#!*%, that surprized me.

[vasie]

Crap. I am new to kegging and this total caught me off guard. I have had a brew sitting at room temp in a keg for about 2 weeks now while I am building my kegerator. When i hooked up the gas to the keg, beer shot up my gas line lightning fast and got into my regulator! #@#!. That can't be good.

Do I need to take this regulator apart to clean it? Has this happened to anyone else? I also figure that I have to cut the gas line tube down a bit; I figure that both the gas and the dip tube are below liquid level.

 

[Jon_Doe]

What PSI was your regulator set at??

Might be a good idea to relieve pressure before re-hooking the gas.

Personally, I've never had that happen, but I don't condition with sugar anymore and the regulator always has 12-15 PSI behind it before I hook up the disconnects.

As for the regulator, are you SURE it got inside there? Some regulators have one-way valves to prevent this type of accident.

 

[vasie]

Well.. 90.0% sure it got in there. I would love to find out that I was wrong.

I have the micromatic premium regulator.

Looking at the replacment parts.. It doens't appear to have a check valve mechansim.

 

[david_42]

You will probably need to dismantle the regulator & clean it. I have check valves in all of my gas lines to avoid this problem. Venting the keg before hookup is also a good idea.

I always leave a couple inches of head space, even if that means putting part of the batch into plastic bottles.

 

[vasie]

That is most unfortunate. I hope I don't break this thing before I can dispense my first keg!

 

[Jon_Doe]

David knows what's up - just break it down, clean it up, and dry 'er out.

Just like a Dog Wash

Did you have pressure on, or was the gas off? That could be it right there.

He's also correct about the head space.... not to imply anything... but you hit the right post, right?

 

[vasie]

[ EDIT ] Yes. I got the right post. Im am connecting to pin locks. Can't confuse them. I had the regulator set to 10 psi. I had no idea that my secondary would generate more than 10 psi. I waited a full two weeks before transfering the the keg.

I dispensed a few beers off and now I can release gas from the gas connector. I opened up the regulator. It was under brew. You think that the gauges are going to be a problem?

 

[LouT]

Funny but same exact thing happened to me, and I had my reg set for 25 psi, the keg still built enough pressure to overcome it and beer went back to the reg but I disconnected pretty quickly and then purged w/CO2 (pressed the "button" inside the ball lock connector). I still need to disassemble and clean, but more for sanitation reasons than anything, since it still seems to work ok. Yeah, the secondary in the keg proved that substantial pressure can build - and the hefe is carbed about perfectly! Where do you get the check valves, are they common stock items at LHBS?

 

[Bobby_M]

[ EDIT ] Yes. I got the right post. Im am connecting to pin locks. Can't confuse them. I had the regulator set to 10 psi. I had no idea that my secondary would generate more than 10 psi. I waited a full two weeks before transfering the the keg.

I dispensed a few beers off and now I can release gas from the gas connector. I opened up the regulator. It was under brew. You think that the gauges are going to be a problem?

Hang on there for a sec. It is true that you can't mistake the connectors on pinlocks but that's AFTER you've put the correct post on the correct dip tube. You CAN put a Gas In post on the Beer Out dip tube by mistake. Then you're putting the gas connector on a gas post that is actually now a beer out. I'll go back to my analogy that only works on pinlocks. Picture the two posts as eyes and the corny lid is a big mouth. The left eye is beer out, right is gas in. It's possible you got it right and you still got beer in the gas dip tube due to the really high pressure drop. It would cause the liquid beer to become all foam and force its way up into the headspace and ultimately your gas line. In any case, it sounds like you may have had 20+ psi in the keg and low or even zero PSI on the reg. Did you have the tank turned on and the reg's secondary pressure reading 10-12 PSI? As mentioned, the safest way (short of getting the check valve) is to purge most of the pressure out of the keg before applying the gas. It may seem wasteful, but we're really talking about 20 cents worth of CO2.

It's dissapointing that Micromatic's "PREMIUM" reg doesn't have check valves standard. I remember reading that in another thread. You have to now spend the 6-7 bucks more to take care of that.

 

[gnef]

you can do what many of us do, and get the inline check valves from usplastic.

they are currently backordered for a couple weeks though, i believe, as i have yet to receive my spare ones that i ordered a couple weeks ago...

 

[LouT]

I originally thought I had put the gas tube and dip tube into the wrong place, but I hadn't. This happened (beer backward into reg) for several reasons. One, I had really pushed the limit of "full" when i racked to the keg, maybe was 3 mm below the gas tube. Second, the keg had been disturbed and probably foamed up when I carried it up to the kegerator from the basement. And C, I was a bonehead and didn't use my brain - should've known that pressure would be higher than when I had pressurized it at time of kegging since fermentation was probably going to continue in keg secondary... The biggest blunder of all, though, was not having the check valves.
Anyone have the link from usplastics? Also, if that's all I'm ordering, is it worth it with shipping or will it be likely I can find them locally at LHBS or elsewhere?

 

[gnef]

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pr...e=USPlastic&category_name=45&product_id=15641

if your LHBS has them, then go for it. these are pretty cheap though.

some valves that you can buy will have ball check valves, but the cracking pressure is somewhat high, so people have had issues of slow backpressure leaking into the regulator. i personally use these check valves from usplastics

 

[LouT]

Thanks for the link!