I was wondering if any AHA Forum users have made their own carbonation caps? I’ve seen a few innovations online where people get creative with bike tire-tube fittings and things like that. If anyone has made their own (or knows someone who has), I’d be interested in potentially sharing it on HomebrewersAssociation.org as a featured Pimp My System story.
Let me know!
I don’t remember who it was but I thought someone on here came up with that idea. or at least I remember a discussion about it a few years ago. involving Schrader valves and such.
I remembered something similar, but can’t seem to track it down. I’ve found a lot posts for store bought ones… Thanks for chiming in!
thumbs up
I still use mine to carb a sample from every batch. I’ve got photos of the caps somewhere I can post.
Somethings going on with Photobucket so I can’t get a preview, but these should be the photos…
I’ve done the shrader-valve cap. It’s a pain in the ass. What’s better is the all-metal version on amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008071H8O?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00
Better than the original carb-cap and at half the price. Get one when it comes available.
pin lock would be nice for me 
Here is the one that is on my to-do list.
http://www.brewgeeks.com/carbonator-cap.html
That also requires the female connector which is smaller than the standard Kent connectors. It is also poorly designed and does not all for shake carbing. The ball lock style is king.
Dunno. I have both, but use the Kent more simply because they were so much cheaper and I have more of them. Pretty easy to put in a splitter and hang both Kent and ball lock connectors off a regulator.
Not sure what you’re saying, but I’ve never had a problem shake carbing with the Kent. I like the ball lock style a little more, but in the end, they both do the same job.
I seem to be missing words there. I bought the Kent for making carbonated water. Filled a heavy PET bottle with water and hit is with 30 psi shaking. Within seconds the little barbs that hold the fittings together came undone and the hose was loose. I began holding the fittings together, but all this did was cause those barbs to wear out faster than normal.
Must have gotten a bad one. I bought mine back in 2012 and have not had any problem other than replacing a couple of the o-rings. Back then I got six caps and a connector for a little more than the cost of one of the original ball lock carbonator caps.
On the other side, one of my original ball lock carbonator caps developed a crack and no longer holds pressure. It still comes in handy for holding the disconnect open to draining all the liquid out of picnic tap lines before storing.
edit to add:
I also do the shake at 30PSI method, but disconnect before shaking. Paranoid about getting liquid in my gas line.
That’s pretty much exactly how I built mine. They work just fine. I carb with the air chuck just like in that tutorial. I have QDs on all my gas lines, so I can switch from pin lock to ball lock to air chuck to air gun or whatever quite easily. I’ve also got a splitter I can swap in easily which is nice.