Cleaning stainless steel ball lock disconnects

[peteru]

I have the Keg King stainless steel ball lock disconnects on my setup.

Usually, to clean, I just dip the disconnect with beer line in a container of warm water, give it a shake, then use a spray bottle with phosphoric acid sanitiser (StarSan equivalent), give it a squirt and reconnect.

Last night, I did exactly that, but noticed that two out of the three disconnects were hard to connect. I applied keg lube to the keg post and to all parts of the disconnect that I could reach with my finger, but that made no improvement. When connecting to the same post on a keg, one disconnect goes on just fine, but the other two are hard to get on.

Can these disconnects be taken apart to clean and lubricate? If so, how is it done?

 

[btrots87]

They can be pulled apart to clean, there is a YouTube video that shows you how. Sorry I can't give you the link but if you search for keg king on YouTube it's a video comparing the different kinds of disconnects that they sell.

Just happened to watch it last night when I couldn't get my plastic disconnects to seal onto the post.

 

[homebrewkid]

https://youtu.be/Wf-W8vE5kjY


Just skip towards the end and it shows how they come apart.

 

[peteru]

Thanks. Who would have thought that the last 30 seconds of a 10 minute disconnect comparison clip would have the (partial) maintenance instructions for these disconnects. :unsure:

Anyway, to expand on the brief bit in the video...

There are two parts to these disconnects that can be disassembled. There is the body of the disconnect, which houses the push pin. There is also the collar, which has the balls that make it a ball lock.

To disassemble the body, you need a 1/2" wrench and a pair of vice grips. Use the 1/2" wrench to hold the square part of the disconnect and use the vice grips to unscrew the grooved body just under the top part. Once opened, you will find a rubber seal and a spring loaded push pin. On my disconnects, all of these parts were spotless. I lubricated these with keg lube before reassembly.

To disassemble the collar, pull back on the collar to expose the spring clip on the disconnect body. While holding back the collar, use a small flat blade screwdriver or another suitable tool to remove the spring clip. Carefully slide the collar off, making sure that you do not lose the 3 tiny ball bearings. This will reveal a spring and a plastic ring (black for beer, grey for gas), both of which slide over the body of the disconnect and are pushed down into place by the collar. Here is where I found the problem on my disconnects. The body of the disconnect had just the slightest amount of rust in one spot. This in turn caused the collar to get stuck and as a result the disconnect would not go on properly. I used some 1,000 grit wet'n'dry to polish the rust away, cleaned everything really well and lubricated with keg lube.

Once reassembled, the disconnects work better than new. The extra smooth surfaces and lube really do make a big difference. I never thought that Lubri-Film Plus would be such an indispensable aid. It seems to fix about a third of all kegging issues. Almost as useful as Vaseline.