4 way gas manifold

holaday1185 · November 2, 2013, 12:22pm

Morning all,

I’m in the process of completely overhauling my draft beer setup. I’m moving all of my components from an upright freezer that holds 3 kegs to a 7 cu ft cheat freezer that will eventually hold 5 after a collar is built. In upgrading the number of kegs online I am in the market of purchasing a 4 way co2 distributor. I’ve checked online, and really can’t fInd anything for less than $40. Our host has one in the 50s! Any suggestions on what I can do? I do want the check valves built in for obvious reasons.

Thanks!

mullerbrau · November 2, 2013, 1:23pm

Well, I think you’re going to have to bite the bullet and spend the $40. I think B3 has some that can be chained together to make as many as you want but they are around $10 each too. I have a 5-way in my kegerator and also in my keezer. The check valve is a must have.

mrv · November 3, 2013, 3:01am

I made a 4-way out of 1/4" pipe, but I already had two check/ball valves. Pipe and fittings were free, $24 for valves.

If you can get one for $40-$50 w/valves, go for it.

cliffordbrewing · November 3, 2013, 4:21am

If you have a harbor freight near you, buy the parts from their pneumatic adapters. I built my 3-way manifold for about $12.

itspossible · November 4, 2013, 2:01pm

Also be aware that many shops blindly sell these manifolds advertising check valves, when in reality the only check valve is the gas in port to the manifold which is good as it prevents you from putting liquid into your regulator but not from backing up all other lines kegs etc… The “shutoff” valves that feed each keg are not ball check or other, they are literally shutoff valves. I just recently forgot to shut off a new keg that was filled up towards the gas dip tube before drafting a growler off a fully charged keg and blamo the new not carbed beer backed up into the lines and manifold itself when I released pressure from the charged keg.

There was also a known issue of shutoff valves being screwed into the manifold block too deep and you had low-no flow out of some shutoff valves. I suggest buying this item in person and physically blow through the gas in port and check to see that all shutoffs are moving the same amount of airflow. Then at the same time puff some air through one of the “shutoff/ check” valves while leaving another open and you will see what I am saying in the above paragraph. Any of you at home that think you have check valves at every port can check also in this manner before retorting that yours is/was delivered as advertised.

narcout · November 4, 2013, 5:42pm

I tested the 4-way manifold I bought from Northern Brewer back in 2008, and it did have a check valve on every port. It would suck to buy one advertised as having check valves that in reality did not.

They also make gas disconnects with internal check valves, but they aren’t all that economical ($15):

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/GAS-BALL ... 8C110.aspx

itspossible · November 5, 2013, 3:13am

Yeah, I saw those disco’s recently and thought it was a great idea.
I found out about three years ago that the manifold bought wasn’t utilizing “backchecking” shutoff valves as this same thing described happened to me for the first time. Which made me think well what the heck happened here and when cleaning it then I found out these check valves were not as advertised. I bought mine around 2008 also. Maybe the companies involved have started to do the right thing and actually use check valves. I know it was far too late to return or other but I went into Midwest and showed then what was happening as their current inventory had the same ones. No offer to help a guy out, nothing they just said oh what do you do.

Well what I have done since then is I have posted FYI’s when posts like this come up just as a heads up for both mentioned issues. I thought I had the issue licked and vowed to simply shutoff any kegs when drafting growlers like this etc… I even had a large dayglo note hanging off the shutoffs to remind myself, which I took off about a year ago when cleaning the fridge. So the other day I drafted a growler and opened the fridge to turn the gas back on. OHHHHHH I was awful sore again as I had to clean the lines and manifold out as I forgot to shut off the other kegs during the OP.