Leaky keg post?

[Guysmiley54]

I have recently bought a new Keg King 19L corny keg. I am having trouble with a leak that seems to come from between the beer out disconnect and the post.

I have 2 kegs in my fridge and both of them use a coupler that mounts a tap directly to a disconnect. I assumed after seeing my first puddle of beer coming from the fridge that the trouble was with the tap so I removed the tap , disassembled it and soaked it in sodium percarbonate overnight. Today I give it a real good clean and reassembled it as tightly as I could. After reattaching I could see more clearly that a gentle trickle was coming from underneath the disconnect.

As an experiment I took the tap (and disconnect, coupler assembly) from my other keg and attached it to the keg that had been leaking and I experienced the same problem. I then took the tap with the disconnect that I suspected had an issue and connected it to the good (non leaking) keg and it didn't leak....

I'm thinking at this stage something is wrong with the keg post itself. I unscrewed the post and had a look at the poppet and springs inside, I couldn't see any problems although to be honest I don't really know what I was expecting to see in there anyway! I gave it a good clean and reconnected it super tight. Still had the leak I will mention that this post is pretty hard to get the disconnect on and off of also. For what it's worth I am relatively new to kegging and at this stage haven't used any keg lube.

I'm starting to think that something may be wrong with the post itself although I can't really work out what's actually going wrong.

Any insight would be very much appreciated, cheers.

 

[TheBigD]

Ive heard of cheap disconnects leaking, the posts on your kegs may not be exactly the same and the leaking one may not seal properly with your disconnects, what brand disconnects are you using?

 

[Guysmiley54]

I don't know what brand they are... My local shop has a LOT of Keg King stuff. One is black plastic and the other one is stainless (with a black plastic cover), I suspect more than likely both KK.

Question is, how do I 100% identify the problem and then what can I do about it?

 

[Weizguy]

If the disconnect is hard to put on and take off, it may be a gas post on the wrong side (posts swapped) or both posts are inlet posts?

Check on the other (good) keg, does it look like the posts are different?

Otherwise, did you check the o-ring under the post/ dip tube?

 

[TheBigD]

Swap it out for a CMB disconnect they're German made and only about $15, even if it isn't ithe problem it's always good to have some spares.

If it does solve your problem I'd replace them all and use the others for things like cleaning kegs etc. last thing you want is empty Co2 bottle and an empty keg you didn't drink yourself.

 

[GalBrew]

Replace the seal on the keg post. Sometimes you get quite thin seals that don't work all that well even when new. I have had that problem with a new KK keg. I just replaced it with a new one (also from KK). No problems.

 

[TheWiggman]

Sounds to me like it's the O-ring on the post.

Edit: actually, I'm certain it is. Leaking between the disconnect and post? It's going past the O-ring. Replace that and if you have no luck, it's a problem with the post (but I'll bet money replacing the O-ring with fix it).

 

[Truman42]

i have noticed that the KK corny posts seem slighlty smaller due to great Chinese manafacturing tolerances than standard cony posts and therefore can leak. My gas Qds will leak if I angle them slightly whilst on the post.

But some of there Qds seem to match these posts in size.

 

[Guysmiley54]

Thanks heaps for the responses :icon_cheers:

I am thinking Wiggman is on the right track, I have had a quick inspection of the O-rings and it's looking a little damaged, I will buy a few new ones today and see if it helps.

Truman, I have experienced the same thing with my gas posts although they seem to be OK when centred though. I have had a few problems identifying a gas leak (emptied a new bottle in less than a month) and I have been suspicious that the disconnect was to blame. I think I may have been blaming the disconnect when the gas post may have been the culprit. Would you recommend replacing my gas and liquid disconnects with the Keg King branded stainless steel versions?

 

[Dan2]

Grab some lubrifilm while you're at it. Makes connecting/disconnecting much smoother, and without it you'll be replacing the O-rings regularly

 

[Guysmiley54]

O-ring was the culprit! I have replaced all and put keg lube everywhere! (well maybe not everywhere...)

Think I have this under control. I still have to say, the plastic gas disconnects aren't super great. I think I will try the KK premium stainless to see if they are better.