Fixing Busted Gauge's On Regulators

[adryargument]

Don't know about you guys - but no matter where i hide my regulators and spare gas cylinder - the missus always manages to find it with the end of the vacuum cleaner. Whether its in a cupboard, under the stairs or in plain site.

Due to this i have 2 busted regulators with dials that are bent to hell, the aluminum panel is generally busted and the pin points to god knows where, neither of the pins moved when i tried to gas them.

I am always a bit antsy about screwing around with high pressure systems, but anyway i decided to open up the little buggers, have a poke around with some needle point pliers - and what do you know? Fixed!

Simply unscrew the two screws on the back, jam a Flathead screwdriver in the front plastic panel and pry off the plastic.
Without even messing with the gas system, you should now have access to the entire gauge and can simply bend everything back to how it originally was.

On one of my reg's, not only was the aluminum background bent, but so was the pin and the pin holder - all of these went back to normal with a pair of pliers.

Quite chuffed, there's $150 bucks i saved!

Note: This only works if the gas-works are still in tact, you can test this by poking the pin - it should bounce back to its original location.

One of my fixed reg's:

 

[Sammus]

One of mine was damaged recently, except the little spring that's part of the magical pressure-measuring doohicky behind the gauge was all bent and ****** as well. Try as I might no amount of bending back fixed it. $29.50 from CB for a new gauge fixed the problem.

 

[Phoney]

Well done!

I have a micromatic regulator with a busted high pressure gauge and I suspect that the low pressure gauge is showing slightly wrong values (too high). I bought a replacement HP gauge but can't get the old one off! I think they use locktite on the thread.

I could send it off to micromatic in Sydney for repairs, but what if my beer goes flat and I'm stuck without a reg for weeks on end? That would be a travesty. Rock and a hard place is where I'm at.

 

[Truman42]

Quite chuffed, there's $150 bucks i saved!

Good one but you only saved about $20-$30 because you can buy replacement gauges that screw right on. But still thats $30 towards other brewing gear..


Edit: Yeh as Sammus said..

 

[Florian]

I've previously only taken the clear lid off to straighten the needle and background. Obviously it'll work much better when taking the whole thing out of the casing, so cheers for the hint with the two screws, will try that.

As Sammus mentioned though, worst case it would be 20-30 bucks for a new gauge.

I've also replaced the low pressure gauge on one of my regs to one that only goes to 4 bar instead of the usual 8 bar for better adjustability, it also points upwards rather than sideways, so easy to read from the top.

 

[dicko]

Well done!

I have a micromatic regulator with a busted high pressure gauge and I suspect that the low pressure gauge is showing slightly wrong values (too high). I bought a replacement HP gauge but can't get the old one off! I think they use locktite on the thread.

I could send it off to micromatic in Sydney for repairs, but what if my beer goes flat and I'm stuck without a reg for weeks on end? That would be a travesty. Rock and a hard place is where I'm at.

Or it could be a left hand thread???

 

[adryargument]

Well done!

I have a micromatic regulator with a busted high pressure gauge and I suspect that the low pressure gauge is showing slightly wrong values (too high). I bought a replacement HP gauge but can't get the old one off! I think they use locktite on the thread.

I could send it off to micromatic in Sydney for repairs, but what if my beer goes flat and I'm stuck without a reg for weeks on end? That would be a travesty. Rock and a hard place is where I'm at.

Micromatic is left hand thread, your probably tightening it! I whacked mine in a vice then used a normal spanner - came off quite easy once it was clamped.

ZzzZzz, 2 gauges, with shipping - at least $75 saved

 

[katzke]

Sounds like you need to get the cage that goes around the guages. Link hear. http://www.homebrewstuff.com/wire-gauge-pr...-regulator.html