to change the gas lines per se but you do need to change out the tankj. Really depends on your keezer situation and what you are willing to deal with. I have 7-8 kegs in my keeezer at a given time. I think that I will find it a lot easier to change out the tank & regulator to a new tank by being able to easily disconnecting the tank from the 2 x 3 way manifolds and take the tank out of the keezer rather than having to reach into the keezer and work in a tight space removing the regulator from the tank. The chance of a leak is less that the other contact points (i.e. lines leading from regulator, line into manifold, lines leading from manifold) because there is a gasket on the QD's that seals things tight. I push sanitizer through the keg with a pump in the sink (recirculate) so no need to use CO2 for that. Montanaandy

 

[half_full]

I used a Huffy Sports hand pump to make a keg cleaner. Unscrew the needle that goes into the ball. Easy to hook a hose and a stepdown to it for a gas QD. Small and fast. And I had everything laying around to do it...