Regulator question

[Wildknight65]

Hi there. My keezer has two kegs full with beer nicely pressurised and pouring well at 10psi. I went to connect a third keg this morning with some water and sanitiser, hooked up the third gas line and as I went to turn the gas on at the manifold. The gas started to fill the keg, but the regulator was clicking as it was filling. I let it go till the clicking stopped, sprayed around for leaks and nothing visible. Started to pour the sanitizer and as the gas was refilling in the keg the clicking started again. The kegs obviously getting pressure, but a little unsure what this clicking from the reg is all about. Never heard it before. The needle almost bounces up and down between 10-15psi and eventually stopped once pressurised. Any ideas?

 

[mjrinkenbaugh]

Hi there. My keezer has two kegs full with beer nicely pressurised and pouring well at 10psi. I went to connect a third keg this morning with some water and sanitiser, hooked up the third gas line and as I went to turn the gas on at the manifold. The gas started to fill the keg, but the regulator was clicking as it was filling. I let it go till the clicking stopped, sprayed around for leaks and nothing visible. Started to pour the sanitizer and as the gas was refilling in the keg the clicking started again. The kegs obviously getting pressure, but a little unsure what this clicking from the reg is all about. Never heard it before. The needle almost bounces up and down between 10-15psi and eventually stopped once pressurised. Any ideas?

I had a regulator do this to me once, but it was a cheap one that came with my keggerator. I ended up buying a new dual-pressure regulator so I could run different pressures on the two kegs that fit in my keggerator. The new regulator has no problems on either dial, so I know it had nothing to do with the gas pressure coming into the regulator. It was definitely the regulator or the "gas-on" valve coming out of the regulator, but it sounds like you've figured that much yourself. Sorry, I'm probably not all that much help, but replacing the regulator in my case solved the problem.

 

[mjrinkenbaugh]

Also, it may be that the pressure on your CO2 tank is low and trying to feed it across three gas out valves doesn't hold up quite right? What if you shut another valve or two off and direct all of the pressure to the one that caused the clicking? Just a thought anyway.

 

[Wildknight65]

Okay so I've uploaded a video to kind of explain the problem. Note the dial to the left starts to drop and once it gets so far it pings back up it constantly does this for a while. I've just added a new keg full of racked beer, added has at the psi shown on the top dial, checked for leaks and everything looks good. Any iteas why this needle keeps bouncing.

View attachment trim.0F2D6529-1B61-4475-8257-92B89655E575.MOV

 

[day_trippr]

Was the cylinder valve open through all that? (I'm guessing yes).

At the rate that high pressure gauge is falling I'd say you have a nearly empty cylinder.
Tried checking its weight against the Tare stamped on the neck?

The noise has to be from the regulator because I can't think of anything in a cylinder valve that would make it - there's nothing moving in there after all.
The regulator noise is transmitted via the coupler to the cylinder which then resonates a bit.

You can also see the low pressure needle fall slightly before bouncing back up with the squeak.
Based on that I'm guessing the noise is from the regulator valve moving in its seat as it tries to keep up with the falling pressure on the high side.
The high pressure gauge jumps back up after the regulator valve has closed.
I don't know if that's something that a touch of silicone lube might quiet but perhaps filling the cylinder will make it go away until it's nearly empty again...

Cheers!

 

[Wildknight65]

Was the cylinder valve open through all that? (I'm guessing yes).

At the rate that high pressure gauge is falling I'd say you have a nearly empty cylinder.
Tried checking its weight against the Tare stamped on the neck?

The noise has to be from the regulator because I can't think of anything in a cylinder valve that would make it - there's nothing moving in there after all.
The regulator noise is transmitted via the coupler to the cylinder which then resonates a bit.

You can also see the low pressure needle fall slightly before bouncing back up with the squeak.
Based on that I'm guessing the noise is from the regulator valve moving in its seat as it tries to keep up with the falling pressure on the high side.
The high pressure gauge jumps back up after the regulator valve has closed.
I don't know if that's something that a touch of silicone lube might quiet but perhaps filling the cylinder will make it go away until it's nearly empty again...

Cheers!

Thanks for the reply. I only filled this cylinder 1 week ago so I really hope it's not empty. Even when I connect a full cylinder that dial never moves further than the red section. I've sprayed all over for leaks. Disconnected and reconnected everything and nothing is visible. Interestingly. When I just have 1 keg switched on from the manifold, I don't get this happening.

 

[Wildknight65]

Hi again

This problem is driving me nuts now. Disconnected the line giving me problems from the manifold and opened the valve. You can hear a glugging of gas coming out. Output set at 10psi. I expected a steady flow of gas. The second part of the video shows the needles going nuts on the regulator.

Any idea what is causing this. Please.

View attachment trim.13229DC6-F343-4FBA-9B98-5E4C009A13FB.MOV

 

[tsg32]

Would a bad check valve on the manifold cause this?