So I woke this morning to a puddle under my fridge in the garage. The culprit was readily apparent - a leak at the liquid out post/Black QDC connection. So, I disconnected it for the day to see if the leak was a result of the post itself or the poppet - not the problem, no leak at all, so I put a new o ring on the post and hooked it up with a new QDC. The slow leak was still there at the base of the QDC and the base of the post…argh! I now am resigned to buy a new liquid post, but it seems odd that the post isn’t sealing with the QDC despite a new o ring and QDC on the beer line. For what it’s worth, this is a Cornelius Super Champion with pretty slim looking keg posts compared to all of my other kegs. Any thoughts or helpful hints on this? I may have to retire this guy if a new post doesn’t fix the issue.
There is an oring on the dip tube which may need to be replaced. Also you may need a new poppet if it was leaking out of the top of the post (though I see the leak appears at the base of the post.)
It could be the o-ring in the QD itself.
I put a brand new QDC fitting on and the leak persisted at the same spot. There was no leak when the beer line was disconnected, so I don’t see how it could be a dip tube o ring issue. Note that the leak appears as a foaming at the base of the QDC as it sits upon the post. Somehow a good seal is not occurring between the post and the QDC despite replacement of the o ring on the post. I’ll try another QDC from a cobra tap line I have to see if that leaks as well.
I have never had a leak, but I had a manifold check valve fail this past weekend. Luckily, I caught the problem before the liquid had a chance to work its way to the regulator. I pressurized a slightly overfilled keg before placing it in my refrigerator. The fiasco is a good excuse to install inline regulators to each keg, which is something that I have been wanting to do for quite some time.
Maybe the o-ring is the wrong size?
Nope - bought them from Northern brewer and have had no problems with them working on other kegs. When I pulled the first one off the keg post I inspected it closely. It wasn’t worn and was the same exact size as the rest of them in the bag…I still swapped it out for a new one.
Well after two QD’s and no leak without a QD on you gotta wonder about the post. Has this keg been in service (for you) for a while without issue?
I don’t know how long, but it has been a good long time…maybe it just wore too thin over time? I can’t figure it out. No visible “ding”. I am going to empty it this weekend and pressure test the post with a bleeder valve and put it under water, too.
Weird. I have a post that is missing a chunk of the top, like someone bit off a small piece of the flat part that holds the o-ring in place. It works just fine.
It almost sounds like for some reason your QD isn’t fitting down far enough on the post.
Is this a new-to-you keg?
I had a new-to-me keg post leak over the weekend (just star san) but an extra o-ring on the dip tube solved that leak. Completely unhelpful in your case, though.
Not that new, but maybe I was just lucky with it sealing at the QDC in the past. PSI was only at 12. Like I said, I am going to run it through some testing this weekend to see if there is something I am missing…
Well good luck with your testing this weekend. Try not to get frustrated despite it being frustrating lol. Hopefully with a little more work you will emerge victorious. Keep us posted (pun intended)
Well I cleaned, sanitized, lubed and put some extra Star San in the keg and then charged it to 20 psi to seat the seal well. Then I took my keg pressure tester (bleeder valve) and hooked up the liquid out QDC that had leaked and connected the tester to the keg. I bled it off to about 12 psi and wiped everything dry.
So, what do you know? It held the pressure through this morning with no leak…So I am going to put it in a cold place and see if it continues to hold the pressure as the temp is lowered to below 40 degrees. My only thought is that it leaks when cold at this point. I am not going to commit a keg of homebrew to this particular keg until I know it won’t leak! But maybe the cleaning, sanitizing and lubing was enough to get it to seal properly. The quest continues!
Funny thing. I realized over the weekend that I have a keg where beer won’t pour when it is over-pressurized. You get a real slow drip. Bleed off the pressure and it pours just fine.
I’m not talking about good pour vs. bad pour. This is no pour or pour.
These old kegs sometimes are quirky.
Ain’t it the truth.
Pressure held for 3 days after chilling in fridge and holding it there, so this keg has been healed!
That’s why I have switched to purchasing only new soda kegs.