Spunding Valve Construction For Corny Keg

[Octavius]

Acidrain,
Good thinking but, yes, I did spray the top of the keg with Starsan and there was no leak.

This particular valve has exactly 3 1/2 turns in it before everything falls out:



(Incidentally, this arrangement DID leak -from the nipple connecting the gauge- when I first started looking at it. I took everything apart and carefully re-did all the connections with teflon. I'm 100% confident the connections should not now leak. The (slow) leak is coming from the valve itself).

Pickles,
Perhaps it works for what morebeer.com advertize it for - if you do the beer filtering transfer and then immediately remove the valve.

Still a bit of a mystery. It shouldn't leak but it does.

Cheers!

 

[dyqik]

OK, I bought that valve from morebeer.com.

http://morebeer.com/products/ball-lock-qd-adjustable-pressure-valve-wgauge.html

It does not hold pressure.

A rep from morebeer.com has explained to me that it is not meant to, quote:
"...The product is used to filter between two kegs. One keg will be under CO2 pressure to push the beer to the other keg through a filter, and the second keg will have the relief valve, so you can adjust the pressure that needs to be released. If you connect it to a keg that had 30 psi pressure added to it, it is understandable that it will drop to 0 psi when the keg is emptied of CO2..."

Which makes sense if you look at the construction of the valve.

So now I'm all confused. Do the McMaster / Grainger valves hold pressure? I thought the valve was to be left on the keg to bleed off excess pressure from that set on the pressure gauge.

What's going on, Batman?

The morebeer representative seems to not understand the set up. You are not releasing all the CO2 pressure from the keg, and the fermentation in the keg is producing CO2. If you connect a pressure relief valve to an otherwise sealed keg that is producing CO2, it should release excess CO2 from the keg, and reseal when the pressure drops below the set point. If your pressure went to zero, then your pressure relief valve isn't sealing properly when the pressure drops below its set point. It might be that there's a very slow leak from this design of valve though. Proper reseating on PRVs is something that should be designed in though. A little keg lube on the seat could help.

So far, mine has worked perfectly (used during natural carbonation) - pressure held at 6psi for a week, while carbing (aiming for low carbonation for a best bitter, racked to keg a little before FG, and primed to make sure it carbed enough)

 

[pickles]

I totally agree. Morebeer sold you a defective unit, whether it's the design or that specific unit I don't know.

 

[Octavius]

Thanks for trying to help me out guys.

morebeer.com is still insisting that it is not defective. Here is another email I just received:

"This item is made to be connected to one keg while the other keg is connected to a CO2 tank and also connected through a filter to the first keg. If you put 30 PSI of pressure into one keg, and disconnect the CO2 tank, the relief valve will release all of the CO2 from your keg until there is no CO2 left in the keg, which is why the relief valve gauge is dropping down to 0 PSI.

If you would like to return this part, please fill out our return form at http://morebeer.com/content/return and we will email you the proper return shipping address and an RMA number. You will be responsible for the return shipping."

It's going back to them but it irks me I have to pay shipping.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

How long did it take for the pressure to drop to zero? Was it simply absorbing the CO2 you put in to seal the o-ring? That CO2 will dissolve and the pressure drop, then it will rise again once the yeast start producing CO2. The timing is important there.

If it is dropping fast (which it seems to be and what their CS rep says it should), then it is a pressure relief valve that is designed for 0PSI, any positive pressure at all will release. This is what a normal person would call a check valve. Darn marketing people strike again.

 

[pickles]

But morebeer advertises it as "adjustable". Clearly this thing is set to 0 cause it leaks.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

Based on the design it should be adjustable - by backing out the threaded portion you would reduce spring pressure and decrease the pressure needed to vent. It is likely a problem of the o-ring not sealing. I might try wetting the o-ring just to see if it helps. If it does maybe replace the water with some keg lube. But if you're going to return it don't go straight to lube, they may not want to give you full credit.

 

[Octavius]

John and Pickles,
Thanks for the help - I was going to set up another experiment for you all but just got this email from morebeer.com.

"It is not a spunding valve unfortunately, if you refer to the product page (http://morebeer.com/products/ball-lock-qd-adjustable-pressure-valve-wgauge.html) you will see it is meant as a simple relief valve to adjust how much pressure is released during the filtering process."

I think that settles it.

Cheers everyone. (I'm looking at McMaster-Carr now.)

 

[Curtis2010]

Wow, Octavius you are making this overly complicated. Building a spunding valve is dead easy. Literally a 10 minute project once the parts are in hand.

And you can use it to bleed one keg while pushing from another too (spunding valve is cropped off in this pic but you can see where attached on the receiving keg's gas post).


Sent from my GT-P5110 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Curtis2010]

Hmmm...using new verion of app...pics did not post. Trying again.

Sent from my GT-P5110 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Octavius]

...once the parts are in hand..

Aye, there's the rub.

I had the parts in hand but they didn't effing work.

I've just placed an order with McMaster-Carr for a valve that will work.

Thank God for beer, I need one after this.

 

[crane]

I recently bought the same spunding valve from more beer only the pin lock version. After reading the recent posts about the trouble Octavius is having I decided to test mine out before I use it to naturally carb my beer in the keg. Mine works fine. With the valve completely closed it didn't bleed off any CO2 at 20psi. I had to unscrew the valve a lot before it would start to bleed at all. I have it set to just south of 15psi and will leave it on there for a few hours to see what happens.

Octavius it appears that your valve is defective but it is supposed to function how you expect not what the moron from more beer is claiming. Sales guys should never F with an engineer. If you haven't already try some keg lube on the rubber seal and see if that fixes it.

 

[crane]

It's been 5 hours now and it's still holding pressure just below 15psi.

 

[Curtis2010]

Aye, there's the rub.

I had the parts in hand but they didn't effing work.

I've just placed an order with McMaster-Carr for a valve that will work.

Thank God for beer, I need one after this.

Good luck. Hope this gets easier for you.


Sent from my GT-P5110 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Octavius]

Crane,
I'm not messing with the thing - it's boxed up waiting for the RMA. I wouldn't trust it anymore, even if I could getting working with a bit of lube. I'm sure the McMaster valve won't give me trouble - should be here by Tuesday.

Curtis,
Yeah, like you say it isn't rocket science - once I have the parts it will be pretty easy assemble and use.

Thanks for the posts.

 

[ianw58]

Does anyone have a line on a fitting that goes from the threaded pseudo-flare on the connector to a 1/4" NPT male thread?

I'd like to make my set up solid rather than have a flexible hose between the connector on the corny and the T/gauge/valve assembly.

 

[pickles]

I looked for something similar and couldn't find one. I ended you brazing a few pieces together.

 

[maierhof]

Does anyone have a line on a fitting that goes from the threaded pseudo-flare on the connector to a 1/4" NPT male thread?

I'd like to make my set up solid rather than have a flexible hose between the connector on the corny and the T/gauge/valve assembly.

Is this what you are looking for? Your "connector" comment was unclear...
McMaster #50675K162"Brass 37 Degree Flared Tube Fitting, Straight Adapter for 1/4" Tube OD X 1/4 NPT Male"
Hope this helps...

 

[crane]

Is this what you are looking for? Your "connector" comment was unclear...
McMaster #50675K162"Brass 37 Degree Flared Tube Fitting, Straight Adapter for 1/4" Tube OD X 1/4 NPT Male"
Hope this helps...

No this is the wrong gender. I think this one might do the trick.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/331041588059?lpid=82

 

[ianw58]

From this connector...

 

[ianw58]

...too this tee...

 

[pickles]

I searched high and low for that, I'm not sure it's available. I ended up brazing a barbed compression fitting to the side of a tee.

 

[maierhof]

I had a discussion with someone from MoreBeer yesterday and it turns out that their APRV is tuned to hold 4 psi BUT they make a 10psi and a 20psi spring for these things! I ordered two of the 20psi psrts and we will see what happens...

 

[crane]

I used the morebeer spunding valve and it is very difficult to set a specific pressure. And once you do get it set, just looking at it will throw it off.



I ended up ordering the valve and gauge recommended in the main pressure ferment thread and that works so much better.

 

[grathan]

From this connector...

I can't remember if that is 5/16 or 7/16 unf, but this place might have it.

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/d...E_-1_-1&mn=Edelmann&mc=EDE&pt=N1165&ppt=C0248

Or this:
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/fema...7a033386f87b8bf738cda24d2&aw_sitename=Skimbit

 

[r8odecay]

I found one, at a local specialty hydraulics/fittings supply house... none of the big box stores had them... called a swivel nut I believe. Cost about 7 bucks.

 

[grathan]

Anyone know if this thing has a usable spunding valve on it? It's Morebeer's Fermentap deluxe counter pressure bottle filler.

http://morebeer.com/products/deluxe-counter-pressure-bottle-filler.html?site_id=7

 

[r8odecay]

Nope, different application altogether

 

[grathan]

Nope, different application altogether

What would it do then, just trying to imagine other than pressure relief? thanks

 

[r8odecay]

For filling bottles from your keg system