Hi all,
I’ve got my kegging system setup and ready to go except my keg is not getting pressurized. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. I have a governor regulator and at times it works and put co2into the keg but when I come back to check on it a couple hours later the co2 is not going into the tank. I check for leaks and can’t find anything. And I also have trouble getting co2 to consistently send co2 into the keg. At I times the regulator will show me how many pps are on the beer and sometimes it won’t work at all. Any suggestions?
When you say there’s no co2 going into your tank do you mean that the low pressure regulator is dropping from the psi you have it set to 0?
Once the pressure in the tank reaches your setting, 8psi for example, it should stabilize there unless you have a leak, and will slowly allow more gas in as the solution absorbs it.
Do you have ball lock kegs with a pressure release valve(prv)? What happens when you pull the prv and release some pressure?
What are you seeing on your high pressure gauge? is it dropping quickly? Is the cylinder inside your kegerator/cooler or outside at room temp?
Hi Danny,
Thanks for your reply,
I’ll try to be a little more specific, sorry I’m not yet totally familiar with all of the proper terms for kegging just yet.
So I attach the gas line to the keg I open the valve and turn the low pressure gauge up to 10 PSI. I can hear the gas leaving the cylinder and going through the line and into the keg. I pulled the prv to release pressure just to make sure that the gas is entering the keg and not leaking out. When I come back to check the keg a few hours later I pull the prv again to check if the gas is still entering the keg, and every time I do this there is no longer any gas/presssure in the keg. The low pressure gauge still reads 10 PSI.
The high pressure gauge read at about 800 at room temperature when I first got the cylinder (5 lb cylinder). The cylinder is now in the keezer with the keg at about 40 degrees F. When I put it in my keezer the high pressure dropped to about 700. It has dropped quickly to me, although I have no frame of reference. Right now the high pressure reads at about 400.
I hope that is specific enough to get some help. I appreciate any advice or tips.
Thanks
The tank pressure drop from 800 to 700 is simply the effect of cooling the tank. That is nothing to worry about.
The rest sounds puzzling to me. It almost sounds like you have a shut valve between the tank and the keg. Or perhaps the gas connector is not locking in place properly. If you had a gas leak, your tank would very quickly empty. But if you get gas in when you press on the connect, but then no more after that, the pressurized gas in the keg will fairly quickly dissolve into the beer, and drop the keg to near ambient pressure if there is no more gas coming in to replace that which was dissolved.
Try pressing down on the gas connector and see if you can hear gas entering the keg when you do that.
That does sound odd. When you’ve come back to find the keg unpressured have you checked the gas disconnect? Is it still connected firmly to the post? Is the back of the disconnect screwed tightly into he body of he disconnect so it keeps the poppet open?
I’d probably try pressing something into the disconnect to see if I could get gas flowing and go from there. I bet it’s something wrong in the post to gas disconnect junction.
At this point I can not even get my low gauge to move at all. When I twist the knob (for some you need a screwdriver) in order to put co2 into the keg the low gauge doesn’t move at all. The high gauge is now reading at about 300. Basically, I wasn’t able to test any theories last night. Is my cylinder out of co2?
It certainly sounds like you have a leak, the tank should not have dropped to 300 so fast. If no gas is coming out at all, and it is reading 300, you may have a bad gage as well. If you disconnect the gage from the tank (close the valve first!), and then very carefully crack the valve open to see if there is real pressure in there, you should be able to tell if the tank is empty.
If it is, get a refill and then reconnect all the gas lines and fittings. Put it all in a tub full of water, open the valve and figure out where the leak is.
