Just built a new kegerator and am having a difficult time plumbing it. The CO2 regulator is set to 15 psi and the cooler is at 39-40F. I have checked the regulator against another CO2 regulator and have taken the temp with a Thermopen in the beer being dispensed as well as a jar of water left in the cooler overnight. I had very little difficulty plumbing my previous kegerator but this one is killing me. Right now I have 14 feet of 3/16 inch ultra barrier silver plumbed to one perlick faucet. MoreBeer claims that this line has a resistance of 2.2 lb/ft which looks to be reasonable. I have about 2 feet of rise from the center of the keg to the faucet. Math isn’t my career or specialty but it would seem to me that 6 feet of line would be about right. Not even close- straight foam even after the first two pints- more than enough to fill the line with beer fresh from the keg. So I attached the remaining 14 feet. It gets really interesting here. I was testing on an Oktoberfest and it occurred to me that I was going to go through a lot of a favorite beer getting the line length correct. The Ofest poured slowly through the 14 foot line but not foamy. I switched to a Helles- same CO2 manifold, cooler, regulator everything as the Ofest. Straight foam. What could possibly be happening here?
Previous kegerator was 1/4 inch vinyl lines. Had them figured out in a few minutes.
Thanks in advance for any ideas. Hopefully I’m overlooking something simple.
purge the head pressure, and test serving at 2, 5, 8, 10, 12, etc PSI. see what does work, and you will have more data work with, as well as being able to drink it right away. I also note that your carb level (15psi, 39F) is 2.8, which may be slightly high.
I’ve had that happen on over carbed and infected kegs. If 2 kegs run really slowly but don’t foam I agree with the poster earlier who pointed to the keg.
I have had to purge the headspace 3, 4, 5 times, over the course of days, with no gas applied between dumps to fix a couple over carbed beauties. :
Have you checked the dip tube and liquid out poppet? It may be a coincidence that a chunk of s… stuff is causing a problem in the new kegerator.
I hope you find the issue. I hate new stuff that doesn’t work.
I use ultra barrier silver in my kegerators and ignore the quoted numbers. I started with 10 ft on each line, cutting it down in 6 inch(ish) increments until I got the exact pour I wanted - pretty foolproof method. Ended up at ~ 9 feet on my lines.
Currently at 10 feet of line at 38F air temp in the cooler. 15 second pour for a pint- just for reference, obviously not a commercial operation under time constraints. In my opinion (SWAG) it is pouring at about 60%. Now my reference was to 1/4 inch line in the previous kegerator with different faucets. Its better but not there yet.
EHall- thanks for the pdf; lots of great information. I have to believe at this point that this 3/16 line has much less resistance than the traditional 3/16 line.
