I’ve got a regulator i’m having trouble with, it’s an IMI Cornelius, just like NB sells. I managed to raise the pressure high enough to trip the pressure relief valve. Now I can’t get it to hold pressure, it seems to be allowing very high pressure regardless of what the gage says. Anybody have this problem and manage to correct it? Ideas? Thanks
Buzz, I cannot find my parts explosion for the corny regulators that you and (I) own, But I am afraid that you either blew out a gasket/ oring in the relief valve or more commonly a person will blow out the main diaphragm/ spring in the unit when exceeding operating pressures such as you did. The relief valves will not blow out unless you exceed 50 PSI typically and in most cases like what happened to you it is much higher than that. This is why the diaphragm/ spring cannot handle it in most cases I think the units we all use are rated around 60 PSI total on the low pressure side of the gauge.
What you will need to do is shut off the bottle completely and make certain no pressure is on the regulator and actually have the gas line open now so you can hear gas leaving the system fast/slow whatever when you turn the bottle on later in this discussion and dial down the feed screw to almost out(do not remove completely from the face of the reg) you will be able to tell its turned down but not super loose that’s when you stop turning it to the left, also pull the pin on the relief valve a few times to “re-seat” it hopefully when not under pressure. Now turn the bottle back on. At this point you should have no gas coming through the line. If you do then your diaphragm/ spring is ruptured and needs replacement. If no gas then dial it to the right slowly/ no cranking it 5 full turns etc… and see if the pressure responds accordingly. If this then happens you have then effectively “reset” the regulator and your diaphragm/ spring is fine and you should now attach the line to a keg etc… and see your low side gauge show low pressure as you continue to dial up to 5-8 PSI etc… These regulators are sensitive to pressure IE: go slow when first learning your system and leave a keg at 5 PSI for a day then come back and bring it up to 8 a day later etc… you dont have to be this touchy but you get the drift.
Now if you did rupture the diaphragm/ spring its not a big deal. You can order a rebuild kit from most any LHBS at around $10-15 bucks and totally reman the thing yourself. I will see where I hid the parts explosion from myself and put it back up. Otherwise if I fail to find my copy usually the rebuild kit comes with one.
