Bad liquid post or poppet?

[dannyboy58]

I kegged a pilsner last Wednesday, put it into my lagering fridge and connected CO2. Checked on it yesterday, the 5# CO2 cylinder was empty and all three kegs connected to it were unpressurized. Since two have been in there a while I knew my culprit was the newly kegged pils.

Posts were tight. Connected it to my 20# cylinder and checked the lid, no leaks. There it is...bad poppet. Replaced the poppet and decided to stick a party tap on there just to be safe but now it won't lock on! I tried a couple other QDs with no success... WT...all I did was change the poppet and I've used these poppets on other kegs with no issue...

Anyone ever seen this before? I ordered a couple new liquid posts to have around and a few poppets as well but this post has been fine until I put the new poppet in there...

Ball lock kegs BTW.

[sneezles61]

I have found their are too many variations between the peeps that manufacturer THE STYLE for either Pepsi or Coke... Find the name and you can find the thread differences... It's just simpler to buy 6 of each.... When one goes bad, give to someone the recycles/scavage.... You'll thank yerself... Sneezles61

[voodoo_donut]

There is some variability in the springs that support the poppet. Some are just that, springs, and others have "feet" at the proximal end of the spring. If the spring is too stiff for the post it might not seal, and I have had to adjust the feet also when changing them out. Basically switching out the springs might help.

[sneezles61]

There are the ones from Anoka Mn that I have to use a very dull center punch and a hammer to set the poppet... Just give it a bang, and the feet snap into the stainless steel housing... Sneezles61

[dannyboy58]

I switched the post and poppet with one from an empty keg just so I could get the pils carbing. None of the poppets I have left want to work in this post. I have a couple posts and poppets on the way.

The poppet seems to go into the post OK and it seals up on the keg fine. Seems like the spring is just too short to allow enough travel for the QD to connect properly.

[dannyboy58]

I ordered a few posts and half doze poppets from kegconnection.com. They sent me 3 poppets with no feet and 3 with...weird...I think I may prefer footless poppets...I feel like the steel center shaft on the footed poppets may limit spring travel and be less likely to work on the majority of posts. Haven't tried any of them yet, am I overthinking this?

[voltron]

I've found that with the "universal poppets" sometimes I need to clip just a tiny bit off the spring, otherwise I can't get the disconnect to snap into place.

[voltron]

I'll also add, that sometimes it'll snap into place, but no liquid will flow, because there isn't enough travel available to actually "open" the poppet. Snip a tiny bit off, then it works just fine.

I'm referring to these types, not the fully assembled poppets: https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/universal-poppet-valve

[dannyboy58]

Gotcha. They did send me some of those. Haven't tried them yet. The others are the fully assembled ones with the littl steel shaft down the center.