Typically, I will keg a beer, carb it, then bottle off the keg if I need my beer fridge (combined as keg fridge and fermentation fridge).
Anyway, when the keg kicks, I will mix some Oxyclean in it, seal it up, shake the $#!+ out of it, then pump in some CO2 and run the oxyclean through the beer line/beer gun line for 30-60 seconds (usually into the other keg that I am cleaning), repeat on the new keg, rinse both, then do the same process with star san.
Bottom line, I haven’t removed my poppets in a few brews and let them soak in oxy or taken them apart. Bad idea? Also, I usually leave some mixed star san in the kegs when they aren’t in use.
When dispensing one of the brews, my ‘out’ poppet seemed to be stuck open and a thin stream of beer was spitting out.
I have used a keg twice when I was in a hurry but like you are saying things start to stick on them. So 99% of them time i just rip them apart and clean them real quick only takes about 10 minutes or so of extra time.
If I have a keg that just kicked and a beer that’s ready to keg that’s going to be drank rather quickly, like for a party, I’ll rack into it without disassembling it, just a rinse with hot water and sanitizer. Most of the time I take them apart, like GC posted, it only takes a few minutes.
I pull mine apart far less frequently but I’m also using Mark’s Keg Washer which back flushes the ‘out’ poppet so I figure it is getting a pretty good cleaning.
