Kegging Setup CO2 leak - driving me insane

[DJ_L3ThAL]

I took the reg off the tank to go and exchange it and noticed a tiny black oring in the outlet port and of the tank. It sure where that was meant to go.

That little black o-ring is squished in almost every Keg King swap-and-go cylinder I've received. It's a seal for the non-return valve which is there to prevent people from filling the cylinder or anything finding it's way back into the cylinder and contaminating it. You can ignore it as it will cause no issues for you at all (it's all internal to the seal you make when connecting your regulator).....

.....or you can use an allen key to remove the fitting, seat the o-ring correctly and wonder who trained the guy re-filling Keg King cylinders like I do, LOL.

 

[Lionman]

I noticed that the valves on my manifold audibly leak from the stem when upward pressure is applied to the handle. Looks like this is probably the culprit.

Serves me right. I bought decent quality stuff for the rest of the system but skimped on the manifold.

I think I will swap it out for some T barbs.

 

[Rocker1986]

I had T-piece splitters once, ****** pain in the arse compared to the manifold I have now. This manifold had a leak in one of the valve threads when I first got it, and I quickly lost over half a bottle of gas because of it. When I located it, I noticed that the offending valve was screwed in a full turn tighter than the other three that weren't leaking. I removed all the valves, as well as the inlet barb and stopper on the respective ends of the manifold, and put silicone in and on all threads, then screwed them back into place. Not had any problems since. I like it because I can switch on and off gas to individual kegs as well as have the spare line for purging etc.

I have kept the T-piece splitters in case of emergency though.

 

[Lionman]

I'll look into that. I did a dunk test on th manifold and it doesn't appear to be lacking normally, just when the handles have pressure on them which is good.

 

[klangers]

That little black o-ring is squished in almost every Keg King swap-and-go cylinder I've received. It's a seal for the non-return valve which is there to prevent people from filling the cylinder or anything finding it's way back into the cylinder and contaminating it. You can ignore it as it will cause no issues for you at all (it's all internal to the seal you make when connecting your regulator).....

.....or you can use an allen key to remove the fitting, seat the o-ring correctly and wonder who trained the guy re-filling Keg King cylinders like I do, LOL.

It caused me all sorts of issues, actually. It's the "residual pressure valve" and it's a pain in the arse. I removed it and didn't refit it as it's completely unecessary if you're not an ***** know how to use gas bottles safely.

Also, the only thing that makes an o ring "food grade" is that it's tolerant to caustic and other harsh chemicals. Something that isn't food grade doesn't mean it's not suitable for potable water or gases. They just aren't up to harsh cleaning, which should be a non-issue for gas lines.

 

[Lionman]

also never release that valve while full kegs are connected unless you want beer in your gas lines.

 

[damoninja]

Sorry but there is no way it can get into the reg, it's on the outside thread of the gas bottle and the nut of the reg screws on/over this.

Get what you mean but not the first time, but when you take it off the stuff is shredded and bits of it can get anywhere, could easily get decent sized particles down the core and in to the reg.

While unlikely, you shouldn't need to do it anyway and for the risk of blowing a reg and having a much higher pressure in your lines/kegs than you'd care for or incorrect gauge readings.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

While you are correct that ambient temperature affects the pressure of any gas in any system. Gaseous CO2 pressure fluctuations in a beer system (even commercial size) due to ambient temperature is a negligible effect. You would not see it or measure it really on the gauges we have. More likely you are seeing fluctuations in the gauge bourdon tube system due to the metals expansion/contraction with ambient temperature changes.

The pressure versus ambient temperature charts you are likely referring to are relevant for the CO2 cylinder only, as the Liquid-Gas equilibirum (balance) will change with ambient temperature. So I'll quote a rough pressure of 5000kPa in your CO2 bottle, but this in summer could be much higher as the liquid CO2 boils off more CO2 into gas to stay in equilibirum, the reverse happens when it is cold. The same effect is seen when using a BBQ LPG gas bottle for a while and you see condensation or ice (at the case swaps when we smash them) on the bottle, because the cylinder is using heat from the air to boil off the liquid LPG to replace it as gas because you are withdrawing gas from the bottle. It wants to stay in liquid-gas equilibirum.

Yes, sorry should have been clearer about my post. The temperature drop that happened to me effecting the pressure gauge was the high pressure gauge only.

 

[Gloveski]

keg posts have been an issue for me , nothing some lube hasn't fixed

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

A bit off topic but, the guys who ordered orings from orings and more, how long did they take to arrive?

Mine were shipped on August 12th so just wondering how long it took to get to Australia

Cheers

 

[Grott]

Got mine within 14 days as remembered, it was real quick.