Dorado Taps, A Win

[TBird]

Hi

I thought I'd pass on my experience with Dorado taps. I've got a Kegerator (from Pinnacle Wholesalers) with a double font tower with Dorado taps fitted. One tap has worked fine whilst the flow rate on the other would be best described as a small trickle. I've pulled it apart many times to try to get it to pour decently and was so frustrated I thought the only way out was to purchase a more expensive replacement.

This time I pulled it apart and soaked it in a strong solution (1 teaspoon per litre of water) of pink stain remover for at least 24 hours, went through the main body with a small bottle brush and scrubbed everything else thoroughly. I dismantled the good tap to use as a reference. There is an internal piston with an adjustable screw (not the one at the front) and I made sure the adjustment on the screw in the faulty tap was exactly the same as the good tap. I then applied a light smear of keg lube to the piston before reassembling both units.

I'm please to say that I've had a win and the (previously) faulty tap now pours beautifully.

Hope this helps those of you who have had similar problems with these taps.

My thanks goes to whoever posted the photo of a disassembled tap as this helped enormously.

Cheers

 

[Quintrex]

Hi

I thought I'd pass on my experience with Dorado taps. I've got a Kegerator (from Pinnacle Wholesalers) with a double font tower with Dorado taps fitted. One tap has worked fine whilst the flow rate on the other would be best described as a small trickle. I've pulled it apart many times to try to get it to pour decently and was so frustrated I thought the only way out was to purchase a more expensive replacement.

This time I pulled it apart and soaked it in a strong solution (1 teaspoon per litre of water) of pink stain remover for at least 24 hours, went through the main body with a small bottle brush and scrubbed everything else thoroughly. I dismantled the good tap to use as a reference. There is an internal piston with an adjustable screw (not the one at the front) and I made sure the adjustment on the screw in the faulty tap was exactly the same as the good tap. I then applied a light smear of keg lube to the piston before reassembling both units.

I'm please to say that I've had a win and the (previously) faulty tap now pours beautifully.

Hope this helps those of you who have had similar problems with these taps.

My thanks goes to whoever posted the photo of a disassembled tap as this helped enormously.

Cheers

Nice work, I'll be pulling apart my one shortly to give this a go

 

[Pennywise]

I've had exactly the same issue with one of the Dorado taps I have. Pulled it appart many times and fiddled with many bits (on the tap ), but nothing ever seemed to get it going. I'm pretty sure I've messed about with that screw, you're talking about the one inside in front of the big cone piece yeah, the one that screws into the piece the tap handle sits in?, but will give it another crack to be sure.

Cheers

 

[TBird]

I've had exactly the same issue with one of the Dorado taps I have. Pulled it appart many times and fiddled with many bits (on the tap ), but nothing ever seemed to get it going. I'm pretty sure I've messed about with that screw, you're talking about the one inside in front of the big cone piece yeah, the one that screws into the piece the tap handle sits in?, but will give it another crack to be sure.

Cheers

Yep that's the one (you can't get to it unless you pull the tap apart).

 

[Pennywise]

Do you remember roughly how far in you screwed it, might save some of us pulling the stupid things apart 400 times

 

[TBird]

Do you remember roughly how far in you screwed it, might save some of us pulling the stupid things apart 400 times

To get it as exact as I could, I measured the distance from the top of the screw to the bottom of the piston on the good tap using a vernier caliper and applied this to the piston on the faulty tap. If you can wait a day or two, I'll measure the distance again (as I've forgotten) on the good tap and get back to you.

I stuffed up the vernier caliper and have to get a new one.

Cheers

 

[shmick]

I just pulled the cones out of mine and never had a problem since.
The large front screw limits how far the tap opens and effects the flow rate. I had mine done up tight at first but found the best position is to have them partially unscrewed to be level with the front of the body.
The smaller rear screw on the piston holds the spring/valve seat assy in place to allow the 'creamer' function to work when pushing the handle back. This is done up tight to hold tension on the small spring.

 

[TBird]

Hi

Well I've just disassembled the "good tap" and measured the distance from the bottom of the piston to the top of the screw to be 53.8 mm. I went back and checked on the front screw and found I had backed it off about half a turn.

Now I can't say whether it was the meticulous cleaning, the adustment of the screw on the piston or the keg lube on the piston or a combination of all three, but it certainly made a hell of a difference. Also I saw an arcticle on Brewer's Choice Newsletter about the problems customers were having with Kegerators and one thing was that running keg and line cleaner through the taps won't clean them on it's own.

So I've decided to review my cleaning schedules.

Cheers

 

[Pennywise]

Thanks TBird, I'll have another fiddle with my dorado's over the weekend (sounds kinky :blink: ). I can vouch for just flushing cleaner through the lines wont clean them all that well, you should see the crap that came out of one of my QD's, faaaark, a lot worse than the taps

 

[scott_penno]

Slightly off topic, but how do you guys find the Dorado taps?

sap.

 

[TBird]

Slightly off topic, but how do you guys find the Dorado taps?

sap.

Hi sap

Assuming you mean find "using" Dorado taps?

They're not the best. When I bought the Kegerator, they were the standard tap and I hadn't had any experience with them before. In hindsight, I would have gone for a better quality tap. There's recommendations from various people on what works for them on this forum.

Hope this helps.

Cheers