My New "irregular" Regulator

[raistlin_kell]

Gang
a few months ago i bought from Rossco (you de man Rossco!) a new Micromatic Reg as my old Cigweld unit failed (cost me a new bott of Co2 also). Anyway, i've been a bit paranoid about loosing another CO2 cylinder and wanted to make sure I had no leaks before leaving the CO2 cylinder tap on like I used too with the Cigweld unit.

I use "John Guest" lines thru out! The setup is; "E" Size Aligal 15 (Pub Mix) CO2 cylinder --> New Micromatic Reg --> Non Return Valve --> Quick connect "Y" piece --> 2 quick connect gas in connectors onto 2 only 19l Cornelius kegs.

When I open the tap on the CO2 cylinder, the pressure on the Micromatic gets to 14000kpa (14 bar). I adjust the pressure on the keg side to 300 kpa for carbonation or ~80 kpa for pour pressure. I never loose pressure in my kegs - they're ALWAYS good. The downstream gauge compliments this by sitting on the adjusted pressure.

Question - When i close the tap on my CO2 cylinder, sometimes the upstream pressure gauge @ 14000kpa falls rapidly to 0 (zero) in a few seconds, or sometimes it sits happily @ 14000kpa and gradually drops to zero over the space of about 15 to 20 minutes. Sometimes the gauge will sit rock solid @ 14000kpa for quite a few hours, then suddenly drop to zero in a few seconds. All sudden drops have an audible hiss (gas release) noise.

Is this drop in pressure a normal thing the Micromatic Regulator does, or do I possible have a fault with the new reg? If the pressure gauge always fell to zero over a few seconds, I'd say I had a leak in the Reg or the CO2 connection needed tightening, but the pressure release is irregular with its timing when this happens.

I'm now paranoid about leaving the tap open all the time like i used to do on my Cigweld Reg and loosing another expensive bottle of CO2. I've had the new Aligal 15 cylinder for about 2 months and the cylinder pressure has fallen from 16000kpa to 14000kpa over the past 2 months

 

[paul]

This sounds normal to me. When you turn off the bottle youve got a little git a gas on the hp side of the reg. Over time your beer absorbs a bit of gas and the hp side pressure will drop down to nothing.

After a while your kegs should reach an equilibrium and this wont happen.

 

[domonsura]

I think the micromatic regulators do do a bit of a pressure release thing sometimes, mine does the same thing but usually when I am force carbonating and drop the dispense pressure quickly.. I think it may be a little 'overpressure' mechanism to protect the regulator or something like that. I don't think you have a fault.
16000 kPa is huge! My VT (D) size bottles usually turn up with about 10000 kPa pressure.....I'm feeling a little ripped off now...

 

[raistlin_kell]

Gentlemen
thanks for your input. I was mystified about the regulator's irregular (irrational) behaviour. Recently i noticed that the reg didn't loose any pressure cylinder side when doing a carbonation at 300kpa. My standard pour pressure has always been around the 60 to 80kpa mark. After increasing the pour pressure to 100kpa or slightly higher, I noticed the regulator held the cylinder side pressure. I have a lower than 100kpa pour pressure because i prefer to use smallish glasses (250ml) and at 100kpa controlling the pour is difficult!

Much trial and error later I have drawn a conclusion that so long as my pour pressure is 100kpa the cylinder pressure remains. I've tested this over the past 5 days varying the pour pressure. Every time the pour is less than 100 (even by the most minute amount) the cylinder pressure drops randomly. Adversely, when the pressure is spot on 100kpa, the cylinder side remains where it should - currently at approx 14000kpa (140bar).

Currently i turn the cylinder tap off when the system is pressurized, just incase, but all seems to be working wonderfully at the moment.

In summary - keep the pour pressure at 100kpa or slightly over.

FYI - i emailed my problem to Micromatic in Australia. They couldn't answer my query so had to forward to the Micromatic technical department in Germany. That was 1 week ago and I'm still waiting for a response! Unlike my regulator, I'm not holding my breath!

So with a 100kpa pour pressure, looks like i'll be chasing some larger glasses!

 

[alowen474]

Can't you increase you beer line length or diameter to reduce the pour pressure?

 

[yoey]

I use a pour pressure of 85kpa with my Micromatic reg and have not had issues as described here. I leave the cylinder tap open all the time.

My setup is gas bottle -> micromatic reg -> non-return valve -> 4-way manifold -> barbed quick disconnects to 4 kegs. No John Guest fittings used.

I don't force carb so I never need to change the pressure setting.

 

[SJW]

What has been decribed here is the same as happens with my Harris Reg. Assuming that u have no leaks :lol: with the regulator open set at a serve pressure, if u turn off the co2 bottle the bottle guage will drop to 0 either fast, if the beer is still sucking up some c02 or u have a leak or very very slowly over 10 or 20 mins as the system balances itself. The important thing is that the other dial does not drop below adequate min. carbonation/serve pressure. If that happens u do have a leak.

Steve