Empty c02 Bottle?

[mattyg8]

Tried a glass of my kegged cider and it seemed pretty flat with little to no bubbles. Previously this batch had plenty of bubbles....I then checked the regulator and its at 11-12psi but pressure is showing 0.

Ive gassed bout 8-9 kegs and have a keg king 2.6kg bottle. How is it best to tell if you are running low?

If I pull the pressure release on the keg it then fills back up

 

[Drew]

Reading your post - where you have said "pressure is 0" - I take it you mean the dial on the cylinder side is showing 0? That's a pretty clear indication that you are running dry!

Do you have several kegs connected to gas? Are there check valves in the system? Perhaps your cider is pulling gas from your other kegs when you pull the release valve. To test this, disconnect disconnects from all other kegs and pull the cider release again.

Ways to tell if you are low
1) Weigh your cylinder (and reg?) and take note. There is also a tare weight stamped on the cylinder.
2) Take disconnects off all kegs, depress the valve in one of the disconnects and see if gas comes out!

 

[mattyg8]

ok let me explain my setup

from the regulator I have a one way valve that goes to a 4 way manifold...I have 3 kegs connected up at once, I turn off the levers to the 3 kegs and turn the one on that has no disconnect connected to it and gas/air comes out. If I release the pressures in the keg and turn on the levers they make the filling noise. So there must be co2 in the bottle

On the regulator is 2 dials, one is the Psi it dispensers to the kegs bout 11-12psi on the other I believe is the pressure in the c02 bottle which used to sit at 500 ps1 now its right down on 0

Just seems weird as the cider was carbonated then went flat

will try weigh the bottle

 

[TOF]

When you weigh your bottle it should be 10 kg's full and about 7 kg's empty, they vary a bit in weight, also check that the reg hasn't stuck, hope that helps.

 

[manticle]

The 2.6 weighs about 7.5 kg when empty (reg detached)

 

[mattyg8]

Will try it out when I get a chance

 

[TheWiggman]

Drew is on the money. If the high pressure dial is reading 0 to your eye then the bottle's out. There'll be some residual CO2 in there.

11 psi = 75 kPa, which is right on the money for carbonation pressure.

I'm betting the cider was carbonated and then went flat because it's where your leak is. I'm guessing it leaked while the valve was off, went flat, and then has been re-pressurised to the keg pressure when one of the other valves was opened.
Opening all 3 valves pressurised the entire system either from the cylinder or from the other kegs. Then regardless of whether the cylinder is empty, gas will come out.

Also, if you measure mass in kg, you should measure pressure in Pa or a variant of (kPa, MPa, Bar etc). 'Tis the international standard. Please forgive me if you have a US reg which doesn't have SI units.

 

[mattyg8]

Ok so best bet is to get the bottle filled, I don't believe there are any leaks in my system

 

[mxd]

Ok so best bet is to get the bottle filled, I don't believe there are any leaks in my system

yep, keg king will do a swap and go

 

[TheWiggman]

Ok so best bet is to get the bottle filled, I don't believe there are any leaks in my system

If your cider was carbonated and isn't any more, I'd wager a nude run around my trampoline there's a leak somewhere.

 

[mattyg8]

I will have to spray and test it just weird as never had this problem before

 

[Mr B]

I will have to spray and test it just weird as never had this problem before

A triple keg CO2 leak internet nudie trampoline run challenge?

Yep, that's pretty out there,

I'd find the leak and say nothing if I were you............

 

[manticle]

I think it would be more interesting if Monica Belluci were involved.

 

[QldKev]

8-9 corny kegs from a 2.6kg CO2 bottle = most likely CO2 leak. You should get 20 odd.

 

[mattyg8]

Yeh I'm not sure everything seems sealed and I have crimp clamp on the hoses

 

[QldKev]

which manifold are you using?

 

[mattyg8]

Ah yes the bottle is flat... I'm using one of the keg king 4 way manifolds... I have 3 cmb gas disconnects connected and the 4th one has nothing... As it's all crimped and no John guess quick disconnects Ill take co2 bottle, manifold and gas line down and see if they can help testing

 

[QldKev]

There's a couple of videos of people with their keg king manifolds in water on here somewhere and they are leaking CO2 from the tap itself.

 

[mattyg8]

Looking on the keg king site it says the the bottle will carbonate and dispense 180L of beer which ive prob done bit more of

 

[QldKev]

Looking on the keg king site it says the the bottle will carbonate and dispense 180L of beer which ive prob done bit more of

There have been many threads about how many kegs per bottle, and I have a calculator on my website if you want to check it out. It's straight maths based on expansion. Neither the threads or my calc agree with 180L of beer for 2.6kg of CO2. I get approx what the calc says, which is 21.2 kegs per 2.6kg CO2 and have done so for the past 10 years. As a rough rule you can expect 110g of CO2 needed per keg, but allow 130g for some wastage. If you search on here for "how many kegs co2" you will find most people get a lot more than the keg king stat. All I'm trying to say is I would check the fittings for leakage, crappy fittings that leak will cost you a lot of money.


Maybe keg king are allowing for leakage of their fittings :blink: