Midget Widget - out of business?

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man_beach
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Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by man_beach » Sat Apr 07, 2018 11:36 am

I've been happily using a Midget Widget system for pressurising my King Kegs for quite a while now, but my local homebrew supplier says that he can't get them any more. Have they gone out of business? Can anyone confirm, please? I can;t find any information by Googling.

Thanks

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Coffeeuk
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Re: Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by Coffeeuk » Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:40 pm

Yes as far as I know they stopped support of them a few years back

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Re: Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by Haydnexport » Sat Apr 07, 2018 2:14 pm

I've seen adapters for sodastream bottles to fit the midget widget system, but I can't remember where.

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man_beach
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Re: Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by man_beach » Sat Apr 07, 2018 8:07 pm

That's a shame. I always found the HB S30 gassing method so inefficient for my purposes, which is why I switched over to Midget Widget some time ago. Oh well, time to check out alternatives. I'll probably see if there's a way that I can use Sodastream cylinders - anything larger is a bit of an overkill, as the Midget Widget cylinders generally lasted me about a year anyway

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Re: Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by bottles » Fri Dec 07, 2018 11:47 pm

Has anyone got any experience of refilling widget bottles? I have a widget bottle that i'm trying to refill from my big co2 bottle. I've tried to refill going through the regulator to cornie gas disconnects and a pair of cornie pins going to the cornie disconnect on the midget widget.
I've tried with the bottle upright and it only gives a really small amount of gas. With the co2 gas bottle upside down I get a bit more gas but not enough to use to purge cornies while cleaning.
My google foo is weak on this and can't find any hints on what should be done?
Andrew

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Re: Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by PeeBee » Sat Dec 08, 2018 12:19 pm

bottles wrote:
Fri Dec 07, 2018 11:47 pm
Has anyone got any experience of refilling widget bottles? I have a widget bottle that i'm trying to refill from my big co2 bottle. ...
No experience of refilling but ...

You can get adapters for refilling Sodastream bottles. If you get one of these adapters meant for the Australian/NZ market the thread will fit the old Midget Widget bottles (all Sodastream bottles used to have this thread, plain old 1/2" BSP I think, but Australia/NZ didn't move over to the newer kooky threads).

The "donor" cylinder must be upside down so as to deliver liquid, not gas. This has to be done very carefully, a heavy upside-down CO2 bottle is an accident* waiting to happen! The cylinder must fill with liquid CO2 because if it fills with gas that gas will "only" be at 850-900PSI tops. Physics dictates this so you mustn't think you can get higher pressure with gaseous CO2.

I switched to Sodastream and use my old Midget Widget bottles as CO2 reservoirs (at 60PSI) in my despensing setup (so I can turn the main bottle off yet still cope with minor leaks between sessions). I use secondary regulators and have 60PSI in my "bus" line.

(EDIT: * By "accident" I mean: Accidents with gas cylinders have ample potential to be "life changing", or more likely, "life ending"!).
Last edited by PeeBee on Sat Dec 08, 2018 12:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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PeeBee
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Re: Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by PeeBee » Sat Dec 08, 2018 12:23 pm

Coffeeuk wrote:
Sat Apr 07, 2018 1:40 pm
Yes as far as I know they stopped support of them a few years back
That's right. But someone did take it over for a couple of years but they have stopped now. Midget Widget is no more.
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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Re: Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by bottles » Sat Dec 08, 2018 1:39 pm

Thanks Peebee, 'I'll start looking for the oz soda stream adapters. I'm aware of the dangers of compressed gasses through work and will take care when I try transferring.
When transferring do you still have the regulator attached or are you using an adapter directly from the bottle? As my last attempt to transfer seemed to not transfer any liquid and might of frozen the regulator stopping the transfer.
Andrew

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PeeBee
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Re: Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by PeeBee » Sat Dec 08, 2018 2:13 pm

No regulator, just the adapter.

The one I've got (but haven't used) is similar to https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CO2-Cylinder ... 0012.m1985. Note this one is with a "rest-of-world" Sodastream adapter but they do come with "Oz" Sodastream adapters if you follow the links.

But I'm making no recommendation. This is at your "own risk". You might know to be careful with high pressure gases, but others are reading this and I'd hate to think I'm putting them in danger.


(EDIT: There was a discussion about this here: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=81163).
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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Re: Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by TheSumOfAllBeers » Sat Dec 08, 2018 2:56 pm

If you have a co2 bottle, have you considered using PET bottles with carbonation caps as a co2 reservoir?

In practice they can easily take 40 PSI or higher. With a secondary reg, that’s probably good enough to push out 3-4 L of beer.

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PeeBee
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Re: Midget Widget - out of business?

Post by PeeBee » Sun Dec 09, 2018 10:16 am

TheSumOfAllBeers wrote:
Sat Dec 08, 2018 2:56 pm
If you have a co2 bottle, have you considered using PET bottles with carbonation caps as a co2 reservoir?

In practice they can easily take 40 PSI or higher. With a secondary reg, that’s probably good enough to push out 3-4 L of beer.
Didn't consider PET bottles because I had these steel cylinders looking for a job. The cylinders fit in better with the "permanent" nature of the installation. But PET bottles may well do the job for any folk reading this lookin for a solution to the same situation?

I'm pretty sure PET bottles are good for pressures higher than 40PSI. My "primary" regulator is fixed (not adjustable) at 5 BAR (about 75 PSI, not 60 PSI as I said earlier) so any solution will be subject to the 75 PSI "bus" pressure. And my solution is only to deal with leaks and the like, not for dispensing even "3-4L" (and the setup doesn't give the option to either; the CO2 is cut off automatically by an electrical timer operating a solenoid valve, and if not turned back on no beer is dispensed - the beer lines are also on solenoid valves energised by the same circuit that switches on the CO2).

I treat paranoia suppression as a top criteria when designing these setups!
Cask-conditioned style ale out of a keg/Cornie (the "treatise"): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwzEv5 ... rDKRMjcO1g
Water report demystified (the "Defuddler"; removes the nonsense!): https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

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