Carbonator Cap Prob's

[Pennywise]

A month or so ago I bought me a carbonator cap, mainly for SWMBO so I can get her some soda water going whenever need be, but also for the odd occasion I want to take HB anywhere. I hooked it up to a 1.25L bottle of water the other day and shook the shit out of it to carb it up, worked well, except, I can hear a slight hissing when it's still hooked up to the disconnect. Take the QD off and it's a sealed unit, the QD is not faulty, I know this because it doesn't hiss when hooked up to a keg. The cap isn't faulty because it holds pressure fine when not hooked up to the QD. It's only when it's hooked up to a QD I can hear gass escaping (have tried different QD's, all the same). Only thing I can think of trying is replacing the o-ring on the cap, but it doesn't look like there's anything faulty about it. Anyone else had this issue, and a remedy?

 

[benno1973]

I have the same issue, but no remedy.

I used to turn the bottle upside down while shaking, but that causes beer to regularly drip from the connection. As you say, the carbonator cap holds pressure, and the QD is fine, it's just the connection between the two.

 

[Pennywise]

Mmmmm, that's no good, I was hoping I could leave a PET hooked up to the gas all the time.

 

[benno1973]

Having said that, I haven't tried replacing the o-ring. Maybe you could give that a go?

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

I own two functional carbonator caps (and one which is cracked, broken). All of them leaked like this as they came out of the packet.

If you take the O-ring off and look at the cap with a powerful (enough) magnifying glass, you will see some excess plastic from the molding. You *could* void any warranty (I expect) by taking to it with a very fine file very carefully and removing the extra plastic. That might do something for you. It might make things worse.

Or, you could try a big splurt of keg lube. But, you will end up going through a lot of keg lube.

 

[Bribie G]

If you have a number of gas lines available, try them all and see what happens, it might just be one that's not sealing right. My carb cap sometimes pops off the QD for some reason, I find that if I do a good firm push when popping it on, it stays locked on with no leakage. Last week I gassed up 3 beers for a comp (CPBF stuffed) one after the other, by giving each one either overnight or all-day and they turned out perfect.

 

[Pennywise]

Thanks for the ideas guys. First and foremost I'll try a new o-ring, if that fail's I'll contact supplier and see if filing a bit off will void warranty, hopefully not. BribieG, I'll have another crack at it tonight and see if I can put a bit more force into the mating of the two pieces, I've tried 3 QD's and they all seem to to the same thing.

 

[whitegoose]

Sooooo.... old thread, but... did anyone ever solve this issue?

 

[Nick JD]

Sooooo.... old thread, but... did anyone ever solve this issue?

Looks like the caps have changed. Dunno it the issue was solved.

 

[stux]

I have two of the plastic ones. One leaks worse than the other. I can rotate the qd on the better one to get an apparently good seal. I also tried a big old dob of keg lube which worked a bit but is not a great solution.

I'm resolved to not leaving them connected. I can carb with just a minute or so of shaking and can reapply gas to repressurize so no need to leave it connected.

I think the problem is the plastic tollerances are not good enough

Ive also noticed that most of the HB stores seem to be carrying metal ones now. I expect their tollerances are better

 

[Pennywise]

I have a stainless one now and it works great. I fixed my plastic one by taking the o-ring off and wrapping a few layers of plumbers tape in the recess. But now I have a ss one I don't really use the plastic one

 

[crd0902]

Just wondering if anyone knows if you can get one of these caps that hook to a beer connect instead of a gas. I was thinking off filling a two litre bottle with washing or sanitary solution and being able to flush my beer lines easy.

Cheers Chris

 

[zoigl]

Just wondering if anyone knows if you can get one of these caps that hook to a beer connect instead of a gas. I was thinking off filling a two litre bottle with washing or sanitary solution and being able to flush my beer lines easy.

Cheers Chris

Beer Belly can get them for you, I have one cheers