# How Many Kegs Per Co2 Bottle



## Cortez The Killer (12/3/08)

Did a search for a thread along these lines but couldn't find anything specific

I'm about to run out of CO2 in my first gas bottle (the gauge is reading just about nil)

From a rough tally I reckon I've carbonated and dispensed about 22 kegs with a 6.8kg MyKegOnLegs botte (being a mixture of beer and sodawater)

I found this article about average usage to carb + dispense http://www.suebob.com/brew/brewref.htm

I appear to be a little under in the number of kegs for a 15 pound gas bottle

Though I imagine that this is due to losses in learning how to keg and various other times where I've purged kegs etc

Does this sound close to what other people are getting from their gas bottles?

I realise that bigger or smaller bottles will give more or less - but on a proportionate basis?

Cheers


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## newguy (12/3/08)

I got the 20lb bottle I'm presently using 18 months ago, and it still has liquid CO2 in it. I know this because the tank pressure is still 850 psi; once the liquid is gone, the tank pressure drops really fast. I've dispensed about 31 kegs so far, give or take 1 or 2. I never turn off my gas either - it's always connected.

I don't think I have much gas left, but I probably have enough for another 6 kegs. I used to use CO2 to blow rinse water, sanitiser, etc. out of each keg, and a bottle didn't last much longer than about 8-9 months. Now I just use gravity/siphons to do everything. I still purge each keg with CO2 after I rack into it.

It sounds like your 'mileage' is about right. If you cut back on using CO2 to move fluids other than beer around, you can expect a tank to last a bit longer.

Hope this helps.


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## Ross (12/3/08)

I've got a customer that is using 330gm Sodastream bottles to carbonate & dispense.
He reckons he is carbonating 3 kegs & dispensing 2.5 out of one of these. On this basis he'd get 70 odd kegs from a 6.8kg bottle.
Admittedly he's being very frugal with his gas.

No idea what I get, as never measured it.

cheers Ross


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## lagers44 (12/3/08)

Just to give you an idea & blow my own trumpet...

I'm frugal with my gas as well , only used to carbonate & dispense. I've got a 10kg bottle that was filled in Oct 97 ( yes that's right '97 ) and I really need to refill now. On my guestimates 1 keg per month for 10years = 120kegs.

Now to find me more gas...... ^_^


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## PartyPooper (12/3/08)

I'm still using my first big CO2 bottle so I can't really help you there. I use it to force carbonate both my 19l beer kegs and my kids 19l keg (fizzy drinks), as well as, dispense the beer kegs. It's done about 7 kegs so far and has dropped from 1000psi down to about 900psi.

I also use a 330g Sodastream bottle to dispense the kids keg and as a dispenser for my party keg. I haven't counted how many 19l kegs it's dispensed so far but it would be in excess of 4.


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## KGB (12/3/08)

PartyPooper, the pressure really shouldn't change until there is no more liquid left as newguy said, then it will drop fast. The req measures the pressure in the gas portion, which should be relatively constant assuming constant temp. Maybe a temp fluctuation has caused the change in your reading? This happens when guys switch from running their setups with the bottle outside the frideg to inside the fridge.

I'm still on my first 10kg Supagas cylinder. My rental is almost up for the first year and it doesn't "feel" (by weight) like its going to run empty any time soon. I've probably done a dozen kegs in the last 12months. When they call I'll be returning the cylinder as is and switching to a fire extinguisher I have on hand.


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## Cortez The Killer (12/3/08)

Sheesh there must be a leak in my system somewhere or I've been pretty wasteful

I suppose I carbonate the sodawater at very high levels and have pushed a pit of liquid around with CO2

Just found another thread on point http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...?showtopic=2108

I'll try being a little more frugal with my next bottle and see how it goes

Does anyone else have any notes on their usage?

Cheers


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## KoNG (12/3/08)

ive dispensed an carbed at a guess approaching 20 kegs with my 6.8kg MKOL cylinder
would have to check beersmith to give a better answer, but i think i still have a whiles to go aswell in terms of co2


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## Tony M (12/3/08)

I use 140gm per 19L keg = 7kegs/Kilo of CO2. I use compressed air for all cleaning, purging & etc. cos I'm a titearse.


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## Vlad the Pale Aler (12/3/08)

Tony M said:


> I use 140gm per 19L keg = 7kegs/Kilo of CO2. I use compressed air for all cleaning, purging & etc. cos I'm a titearse.




Tony - do you filter the compressed air, some real nasties inside a compressor.

I have'nt measured my usage, but have done a fire exy full since Xmas after changing over to a 5 keg setup.


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## frogman (12/3/08)

Brewing/consuming here at a rate of 3 kegs per fortnight.
I got nearly six months out of my first two refills on my 6.8kg MKOL cylinder.
Only got 2.5 months out of the last refill. 
Had a leak and nearly 15 family here for the Xmas new years break.

Guess I get nearly 40 kegs per refill.

Gas costing me around $1 per keg.

Got to be happy with that.

FROGMAN


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## Tony M (12/3/08)

Vlad the Pale Aler said:


> Tony - do you filter the compressed air, some real nasties inside a compressor.



Compressed pipe smoke Vlad---makes great Rauschbiers


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## SJW (18/3/08)

> Just to give you an idea & blow my own trumpet...
> 
> I'm frugal with my gas as well , only used to carbonate & dispense. I've got a 10kg bottle that was filled in Oct 97 ( yes that's right '97 ) and I really need to refill now. On my guestimates 1 keg per month for 10years = 120kegs.
> 
> Now to find me more gas......



That has to be a record. I had a couple of small leaks, only small enough to go un-noticed. The pressure was dropping back to 0 over the 24 hrs till I poured the next one. I think I only got about 10 kegs including learning how to keg and pushing cleaner around. I just upgraded to a 10kg VT tank and have serviced all my kegs so am hoping for at least 100 to 110 kegs :lol: 

Steve


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## masculator002 (18/3/08)

SJW said:


> That has to be a record. I had a couple of small leaks, only small enough to go un-noticed. The pressure was dropping back to 0 over the 24 hrs till I poured the next one. I think I only got about 10 kegs including learning how to keg and pushing cleaner around. I just upgraded to a 10kg VT tank and have serviced all my kegs so am hoping for at least 100 to 110 kegs :lol:
> 
> Steve


I got a vt a few months ago as they are phasing out the d size due to lack of people using that size and it costs about the same to fill a D size as a vt I have pumped approx 15 kegs with it and carbonated as well and the needle shows it to be at the same pressure as the day I bought it in fact on the last few 38 plus degree days we have had it has acctually gotten higher than when I got it. I dont know what you guys do but I only top up the pressure as I need it and when carbonating I charge and remove the gas bottle then charge the next night and if needed the one after that. Haven,t had a prob with this system at all even though more than half of my kegs are the older style ones made By mytton rodd in victoria, not the flash looking ones with the rubberised top and bottom and are only in poor to average condition as far as looks go. As long as the rubber around the lid is pulling into the socket nice and tight all should be good.


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## SJW (19/3/08)

My problem was that as I had never kegged before I was not sure how much gas the system used. So I thought it was normal for the needle to drop back to 0 overnight. But now I have fixxed my leaks in the keg's I can pull 6 or 8 beers over the week and the needle wont move much at all. So once the kegs are up to carbonation I will just continue to top up to serve and hopfully get a lot more life out of this bottle.


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## bennyc (5/3/11)

KGB said:


> PartyPooper, the pressure really shouldn't change until there is no more liquid left as newguy said, then it will drop fast. The req measures the pressure in the gas portion, which should be relatively constant assuming constant temp. Maybe a temp fluctuation has caused the change in your reading? This happens when guys switch from running their setups with the bottle outside the frideg to inside the fridge.



Which way would the pressure reading go? I've moved my CO2 tank from inside the fridge to outside the fridge and the pressure reading has moved from about 6000kPa to 5000kPA over a week - I was worried that there might be a leak, but would this explain the drop?


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## Bribie G (5/3/11)

I go through about 3 kegs a fortnight as well, 10k bottle lasts about 9 months so that's over 50 kegs. However I use a lot of gas for flushing and force carbonating (I never keg prime).


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## michael_aussie (5/3/11)

bennyc said:


> Which way would the pressure reading go? I've moved my CO2 tank from inside the fridge to outside the fridge and the pressure reading has moved from about 6000kPa to 5000kPA over a week - I was worried that there might be a leak, but would this explain the drop?


From what I can remember of year 12 chemistry, if you heat your bottle (move it from inside to outside the fridge), I would have thought, if anything, you'd get an increase in pressure, not a decrease.


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## michael_aussie (5/3/11)

For the record.... 
I use 2.3kg extinguishers.
My first bottle lasted about 10-12 kegs.
6 beer kegs, and 5-7 soda water.
I use the bottle to carbonate, and clean the kegs.
I have had a leak or two, a bit of a play at the start, so I should improve over time.


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## stux (5/3/11)

It basically depends if you have gas leaks or not 

If you have a leak, then you'll lose your bottle very quickly. If not, then maybe 50 kegs?

Once your kegs are carbed, you can turn the bottle off and the pressure should stay up on the reg overnight, unless you have a leak... but I'm not so sure how to ensure there's no leaks when carbing :-\

Yes, sudsy water sprays should show you leaks, but the real slow sleaks don't necessarily show up.

I haven't had a problem since I tore all my kegs down and replaced the "refurbished" o-rings that they came with and started keg lubing everything whenever I can.

If I have to re-refurbish the kegs when they're "new" I might as well buy unrefurbished kegs from ross... which is what I've started doing


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## shadders (5/3/11)

Just tried to calculate it... Dunno if I got it right.

1.93 grams CO2 per litre at 1 atm = 38 grams to fill a 20L keg (inc headspace).

at 2.2 volumes that's about 84 grams to carbonate.

Dispense usage would depend on serving pressure.

at 50kpa a fully dispensed keg should hold 1.5 keg volumes of CO2 if allowed to expand until it reaches atmospheric pressure = 57 grams.

at 70 kpa = 65 grams

so a carb and dispense for one keg = 141 grams

6.8kg / 0.141 = 48 kegs

at 70kpa dispense pressure = 45 kegs

assuming no wastage and no usage for transfers etc.

usage for a transfer would be same calc as for dispense usage I guess... This is assuming you're burping the receiving keg to let it flow all the way through.
((Transfer pressure + 100kpa) / 100kpa) * 38 grams
so the slower you are willing to transfer the less gas you'll use.


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