Beer in Regulator

Well there… I did it. No matter how many warnings I read my primitive brain disregarded them all and pulled the relief valve with the beer line connected running my sweet stout back up into my regulator. Doh!

Any cleaning tips? Do I need to completely disassemble? Disassembly tips?

This is my regulator: http://www.beveragefactory.com/REFURB-542-2.shtml

I would take it apart and clean it if you’re sure there’s beer in the body of it, usually the beer line valves have a check valve in them to prevent beer from getting in to the body. Your lines will have to be cleaned for sure, I had 6 kegs get infected a couple years ago due to dirty gas tubing. It took me awhile to pin point it, I didn’t notice it because the lighting is pretty dim where I carb my kegs.

I have beer in my gas lines. I haven’t worried about it, because I can keep it out of the regulator, but I guess I should clean them.

Thanks Glug. I cleaned the lines out really well. Beer definitely got into the body because I had it coming out of the pressure relief valve which screws into the body. I ran some CO2 through it and my keg pressure gauge is working fine, but my CO2 volume gauge is not working. Will need to crack this sucker open for a more thorough inspection. Live & Learn.

I would say that you will need to take the regulator apart and clean every thing real good with something that won’t cause things to corrode. Be careful with any gaskets and the diaphragm. Make sure you don’t have any sticky residue on the orifice and seat when you put it back together. When you get everything back together make sure the regulator locks up when you get the pressure set. As for the gauge I would guess you will have to replace it, there isn’t much you can do with a gauge when a liquid gets inside of it. I would also install a check valve, it seems odd that the regulator didn’t have a factory installed check valve. A check valve is cheap insurance.

Good Luck,
Jazzman