CO2 bottles - how long does yours last?

[Aces High]

I've got the keg king 2.6kg bottle. I don't know exactly how many kegs it does, but it doesn't seem to be enough. I'm getting it filled today so I will pay more attention to it this time.

I've even taken to turning it off most of the time to make sure its not leaking anywhere. I just turn it on each time I pour a beer until I can't hear any more gas going through the manifold then turn it off again.

I force carb the kegs slightly when initially filling and I often have a soda water keg going, but I am guessing that I only get about 8 kegs gassed & poured per CO2 refill.(including the soda kegs).

Am I expecting too much or just drinking too much?

 

[mkstalen]

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/21444-how-many-kegs-per-co2-bottle/

 

[QldKev]

It all depends, do you use CO2 to fill the keg before transferring beer into it? Do you use it for another purpose than carbonating kegs and dispensing? What size kegs are you talking about?

Allowing zero losses, you should be able to carbonate to 2.4x vol and dispense a total of 21 x 18L kegs (allow some losses 18 kegs); or about a bit over 7 x 50L kegs.

Soda kegs are generally carbonated much higher, so expect more CO2 use.

I find turning the CO2 off is bad for my kegs. If the keg is not fully carbonated it will continue to absorb the CO2, reducing the pressure overall. The seals use the CO2 pressure to seal, hence at a low pressure can leak out any remaining CO2. So by turning off the bottle you may create leaks and end up using more CO2. I never turn off my bottles. (I have 2 systems) Get decent quality keg fittings, use a lil keg lube (kj jelly) and sit back and relax.

There's a CO2 calculator on my website.

 

[SimoB]

Haven't replaced mine in 2 years... 9kg. I lost count how many kegs I've gone through... a heap though.

 

[Aces High]

Some interesting questions Qld Kev,

All my kegs are standard cornies. I don't prefill kegs with co2. I don't use it for any other purposes than carbing kegs.

Soda kegs are charged with as high a pressure as I can, but I only did one on this last gas bottle.

Never thought that turning off the gas could use more gas

 

[bradsbrew]

I have the same size bottle, havnt really counted the amount of kegs i get out of it but i would think a lot more than 8 at least twice than that. The only time the bottle gets turned off is when it is time for a refill or if I am taking a keg somewhere

 

[TidalPete]

I've only ever used my CO2 for serving\carbing at the same pressure plus a little spurt for purging the new-born kegs whatever.

I've been fortunate enough to own a second-hand 5.0 Kg fire extinguisher for more years than I want to remember & have only recently been able to refill locally instead of making the (PITA) trek to Brissie when the bugger emptied\needed testing.

Purchasing your own 5..0 Kg (or whatever) bottle is an easier but much more expensive option than finding a decent CO2 stinguisher IMHO.


When I needed to refill my stinguisher locally a couple of weeks ago I was unhappy to find out that CO2 refills have jumped from $11.0\Kg to $15\Kg after only 4 months (partial refill then) ----- WTF!

Has anyone else had this rapid rise of CO2 prices in Oz?

 

[danestead]

Yep, like a few of them said.

I found the maths for it about a year ago and calculated that based on carbonating at about 10 or 12psi, it takes about 50g of CO2 to carb the keg and about 50g to dispense the keg. So all up 100g of CO2 per keg hence probably 20+ kegs without leaks.

 

[HBHB]

When I needed to refill my stinguisher locally a couple of weeks ago I was unhappy to find out that CO2 refills have jumped from $11.0\Kg to $15\Kg after only 4 months (partial refill then) ----- WTF!

Has anyone else had this rapid rise of CO2 prices in Oz?

It's certainly not going don in price Pete & we've had the usual rises in the last 4 years, but frankly, that's a bit steep. Regional areas pay significantly more for the gas through agents than through BOC direct in the major cities.

 

[brewologist]

I have a 6.8kg cylinder and gone through @ 44 corny kegs over the last 2.5 yrs that I've been set up with kegs.

In that time I've gone through fads such as force carbing, filtering, purging kegs etc. Recently, I just CC, dump it into the keg with a hose to the bottom and set the pressure at 230kpa for 24-30hrs or so and the beers carbed perfectly.

I'm onto my third refill atm. So probably 2 and a half 6.8kg C02 bottles for that lot.

 

[Aces High]

Ok, I think I might be breaking down my manifold and checking the lines this weekend. I hate having to turn it off the gas every time I leave the brew shed.