Pressurinsg Sankey Kegs, first timer.

[HLA91]

Hi All,

This is my first time of using my new Sankey Kegs, I filled the keg with a lovely Golden Ale, inserted the spear and purged the keg by releasing some CO2 with the PRV.
I then pressurised to 20psi thinking "That will all get absorbed" and I did the same last night, but then went back to see how much it was absorbing only for the gauge to read "0" .

I then realised that the 1 way valve on the "gas in" part of the coupler is stopping gas from reaching the regulator gauge and telling me the actual pressure in the keg. Now short of leaving the gas "on" at the final pressure I want and waiting for the pressure equilibrium to be reached, how can I tell what PSI the keg is at now? Also I have a leaky gas setup, so right now leaving the gas on is not really an option until I find the source of the leak, which is either on the regulator tail barb or the coupler as that's all their is to my setup until my bar is built.

Thanks

HLA91

[bobsbeer]

I suppose you could fit a pressure gauge onto the coupler, on the gas side. You would need to remove the duck bill though. You could put the gauge on a T fitting with a valve on the upstream gas line. When you shut off the gas valve it will still read the pressure in the keg.

[barneey]

I suppose you could fit a pressure gauge onto the coupler, on the gas side. You would need to remove the duck bill though. You could put the gauge on a T fitting with a valve on the upstream gas line. When you shut off the gas valve it will still read the pressure in the keg.

Bob beat me to "y" or "t" piece, remove duck, use an on / off JG fitting, gas in , close on / off, switch off gas.

[HLA91]

Until I can get the extra parts needed, what would happen if I removed the Gas Duck valve? Would beer shoot up and f**k my regulator?

[barneey]

Nope only gas, so on the downside if your reg has a leak, depending on where the leak is it might degas your keg.

EDIT if you only using the single gauge that shouldn't be a problem.

Another way of doing things, if you have a "d" type stem for the keg coupler is.

1) Remove "s" stem.
2) Insert "d" stem.
3) Use the gas side of the coupler as usual with the duck bill in place.
4) Connect the gauge you have to the beer out.

[barneey]

Depending on what you actually need, if I have the bits I can send today for delivery tomorrow if your that stuck.

[HLA91]

Cheers for the offer barneey, but I'll try and hunt down the leak tonight, I'll try a jubilee on the reg tail barb,see if that sorts it.
So I take it there is an internal mechanism that stop the beer going up the gas pipe when the duck valve is removed, interesting I'll take out the duck valve tonight and hook up the reg and see what the pressure is currently, god knows I've been ramming CO2 into it thinking "my my its absorbing lots"
How do you guys have your gas setup with force-carbing and dispensing?

[barneey]

Cheers for the offer barneey, but I'll try and hunt down the leak tonight, I'll try a jubilee on the reg tail barb,see if that sorts it.
So I take it there is an internal mechanism that stop the beer going up the gas pipe when the duck valve is removed, interesting I'll take out the duck valve tonight and hook up the reg and see what the pressure is currently, god knows I've been ramming CO2 into it thinking "my my its absorbing lots"
How do you guys have your gas setup with force-carbing and dispensing?

Have a look at the coupler, it has the outer gas part & inner stem liquid part , the keg has the corresponding fittings.

One of the reasons why I like a gas management board is the it has 3 gas pressures, the first one on the board can be set to a force carb pressure, whilst the others can be set to a dispense pressure.

[hebbstar]

Hi HLA

I've been thinking about this on the train home and I wonder if your leak is allowing your keg to de-pressurise. I'm not sure how good the duck bills are but sometimes with my set up they still allow gas out of the keg.

I would have thought if the duck bill was working properly your leak would depressurise the gas pipe only. When you switch the gas back on if the duck bill was keeping the keg pressurised then only a small amount of gas would be required to pressurise the pipe as the keg would already be up to pressure.

I hope this helps as gas ain't cheap to waste and I've used the word pressurise too many times in my thoughts !

Cheers

Paul

[HLA91]

Hi Paul, I would have thought that too, but knowing I had a leak in my gas setup I carb the kegs and then disconnect the couplers as standard procedure. I have just screwed a jubilee clip into the reg tail barb and used ptfe on all threads and I am waiting to see if that has fixed it.

[HLA91]

Right, after all the things I did last night with ptfe and jubilee clips I still have a leak. All I have right now is my regulator with 3/8 coming from a hose barb to a s coupler with ptfe around the JG fitting. Lost 1/2 bar pressure last night and I haven't got a clue what to do.

[GrowlingDogBeer]

I would look at the crush washer between the regulator and gas bottle. That had always been the source of my leaks. They should be replaced often.

[HLA91]

the washer on my reg is a solid plastic one adn looks in good condition. I realised when I use PTFE I normally on use 1 wrap instead of the recommended 3, so I have just re-done all the threads, the reg-> CO2 thread, the reg->hose tail barb & the coupler-> JG in 3 wraps of PTFE. Hopefully that does the trick otherwise ill replace that washer.

[hebbstar]

HLA

Have you used a soapy solution to try to find the leak ?

It may point you in the right direction.

Cheers

Paul

[Heron1952]

the washer on my reg is a solid plastic one adn looks in good condition. I realised when I use PTFE I normally on use 1 wrap instead of the recommended 3, so I have just re-done all the threads, the reg-> CO2 thread, the reg->hose tail barb & the coupler-> JG in 3 wraps of PTFE. Hopefully that does the trick otherwise ill replace that washer.

Use Gas PTFE on a yellow spool not White, may help its thicker.