Turn Off Co2

[kiwisteveo]

loving my kegerator but was wondering do you need to turn off your co2 at night,i use my taps everyday so was wondering if there's any point turning off the co2 when i go to sleep,and if so at the regulator or gas bottle??

 

[QldKev]

loving my kegerator but was wondering do you need to turn off your co2 at night,i use my taps everyday so was wondering if there's any point turning off the co2 when i go to sleep,and if so at the regulator or gas bottle??

Hope not, cause I never have on my 2 systems for many years

QldKev

 

[kiwisteveo]

Hope not, cause I never have on my 2 systems for many years

QldKev

sweet good to hear was worried about something going bang in the night so must go pour another

 

[Pennywise]

Only time I've shuttle off is when I run out of gas and need to replace the bottle. One thing I will be doing from now on is removing the gas QD when the keg only has a few (say 5 or so) just to save on a little gas, as the beer still pours perfectly with out constant gas for quite some time once the beer is carbed up. Bu obviously you'd lose a bit of carb if you unhooked it too early

 

[QldKev]

Only time I've shuttle off is when I run out of gas and need to replace the bottle. One thing I will be doing from now on is removing the gas QD when the keg only has a few (say 5 or so) just to save on a little gas, as the beer still pours perfectly with out constant gas for quite some time once the beer is carbed up. Bu obviously you'd lose a bit of carb if you unhooked it too early

lol, I do that too. I keep saying to myself don't do it cause I worked out

We gas to 2.4 vols
+ 1 vol to dispense
= 3.4 vols

It costs just over $1 to carb and dispense a keg.

Say 30c per full vol.

If we pull the pin at 0.5 keg we in theory only save 0.5 vol
So a total saving of 15c per keg.

QldKev

edit: as tones0606 said, a leak will kill all savings and happily empty the bottle.
so use a good keg lube (ky jelly or a decent food grade rubber lube from the plumbing store or a sponsor)
also why I will only use a 2.6kg bottle on my systems. if I get a leak it's not big $ lost

 

[tones0606]

just make sure your kegs seal properly, i thought mine did and emptied my first gas bottle in one night

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

lol, I do that too. I keep saying to myself don't do it cause I worked out

We gas to 2.4 vols
+ 1 vol to dispense
= 3.4 vols

It costs just over $1 to carb and dispense a keg.

Say 30c per full vol.

If we pull the pin at 0.5 keg we in theory only save 0.5 vol
So a total saving of 15c per keg.

QldKev

I use more gelatin to clear (for kegging) than 15c worth.

Goomba

 

[Bribie G]

Depends on how much line-spaghetti you've got in your kegerator. I have a gas line that goes to a splitter. Each line out of the splitter goes to an Equal T. One equal T feeds two kegs, the other feeds one keg and also goes to a "naked" gas line with a control tap. All on John Guest fittings.
Over time, with the "keg tetris" that goes on whenever I took out and put in kegs and crammed the lines back in, one of the lines in one of the equal T's slightly pulled out. As I discovered when I went through a bottle in 3 months instead of 10.

Pays, now and again, to get the bowl of soapy water and check the lines right back from:

Quick disconnects
splitters and Equal Ts
all taps, back to the line in to the fridge.

Save you $50, potentially. Also, disconnect all the gas QDs from the kegs, crank the gas pressure up to maximum, turn everything else off in the brewery to create silence, and just have a good listen.

 

[Nick JD]

I lost a 2.3kg CO2 bottle full to an intermittent release valve on a keg lid.

Like intermittent automotive issues, fixed sometimes, not always, is the PITS.

Leak testing under fire is the only solution. Be rough as guts with it all during testing.

 

[raven19]

Hope not, cause I never have on my 2 systems for many years

+1 to the above for me, but others have posted excellent pointers on soapy water check for leaks, etc.

John Guest push fittings are great imo, only ever had 1 issue personally as the toothed part had a crack in it. Replaced it and never had a gas loss since.

 

[michael_aussie]

loving my kegerator but was wondering do you need to turn off your co2 at night,i use my taps everyday so was wondering if there's any point turning off the co2 when i go to sleep,and if so at the regulator or gas bottle??

in an ideal (no leak) world, there is no reason to turn your gas off.
however, if you have a leak, and you do turn off, the worst that happens is your system loses its charge.
on the other hand .. if you have a leak and do not turn off, you will lose the rest of your bottle.

so the key points to consider are:
1. how sound is your system ... if in doubt .. turn off.
2. can you afford to lose a bottle if you run out. my recharge guy is an hours drive away .. so a PITA from me to do a special run... and on Friday night .. two days away. A good reason to be conservative.
3. not wanting to sound too black.. but the other thing is the risk to people if you lose a full bottle. The bigger the bottle, and the smaller the room's volume where the bottle is the higher the risk.. so a huge bottle (10kg?) in a tiny room with someone sleeping in the same room .. at some point becomes a death trap. Maybe QldKev could do the sums at the point where it is a risk.

 

[bignath]

i always turn the gas off after a session/night.

Not because i'm paranoid about a leak. I'm confident my system is leak free.

the only reason i turn it off, is so that if my two kids get "curious" and want to know what happens when they pull on these shiny tap looking things, sure i'll lose a batch of beer on the ground, but atleast i won't lose a bottle's worth of gas.

My gas bottle, and keezer sit inside a welded steel frame on legs, out under the patio. Gas bottle is on the side of the keezer, so it's no trouble to turn it back on when i want a beer. It's much quicker for me than to open the lid and re-attach a disconnect.

 

[mwd]

:icon_offtopic: You don't hear of anybody dying from Carbon Dioxide poisoning unlike Carbon Monoxide which is deadly.

CO2 is the gas that triggers the breathing reflex in animals so even if you get a leak it is highly unlikely you will die. :icon_offtopic:

What about some dry ice. :icon_cheers:

 

[Nick JD]

I have a pair of Galahs about 10 feet from my CO2 bottle. I asked the guy at the firey place where I fill up and he's like, "Nah. No issues."

Then I thought about it. If each 19L keg takes say, 4 volumes ... how many kegs can you fit in the room your bottle's in? Considering that the CO2 will sink to the floor - it made sense.

You'd need to have your kegerator in an airtight cupboard for the CO2 to be deadly.

 

[zebba]

:icon_offtopic: You don't hear of anybody dying from Carbon Dioxide poisoning unlike Carbon Monoxide which is deadly.

CO2 is the gas that triggers the breathing reflex in animals so even if you get a leak it is highly unlikely you will die. :icon_offtopic:

What about some dry ice. :icon_cheers:

How about you head out the garage, close the doors, open your CO2 bottle, and have a snooze. Let us know how you go.

Or, if you don't want to waste the gas, then go find an old water tank, drop yourself in it and let us know in a couple of days how that went.

Obligatory obscure link: http://wasg.iinet.net.au/Co2paper.html

Of course, technically, you're right. It's not that the CO2 is toxic. But I find that technicalities are, in day to day life, far less important than practicalities.