Suddenly sputtering out of tap

[lwb1977]

Quick background, I wanted to keg soda, and I eventually decided I wanted more than one soda available, so I decided to just keg and carbonate water to dispense out of the tap into a glass of soda syrup of my choice. Been working great for about a year and a half. I regularly clean everything when I add new water to the keg, etc. But, about 3 days ago, the water started to just sputter out of the tap and the beverage line is full of bubbles. I don't know why this is happening. I have changed out everything included the ball valve, quick disconnect, new CO2 bottle, beverage line, and even disassembled the tap, cleaned, and reassembled. Yet, water is still just sputtering out which is causing way too much foam in the soda and making it slightly flat. I do not see or hear any leaks from anywhere. Only thing I have yet to try is a new tap or pulling out the dip straw and checking that out.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks.

*update - I removed the dips straw and checked for clogs or anything out of the ordinary. Nothing. Replaced it. Checked for leaks. Put it back on the gas (35psi), still sputtering and bubbling out of the tap. I'm out of ideas. This just came out of nowhere when everything was working fine.

 

[day_trippr]

If this is with a cornelius style keg the most likely cause is a defective (or missing) O-ring under the flange of the long Out dip tube. A much more rare possibility is a hole in the long dip tube itself - though that hole would have to be above the waterline to actually cause an evident problem.

Either one of these will cause CO2 under pressure in the head space of the keg to be injected directly into the liquid stream at the Out post...

Cheers!

 

[lwb1977]

it IS with a Corny Keg, I prob should have given more information. Cornelius keg with water at about 37psi and about 20 feet of beverage line. I checked the dip tube and saw no holes. The O-ring also appeared fine. I don't like the way it grinds however when I tighten the valve back. I can add more water back to the top of the keg to see if that temporarily stops it to rule out a small hole in the tube. It is strange though, as bubbles don't begin to appear in the beverage line until about halfway through the line. It doesn't look line bubbles are forming at the exit itself. I'm still working on it though, thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Quaker]

I had a regulator fail which caused similar. I use a single regulator on the tank which goes to a splitter, one for my water, the other into another series of regulators for my beer. So it took me a while to figure it out, the beers were all fine of course, due to the later regulators on the series. The primary one on my tank failed putting much higher pressure on my water. My gauge only went to 30 psi, so it was pegged without me realizing it. I now keep my water at 27-28psi so I can differentiate if it were to happen again.