Ball Lock Vs Pin Lock Kegs?

[Nibbo]

Hi all...Looking into purchasing some kegs to venture out of bottling. As i've never dealt with anyone who keg themselves, i was hoping for some feed back on what are the major advantages/disadvantages with these different kegs. As far as i know, cornelius kegs are the way to go which i belive are the ball lock kegs.
Because i'm not 100% on this, i needed some clarifacation.
My apologies about the stupid question...i was born this way :wacko:

 

[DU99]

the basic difference are the posts they use and there size..heres a article you can read thru
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=50949
and a video

 

[C_west]

The only differences are obviously different type of quick disconnects are needed for each keg. Pin lock kegs have 3 pins on the liquid out post and 2 on the gas in, so I guess its harder to get each side mixed up. Whereas the ball lock kegs have much similar looking posts and if you wanted to, I believe you can actually force the quick disconnects onto the wrong post.

Also the size is slightly different, I believe that pin locks are slightly taller and skinnier than ball lock. But the biggest thing is probably the amount of spare parts for ball locks are everywhere and a lot easier to buy than pin locks.

I myself have pin locks as I came across them for a good price when starting out in kegging, now that I have all my gear suited to pinlocks it doesn't make any difference really.

If that doesnt answer your question then probably just do a search, heaps of info on the differences

 

[komodo]

Ive got both.
But I also use threaded disconnects so I can swap between them easily.

Basically I picked up the pinlocks cheap as no one wanted them and at first I thought I would change them to ball lock - then I priced up parts - feck that! So I bought the disconnects and never looked back.
Honestly I dont think it really matters unless you want to swap with people with ball lock kegs. I sort of have the best of both worlds I can swap with mates with either pinlock or ball lock. Then again I dont honestly know that many guys that swap kegs either...
I think the pinlock kegs are a better keg though and the fitting to me feels a lot more "possitive" in its connection.

 

[Nibbo]

Cool Banana's...from all the comments and searching on the interweb, i think pin locks will be the go mainly cos there cheaper to buy upfront. Once i've got all the gear i'll be set.

Thanks all for replying.

 

[HBHB]

The Pinlocks by Cornelius are easily converted to Ball Lock posts anyway, but as already stated, only 2 of the Pinlock kegs will fit into a series 3 Kegerator. Not an issue if you're working from any other sized fridge/freezer setup. A New replacement lid with a pressure relief valve is relatively inexpensive if you want a manual PRV on top for burping the kegs off.

OEM Ball Locks will become increasingly harder to source and most likely dearer as a result i suspect, but there's hundreds of thousands in circulation.

Martin