Tips on EVABarrier hose sizing?

[Garfield43]

Looks like William's has it back in stock so I can order (hopefully) the last thing I need to set up a keg and refurbish my jockey boxes.
For my keg set up I will be going from a 2.5 gallon Corny to a disconnect-to an adapter - to a 690SS Flow Control Perlick faucet.
The faucet will be inside the mini fridge with the mini keg so it should stay cold and not grow bacteria as fast. Also the first pour will be through a cold faucet so that should help with extra foam. All I am missing for it is a gas line from the regulator to the disconnect that will hook to the keg.

This brings up the 2 jockey boxes I bought. I have to change all the lines in them becase they were put away dirty the last time they were used. They have 2 different size lines. The gas line is bigger.

From what I have read 4mm by 8mm is the size to use on liquid at least 90% of the time. I am not trying to pump beer up from the basement so the 4mm by 8mm is the size I need if I have read correctly.

This brings up the gas. The fittings on my regulator are much bigger than what comes on the disconnects. I have read where Day Tripper explained how you can heat and stretch the 4mm hose to fit pretty much whatever you need.
I am way too lazy for that.
Would it hurt anything to just buy a roll of 6.5mm by 9.5mm for the gas?
I am using hose clamps in stead of Duo Tights like all the cool kids use.
Becase of this outside diameter really isn't an issue.
I apricate saving money but stretching the hose sounds like a pain.
The bigger hose will be much easier to attach to my regulators and I think it will clamp town to fit the disconnects.

Does this make sense to people who have actually done this?
I know too large of beer hose can cause problems.
I would think if you were getting too much CO2 becase of a larger hose diameter you could just lower the pressure slightly and that would lower the volume.
Then again I have never done this before and would appreciate advice from those that have.
Likewise I would appreciate a link to the simplest to use hose length calculator.
If there is some length wat works most of the time in most cases I would like to know that.
I really don't want to get in the weeds with the physics of gas and calculating how restrictive the inside of the hose is per meter.
As I mentioned before, I'm lazy. What's the simplest thing I have do I have to do to make it work, that what I want to know.
Thanks.

 

[Garfield43]

One more question is EVA Barrier that much different than this stuff?
Sioux Chief 3/8" OD x 1/4" ID x 25' Polyethylene Tubing
Never mind the size it comes in many different sizes.
It claims to be FDA rated food safe.
Any thoughts?

 

[eric19312]

I use the EVA barrier to reduce oxygen exposure to both the beer in the liquid lines and to the beer in my keg via the gas lines. I don't know the oxygen barrier properties of that polyethylene tubing but doesn't mention O2 barrier in the spec sheet you linked.

Having replaced occasional CO2 cylinder due to leaking gas lines on my previous system I think it is penny wise pound foolish to try to save money on how you connect your gas lines if you end up with a leak. Not just wasting money on gas but its an annoying extra errand to be surprised to be out of gas. I'm advocate of get a new manifold with MFL and use the duotites. I'm not convinced this rigid tubing is really going to be held on all that tightly with hose clamps. I also wonder if the stretching and swagging people do to get it onto barbs may damage the oxygen barrier property of the tubing since the barrier property doesn't come from the tubing itself but from a coating applied to the inside of the tubing.

You are right the diameter of the gas lines doesn't seem to matter other than in figuring out how you are going to connect it.

 

[day_trippr]

Low and High Density Polyethylene plastics are about the worst at O2 permeability and should be avoided.
As a comparison, I believe EVABarrier tubing incorporates something similar to (if not actually) EVOH for the barrier, with ~5 orders of magnitude superior performance wrt oxygen permeation resistance...

Cheers!

 

[Bobby_M]

Gas diameters don't matter at all. The length of the coils in the jockeybox (and the ID of them) would influence my opinion about the lines.

 

[Garfield43]

Guess I will have to get out the calipers and see what ID they are.
One has a bunch of stainless coil.
I can't help but believe that will slow the liquid down some.
The other one, the 2 tap has a cold plate.
The lines coming from the cold plate looked pretty small, I am thinking they are 4x8 mm like the small EVA Barrier.
I am leaning toward getting a getting a roll in 4x8 and one in 6.5x9.5mm.
The larger will fit the gas better plus I think it would be good as the liquid line running to the Jockey Box with the stainless coil in it.
The small will match (I think) the lines that run from the cold plate to the taps in the other box.
Looks like they are back in stock so I won't mess with the stuff from Menards.
Planning to put heat shrink tubing over the EVA Barrier any place I am going to put a clamp.
It worked OK for Day Tripper I'm hoping I can make it work.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Garfield43]

Yet another question.
One of the jockey boxes has 3/16" I.D. hose going to the taps.
That comes to 4.76 mm.
My 2 choices are 4.5 and 5mm,
Is it better to be too big or too loose with this stuff.
Likewise the other lines (and presumably fittings) are 5/16", the biggest EVA Barrier comes to roughly .26" a hair over 1/4".
I suspect if I heat it up I can get it to give that 1/16 of an inch or so.
Just not sure what to do for the 3/16" line.
Once again apricate tips from guys who have done this.

Has anyone else set up a jockey box?
The single tap has "beer threads" on the back so I just need to attach a fitting and a "beer nut" to a line and put a liquid disconnect on the other.
On the 2 tap one it ran lines from cold block out to the keg coupler.
I could do the same thing or I could rig it like the other one where it ends in "beer threads" at the back of the cooler and then just make a few "beer nut" to liquid disconnect jumpers.
I am not sure if there is an advantage one way or the other.

Thanks again.