Keg losing carbonation/gas bottle issues.

[earle]

Yeah I'm not sure, but I know before I had the manifold I'd probably had 6-8 kegs through it, carbed and served, plus cleaning duties, and the pressure on the high gauge had hardly moved. I will have to count them when I get a new gas bottle, but in any case it certainly hasn't lasted anywhere near a year. I bought it in August.

I bumped the regulator up a few PSI last night and tried another glass of the IPA tonight. It wasn't fully carbonated but it was better than last night so I'll test it out again tomorrow night and see how it goes. Perhaps it was indeed an issue with those check valves dropping the pressure in the kegs for some reason. This could take a bit of tinkering to get it right, don't really want the beers over carbonated.

Just remember that the high pressure gauge is only reading the vapour pressure and not the liquid pressure. As you use gas, liquid Co2 becomes gas and maintains the high pressure reading. Once all the liquid Co2 has converted to gas, the vapour pressure will then begin to drop. You'll only see a drop on the high pressure side once most of your fill has been used, its not a proportional decrease over the life of the fill.

 

[Bribie G]

Normally a CO2 tank will hold a very consistent pressure until it is basically empty, once the high side starts to drop it is close to being finished.

It's well worth spraying all of your connections with some soapy water as even a small leak can empty a tank fairly quickly.

C02 under high pressure is a liquid. When the bottle is coming to the end of its current life the liquid will all have evaporated and what you get is a bottle of highly compressed gas, that will continue to serve beer but obviously from that point on, the pressure gradually drops away.

 

[Rocker1986]

Just remember that the high pressure gauge is only reading the vapour pressure and not the liquid pressure. As you use gas, liquid Co2 becomes gas and maintains the high pressure reading. Once all the liquid Co2 has converted to gas, the vapour pressure will then begin to drop. You'll only see a drop on the high pressure side once most of your fill has been used, its not a proportional decrease over the life of the fill.

Ah, I wasn't aware of that, does explain why it's all the way down near empty on the gauge now, the leak obviously drained a fair bit of it. Thanks mate.

I will go swap it for a full bottle once it runs out though, of course.