Taprite Carbonation Tester issues

[ben lyne]

Hi. I was just wondering if anyone has issues with their Taprite Carbonation Tester as well? I have had mine for a few months now and having random issues. Between last night and today I have wasted about 1lt or so of tropical ale trying to get the chamber to fill but all it did was push beer and foam through the outlet and not collect in the chamber. Made sure all the hoses and unit was proberly cooled in the fridge overnight. This is the first time it has done this. Any thoughts? Cheers!

 

[MHB]

Interesting bit of kit, haven't seen that model but used similar.
First thing I would look for is fowling (bits of crud) in the line from the keg to the testing bowl. It takes an amazingly small amount of turbulence to create a hell of a lot of foam.

You said you precool the tester, do you pre-pressurise to same as the keg, then open the vent very slowly?
Models I have played with has a needle valve to let the gas out of the pre-pressurised chamber very slowly to avoid breakout and forming lots of foam.
Mark

 

[ben lyne]

Yeah mate all the lines are cleaned every time and the pressures are equalized. I got in touch with the distributor who put me in contact with another brewer who recently brought one. Rang him and he is having exactly the same issue. He told me of his work around but still for the price of the unit, you expect it to be reliable. The distributor is a nice bloke and is looking into it as well.

 

[MHB]

Talking about things like a bit of hop caught in a poppet spring being enough to cause foam.
Have a good look at the surface of the plastic cup to, sometimes people use the wrong cleaners and get small scratches or create chemical roughness of the surface, again a good cause of foam.

What was the work around suggested?
Mark