PLAATO Keg carbonation monitor

[reddog]

Has anyone used there PLAATO Keg to monitor the carbonation level in a keg? I though it might come in handy when force carbing at high pressures to get the correct volume of C02 in the beer.

 

[Grmblz]

It's basically just a very expensive scale, lovely interface and software though.
So the question becomes how much heavier is 19L at 2 volumes of co2 than 19L at 1 volume, and is the Plaato accurate enough to register that amount of weight on a reliable basis?
Mine registers a midi poured, but we're talking about half a kilo, I Googled about the weight of co2 and came up with "moles" whatever the hell they are, so I have no idea if we're trying to measure grams or kilo's, if as I suspect it's grams then the blurb that came with it says accurate to 10ml, which is 10gms (in round money, there is the ability to input beer gravity in the software to compensate for differing alcohol levels, I've never bothered, all I need to know is whether the keg is approaching empty or not) on a side note I have my co2 bottle on a set of postal scales to better indicate how much gas I have left in the bottle.
I think we need Mark to chime in here, it's certainly an intriguing proposition.
@MHB any thoughts?

 

[reddog]

Yes it is expensive but I'm very happy with it so far and have ordered 3 more one will be going under my gas bottle to hopefully inform me of any leaks.

 

[Grmblz]

That's interesting, I doubt a slow leak will be detected though, my postal scales ebay $40 are basically just to let me know I'm down to the last kg in a 6kg bottle which I think is a waste for a Plaato, I don't leave my gas turned on, once you have equilibrium there's no point, just turn it on for service, and turn it off at end of session, one way valves and a mini reg for each keg, you'll soon spot a leak. It's one of the reasons I'm ditching ball locks, sick of leaking "O" rings and struggling to remove gummed up liquid out disconnects.

 

[MHB]

Just one reason why I prefer the "Rest Of The World" g/L way of measuring CO2, 2Vol is about 4g/L, 19L of beer at 4g/L and we are talking 76g. Not only easy but all the maths used to calculate dissolved pressure is done in metric then converted to Volumes - Meh! 1 Volume is about 2g/L (well 1.97 if you want to get picky).
To make a lot of use of that sort of mass you are going to want pretty good scales, say 25kg in 1g divisions. reliable scales at that accuracy tend to be fairly expensive.

Not even going to touch Moles, save to say if you want to do any chemistry its worth (vital) getting your head around the concept.

Looks like an interesting toy, but I think I would invest in a spare gas bottle first, probably more useful and reliable long-term.
Mark

 

[reddog]

I have 6 spare gas bottles 4 are empty and its a 12hr drive to get to a refill point. Postage to my location is very expensive for gas so I'm a bit anal about monitoring it.

 

[Grmblz]

And I thought my 3 bottles was overkill lol But yeah a 12hr drive for gas isn't fun, I guess using Marks numbers you could max out your reg and do a shake n bake till it weighed 76gms more (or whatever level of carb you want) then disconnect, just a thought, carb level is temp dependant, I wonder how that works with using weight as a benchmark, looks like you're in for a bit of "suck it and see" it's an interesting approach though, keep us informed if you do the mad scientist bit.