Beer Qd's - How Do You Stop Them Sticking To The Keg Post.

[Hogan]

That does bring up one possibility Gout - that is that I found that the 'o' rings for garden hose fittings did fit the beer posts. I have used these sometimes. Maybe they are the problem. But I'm getting the sticking on all posts and have only used those rings occasionally - so it is not really probable.


Cheers, Hoges.

Further to this I just checked the size of the garden hose 'O' rings against the proper keg post 'O' and the garden ones are somewhat bigger. I wont use these again but I still think that it is not the ring as I am getting this prob on all posts and not just the one I used the garden hose 'O' ring on.

Cheers, Hoges.

 

[Hogan]

Yeah my gas posts have notches, or some of them can't be opened with e regular spanner, but instead need some fruity tool I do not actually own.

Mark - I use one of those tap spanners on the ones that an open ended spanner wont fit.

Cheers, Hoges.

 

[mckenry]

Hey Hoges,
I have had same trouble. Turned out I couldnt lift the spring loaded outer (the two fingers on the side as per your description) evenly as it was an awkward position. Because the 'lift' wasnt vertical all round, one side actually was a bit too low and was just low enough to hold 2 ball bearings slightly out to catch on the lip of the post. Basically, the balls weren't retracting far enough to allow for a smooth lift from the post.
regards,
mckenry.

 

[bill_gill85]

I'll add my name to the list for the same problem, but both gas & beer posts.

I use the Paraliq keg lube from craftbrewer, not the lubrifilm that seems more common. I find the paraliq is quite viscous & sticky at room temperature & even worse when refrigerated. Does anyone think that a different lube may help?

Yeah my gas posts have notches, or some of them can't be opened with e regular spanner, but instead need some fruity tool I do not actually own.

Mark - I use one of those tap spanners on the ones that an open ended spanner wont fit.

Cheers, Hoges.

Gas - Grey - Groove
Beer - Black - Blank

A 12 point ring spanner or deep socket should work on the ones that need a "fruity tool" mentioned above.

Post spanner sizes are usually 22mm or 11/16 inch.

Cheers

Ben

 

[Hogan]

I'll add my name to the list for the same problem, but both gas & beer posts.

I use the Paraliq keg lube from craftbrewer, not the lubrifilm that seems more common. I find the paraliq is quite viscous & sticky at room temperature & even worse when refrigerated. Does anyone think that a different lube may help?


Ben

I think I will try QldKev's suggestion of the KY gel. As my kegerator is a freezer and when bringing the kegs back to temp it will drop the ambient below freezing, then that may account for the current lube sticking. Will get some KY and give it a run.

Cheers, Hoges.

 

[Hogan]

mmm, not sure. I use ky jelly and havn't had issues. It's good at lubricating all hard things :lol:

QldKev

Kev are your kegs in a kegerator freezer or fridge??

Cheers, Hoges.

 

[QldKev]

Kev are your kegs in a kegerator freezer or fridge??

Cheers, Hoges.

Kegerator, are you running a fridgemate? if so I would think it should not make too much difference.

QldKev

 

[Hogan]

Kegerator, are you running a fridgemate? if so I would think it should not make too much difference.

QldKev

Kev

What I was getting at was with my freezer kegorator it gets down well below zero c. when cooling. Whereas a fridge does not go down so low. Thought it might be freezing the lube. Wonder how low a temp the KY could stand.

Cheers, Hoges.

 

[technocat]

Kev fre
Wonder how low a temp the KY could stand.
Cheers, Hoges.

I think KY works best with heat. Seriously I think the ball lock disconnect in an ill conceived bit of equipment.
The profile of the top of a corny keg makes getting the disconnect off an almost impossible task if the balls have gummed up. If there is a better way I would sure like to know.

:icon_cheers:

Just had a thought maybe silicon spray might take cold conditions better

 

[Hogan]

Thanks to all for your responses.

I have solved the problem and it was by one of two ways. I did both so I don't know which one was the winner.

1. I removed all lube from the post (apart from a thin smear on the 'o' ring. And dismantled and cleaned the QD's.

2. My previous method of temp control on my kegorator freezer was a fridgemate probe inserted into a thermowell in 20lts of water. I believed the volume, being around that of a keg, would maintain a good standard temp. The problems with this method was that the freezer ran very cold to bring the temp back to 'set' (may have frozen the QD) and also as the kegs got less full the beer (ales) got a lot colder than I liked. I now just leave the tip of the probe just above the floor of the freezer and it stays around 5c and recycles about once an hour once all four kegs are full. There was a concern with the top portion of freezer warming a lot quicker but mine is a deep unit now that it has the large collar and the beer is being drawn from down at the bottom of the keg on the floor of the freezer, so there is no real issue.

Hope this is of help to those who experienced the same problem with the QD's.


Cheers, Hoges.