Regulator acting weird - broken?

[chocotaco]

So I had to transport my kegerator. I wasn't that careful with the regulator and it got knocked around a bit.

It's not leaking or anything, but it is acting really odd. No matter where I put the set screw, when I turn on the pressure the gauge slowly creeps up to around 30 PSI. Turning it down and relieving the pressure has no effect on the gauge. Turning the tank all the way off (once the gauge has stopped climbing) and then relieving the pressure also has no effect.

Does this seem like an issue with the regulator or the gauge? I took the cover off the gauge (with the gas turned off, obviously) and moved the needle to zero with my hand. When I reassembled it and turned the gas on again, the behavior was the same. Short of buying a new gauge, is there anything I can try to help me determine whether I need a whole new regulator?

 

[chocotaco]

It is this regulator, in case that makes a difference

http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/regulators-pid-841.html

which apparently my LHBS ripped me off on.

 

[day_trippr]

Did the tank get sideways along the way?

Try removing the regulator from the tank, then get a good grip on the tank, point the valve outlet somewhere safe (or at the neighbor's cat...either way ) and open the valve for a couple of one second blasts. Reattach the reg and see what happens...

Cheers!

 

[chocotaco]

The the tank get sideways along the way?

Try removing the regulator from the tank, then get a good grip on the tank, point the valve outlet somewhere safe (or at the neighbor's cat...either way ) and open the valve for a couple of one second blasts. Reattach the reg and see what happens...

Cheers!

I always keep the tank upright (I treat it like it's a bomb, which it kind of is... I strap it into the baby's car seat [without the baby in it] for transit from the LHBS)

Even so, I'll give this a try anyway. You're thinking liquid CO2 got into the regulator?

 

[chocotaco]

The liquid CO2 idea doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If I turn off the tank valve and open up the regulator output, all the gas drains away until there is none left in the line or the reg. But the gauge still reads ~30 PSI. If there were liquid CO2 in there, it would vaporize and go away.

 

[day_trippr]

Not certain of the whats - debris knocked loose, or just some liquid CO2 trapped in the cylinder valve - but on two occasions I've had a cylinder fall over and both times when I attached a regulator the reg was fubar. I had read an HBT post about similar occurrences that were cleared with the blast technique, and thankfully that worked in both cases. Worth a try...

Cheers!

 

[chocotaco]

Yeah, definitely worth a try. I'll give it a shot when I get home.

 

[day_trippr]

Well, maybe not. I just reread your OP and this time realized that the low pressure gauge doesn't zero out even with the tank valve closed and you've relieved the reg internal pressure. Not the same symptom as what I had.

There's another blow-out procedure that might be more relevant, as it's goal is to clear debris from the reg itself: shut off the tank valve, remove any tubing from the regulator output, open the reg's shut-off valve wide if present, dial up maximum pressure on the regulator, get a good grip on the tank and reg, point the reg at that cat again, and open the tank for a blast or two. Dial the reg pressure all the way back to zero, turn on the tank valve, and see what happens...

Cheers!

 

[chocotaco]

Neither blow-out procedure worked. The gauge does not work at all now; stays at zero. I can hear the regulator "regulating" so I'm pretty sure the reg is fine. I'll get a new gauge and hopefully that's all that's required.

 

[chocotaco]

Follow-up: replacing the gauge made everything back to normal. Normal is good. Normal is beer.

 

[chocotaco]

The lesson: if your pressure gauge is acting weird, slowly creeping up to an unexpected pressure, or reading zero when you know it's not zero - turns out the gauge itself can be busted (and it probably fails before your regulator)