Useless flow from cheapo flow-restrictor tap

[Lurks]

This has come up before. Celli knock off taps which occasionally have very poor flow. I have two of them and one of them is fine and the other is so slow to be useless, even turned on full. A mate has a couple of them and his are fine too so it's a bit of a lottery.

I disassembled them both, checked the components side by side and couldn't tell anything. Even measured various bits and bobs with vernier calipers.

The only suggestion of a fix in a former thread was disassembly, lubing and so on. I did that, no change. Given I bought two from the one seller on ebay (homebrewingisfun1 who seems to be selling truckloads of these things), I thought I'd get in contact and ask if they have any ideas. No response. More forceful request for some resolution, no response. I guess I'll just leave a negative and move on.

I'm flat stony, I can't buy another tap. I could rip the restrictors out of both but I'd need to use a bunch more line since they gush if you do that.

On top of all of this, I came home this evening and poured myself a beer from a bronco inside my fridge and the damn thing wouldn't shut off. Litres onto the carpet before I could rip the kegs out and pull the post off. So I spent the last hour cleaning... not having much luck with this kegging lark eh?

 

[felten]

You should probably just pack it in, and send your kegs to me for disposal.

 

[Truman42]

I had this same problem and the fix suggested to me was make sure they are fully restricted when you connect the taps to the shank. This holds them away from the shank so when you open them up again there is more room. It sort of worked, they are still slow but not as bad as before.

Also on mine there was a screw on the plunger assembly. If yours has this make sure its screwed all the way in as this can hold the restrictor cone to far back blocking flow.

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

$50 for 545's are a good investment, thought the tap had a fault a while back but turns out I over carbed, Perlick 1 - Me 0

 

[thedragon]

Mate was it the $29.95 one that he has called "Long Shank Draft Brumby Tap with Hex Nut and Tail Piece"

 

[Lurks]

Truman: Hmm yes, that does sound plausible - thanks! Indeed the internal screw is all the way in. I've disassembled them several times to compared them to see why one flows and one doesn't, all to no avail. Looking in from the shank end there does seem to be the same sort of clearance around the restrictor in the full open position so it's a bit baffling. I'll give yoru suggestion a shot, nowt to lose.

A bit of an update on this. The eBay seller wasn't ignoring me, he was just a bit slow getting back. The taps are actually from Keg King apparently and it's possible to hit them up for some sort of remedy if they don't work right. The only reason I bought from this eBay vendor rather than KK (I got my CO2 bottle from the same guy) is that he's a good deal cheaper than KK's own price list. Disties not wanting to undercut retailers I guess.

I'll take both of them down there next week and see what they reckon. Maybe they'd be happy to swap them out for non-restrictor versions and some extra line. I don't really care, I just want something that works.

 

[Lurks]

Truman, you legend. You absolutely grade-A, stand up ubermensch of a legend!

That trick, restrictor full off, then screw on shank, utterly cured the stingy tap of doom! It now flows considerably better than the one 'good' tap I have!

So clearly I need to do the same thing on the other. Woohoo!

Also, as regards to the beer fridge. Currently re-thinking the wisdom of having it in a room on carpet...

 

[zoigl]

I tried all the taps available locally to overcome the miles of tubing in my KK kegerator. I had trouble with the flow restrictor taps but managed to overcome the problem by making 2 taps from the 3 that I had. They worked, The little thingamy sticking out that controls the in out function was in different places in each tap or the hole drilled to take this thingamy was drilled in a different spot.
While this solved much of my pour problems, I still wasn't happy and watched with much interest the bulk buys for the Perlick taps from The US of A.
Keg King got some plastic replicas in stock and the argument that the temperature differences between the keg and glass convinced me to try one depite a bad report on these pages.
I am convinced that these plastic Perlicks are the best for me. They can drip a tiny bit when new and bedding in, but after a couple of weeks it settled down and no drips what-so-ever, You just need to push the tap back to ensure that it closes. I usually pour 2 fingers in my glass to chill the tap, drink that then pour a beautiful head every time, no hastles, no more miles of tubing. For the price of Perlicks you can afford to buy a new one of the KK plastic look a like each year! Oh and I keep my glasses in the fridge at the same temp as the beer. :beerbang:

 

[Stonemull]

bought one of these a few days ago at ibrew.
working ok but is there any info available for them anywhere ?
like is the screw on the front an adjuster or for cleaning ?
maintenance, cleaning, spare parts ?
I am used to buying things and not even glancing at instructions but this could do with some info