Leaving Co2 On

[jbowers]

Hey,

I had a question about leaving the CO2 on. Essentially, I'd prefer not to. Was wondering if it was ok to have the disconnect hooked up with the reg and bottle switched off? Will the beer remain at serving pressure while I'm not using the keg?

It seems straight forward, but I just wanted to make sure....

Cheers

 

[kelbygreen]

if you got no leaks why cant you leave it on?? mine only gets turned off when I have no kegs full. Had the gas bottle for about a year (well will be a year in a few weeks) and I have not had to refill it yet. But also if the posts dont leak you could take the d/c off as if your lines do leak then it will drain the co2 out of the keg if its connected.

 

[Wimmig]

Hey,

I had a question about leaving the CO2 on. Essentially, I'd prefer not to. Was wondering if it was ok to have the disconnect hooked up with the reg and bottle switched off? Will the beer remain at serving pressure while I'm not using the keg?

It seems straight forward, but I just wanted to make sure....

Cheers

The beer will remain at whatever the previous pressure was as long as the entire gas and keg has no leaks. I just leave it on 24/7 and use gas line just slightly smaller than the disconnect barb, using boiling water to get it over the barb. No leaks there, no sir.

 

[jbowers]

Ah, cool. I was sort of thinking that - will either be draining CO2 bottle or keg if there are leaks. I suppose you are right - may as well just leave it on. I'll get the soapy water out just to make sure there are no leaks.

I think I just read somewhere about someone not having their CO2 on unless they are dispensing.

 

[Wimmig]

Ah, cool. I was sort of thinking that - will either be draining CO2 bottle or keg if there are leaks. I suppose you are right - may as well just leave it on. I'll get the soapy water out just to make sure there are no leaks.

I think I just read somewhere about someone not having their CO2 on unless they are dispensing.

If your a bit worried about it, leave the flow open to the keg, turn the gas up to whatever psi (say 10) then shut off the gas on the regulator and leave it. If there is a line leak, if should show the flow PSI drop to 0 over X period of time on the output dial.

That's the method i seal and purge my kegs at when i fill them. I give them 5 - 10 psi, vent the air out of them then let sit for 15 mins. No drop, no leak.

 

[bignath]

Yep, sure can leave it on, once your beer is carbed, it'll stay that way until she blows...will only carb it to the level set at your regulator.

However, i choose to turn my gas off. The reason being - two inquisitive little kids with friends who are even more inquisitive.

I don't have any leaks in my rig so that's not an issue.

My two little ones know what those tap's do, and they know they are daddy's and they know they are not allowed to touch them.

But, they have friends. The friends don't know about beer taps.

If one of the little ones decides to pull the tap, and it pisses beer all over the floor, what are they gonna do? They are gonna bugger off screaming.

They are not going to say "oh, silly me. maybe i should do the responsible thing and close that tap".

I'd much rather lose a batch of beer over the floor, than a batch of beer over the floor plus an empty gas bottle.

It's not a big deal, as flow rate slows, just turn the gas on for a few seconds to top up, and all is sweet again. If i didn't have kids i'd probably leave it on 24/7.

I trust my two, just don't trust other little tackers, as there is only 1 other brewer in my circle of friends, and he doesn't have kegs, so no kids we see regularly have any experience being around "brewing stuff" like my setup.

 

[MarkBastard]

I was a bit concerned about this myself, however there was a period from about January to September this year where I had my gas turned on and literally did not open my kegerator once, and I didn't have a single leak over that period. So I figure I'm right. Before that I'd touch things enough that I was never sure if I'd have a leak or not.

 

[jbowers]

If your a bit worried about it, leave the flow open to the keg, turn the gas up to whatever psi (say 10) then shut off the gas on the regulator and leave it. If there is a line leak, if should show the flow PSI drop to 0 over X period of time on the output dial.

That's the method i seal and purge my kegs at when i fill them. I give them 5 - 10 psi, vent the air out of them then let sit for 15 mins. No drop, no leak.

Hmmm... If I turn the dial on the reg down the pressure seems to drop straight away pretty much? Or do you mean turn the gas bottle off?

 

[arogers]

he means turn the gas bottle off and leave the reg alone.

if theres a leak, the output PSI will drop over time on the reg.

 

[jbowers]

Right, sure. Presumably the input PSI would eventually drop to 0 as well?

 

[stux]

Which brings me to a problem I'm having...

I recently upgraded my kegerator, making it a lot more complicated with twice as many taps, manifolds, checkvalves etc...

The problem is I think I have a *very* slow leak. If I turn the gas bottle off, leaving the reg alone, and have the manifold shutoff over the period of a week or two the low pressure gauge will drop to zero, after the remaining c02 in the reg is distributed I guess...

I think this indicates a very slow leak.

The problem is, to try isolate this leak is very time consuming because of the slow nature of it.

So, its much quicker to notice the drop if I turn off the reg as well, but is it a valid assumption that the pressure in the line, as read by the regulator gauge should be maintained if the regulator is turned off? Or is it somehow venting or something like that?

Sigh.

At the moment, I'm turning the gas bottle off every night.

 

[big78sam]

I asked Ross about this very question (OP) recently as I'm a new kegger. His response was to switch the gas off. If you do have a leak and the gas is on you could lose a whole bottle of gas. Ross's comment was that this will likely happen, no matter how careful you are. You might be fine for 5 years but one day it will probably happen. If you do have a leak and the gas is off you'll just have to recarb but your gas bottle will be fine.

It seems most people here leave their bottle on and I did for the first month or so. After speaking to Ross I switch it off now at the bottle and just turn on again when I'm pouring. The effort of turning the bottle on and off is minimal for me so I prefer to minimise the risk.

 

[komodo]

Being that we turn all our oxy, lpg, argon, acetylene etc off every night before leaving at the factory where we have a professionally plumbed up gas distribution system in case of a leak I too think turning the CO2 off at the bottle is a better option. Many of us have kegerators etc in side and most CO2 bottle could easily fill a room to deadly levels if a leak was to occur.
I think you'll find many pubs turn their gas off each night too.

Having said that - I have been known to leave my system on...