Pin Lock V Ball Lock?

[Logman]

I would say getting a non return valve is pretty much a necessity for the one time you do something daft like having more pressure in the keg than in the gasline and you get beer flow into the reg. For $6.00 it is good insurance.

I've been getting my gear together over the previous month - I order a pile of stuff and the next day I have another order ready :lol:

My first beer for kegging (FWK) has been in for 5 days, time is going < snail pace - want to try it sooooooo bad

 

[Amber Fluid]

This might be a dumb question but, can you actually put pin lock posts on a ball lock keg?
I haven't seen a pin lock keg as yet so don't know if there is any difference between them.

 

[adryargument]

This might be a dumb question but, can you actually put pin lock posts on a ball lock keg?
I haven't seen a pin lock keg as yet so don't know if there is any difference between them.

No, pin locks have pins in the side of them.

I have 2 Ball Valves and 4 Pin locks.

Main reason is that i can only fit 3 kegs of either in my kegerator, or i can fit 2 of each for a total of 4 kegs + gas bottle in a standard size chest freezer. (Shorter pin locks sit on the compressor hump, and slide under the taps.)

I prefer the corny's for ease of use.
Pin locks can be a pain to depressure: i normally press in the gas fitting with a small screwdriver, or attach a gas fitting with no hose.
Pin locks can also leak slightly if they have sidewards pressure while attached. (They are taller then the ballvalve fittings)

At the end of the day, they are pretty similar..

 

[mybeershop]

Hi Guys,
Here is our tool that we use for servicing the kegs


It is just a 13/16 socket, and we used an angle grinder with a cut off disk to make the slots to acomodate the pins. Been used many times and working well so far.

Just to clarify, pin-locks are used by coca cola, and ball locks are used by pepsi. The reason that they are different is so that customers of pepsi cannot put coke kegs onto their systems and vice versa.

The ball lock and pin lock lids are exactly the same size, so are interchangable. In the future our pin lock kegs will come fitted with ball lock lids (i.e. pin lock kegs with manual pressure relief valves).

 

[dr K]

Hi Guys,
Here is our tool that we use for servicing the kegs
View attachment 43981

It is just a 13/16 socket, and we used an angle grinder with a cut off disk to make the slots to acomodate the pins. Been used many times and working well so far.

Just to clarify, pin-locks are used by coca cola, and ball locks are used by pepsi. The reason that they are different is so that customers of pepsi cannot put coke kegs onto their systems and vice versa.

The ball lock and pin lock lids are exactly the same size, so are interchangable. In the future our pin lock kegs will come fitted with ball lock lids (i.e. pin lock kegs with manual pressure relief valves).

For what its worth I have bought kegs (pinlocks indeed) from mybeershop and found the service fantastic (overnight to Canberra 2 days from Christmas) and the kegs the most pristine I have ever bought, of course I may have just been lucky...insert smile.
I also bought some other gear, equally satisfied.

K

 

[donburke]

This might be a dumb question but, can you actually put pin lock posts on a ball lock keg?
I haven't seen a pin lock keg as yet so don't know if there is any difference between them.

i dont know if you can put pin locks on a ball lock, but you can certainly replace the posts on a pin lock keg to be ball lock

i have 4 coke kegs that have ball lock posts, i bought them that way so whoever owned them before me did the hard work

they are slightly shorter and have a larger diameter than the normal ball lock kegs

 

[jasonharley]

I heard Ball Lock kegs are Pepsi and Royal Crown, and Pin Lock kegs are Coca Cola.

Dunno if that's true. Anyone got a Ball Lock with Coke on it?

I got some 9L balllock cornys from Germany last month .... one of them still had coke syrup in it ..(definitely not that oversweet pepsi smell)

5 eyes

 

[DU99]

:icon_offtopic: bought mine from mybeershop,cheap delivery..and a few other items

 

[Ross]

We have avoided importing pinlocks (even though we can source cheaper than ball lock that are rapidlly running out) mainly due to the fact that you cannot fit 3 of them in a kegerator, being shorter & fatter than a ball lock.

cheers Ross

 

[mchitiea]

To all,
If you need to convert a Pin Lock keg to a Ball Lock fitting, we have those available.
Can ship via USPS Priority Mail Int'l Small Flat Rate Box.
http://www.chicompany.net/index.php?main_p...e8514ad717dbcbd

Matt
The CHI Company

 

[Quintrex]

To all,
If you need to convert a Pin Lock keg to a Ball Lock fitting, we have those available.
Can ship via USPS Priority Mail Int'l Small Flat Rate Box.
http://www.chicompany.net/index.php?main_p...e8514ad717dbcbd

Matt
The CHI Company

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your time posting here. Just so you know aussie pinlock keg posts have a male thread not female like you have in the US.

 

[DanRayner]

I like the idea of using both pinlocks and ball-locks in you're brewery like some of the guys in The Brewing Network - they use ball-locks for their normal beers and pinlocks whenever they make gueuze/lambics/Orval or any other beers with Brett, Pedioccocus etc so they can never mix the two different sides of the brewery.

Alternatively, a liberal use of caustic to clean and oxonia to sterilise like the commerical breweries would mean they wouldn't have a problem if they did mix the kegs up...

 

[mwd]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your time posting here. Just so you know aussie pinlock keg posts have a male thread not female like you have in the US.

A little confused is that a picture of a ball lock connector ?
I think the question was whether pinlock and ball lock fittings have the same thread and size so you can easily convert one keg to another and vice versa.

The ideal system to confuse matters even more would be to have pinlock gas in and ball lock beer out :huh:
no chance of mixing up your connections.

 

[Acasta]

The ideal system to confuse matters even more would be to have pinlock gas in and ball lock beer out :huh:
no chance of mixing up your connections.

A pin lock gas in and beer out have a different set of pins so u physically can't mix is up haha :lol:

 

[Quintrex]

A little confused is that a picture of a ball lock connector ?
I think the question was whether pinlock and ball lock fittings have the same thread and size so you can easily convert one keg to another and vice versa.

The ideal system to confuse matters even more would be to have pinlock gas in and ball lock beer out :huh:
no chance of mixing up your connections.

Sorry! To clarify, that is the ball lock fitting you need if you want to convert your aussie pinlock keg to ball lock.

Ball lock kegs in oz have a male thread on the keg and thus the post needs a female thread.
The aussie Pin lock kegs have a female thread in the keg and thus to convert them to ball lock you need this ball lock connector with a male thread.