This is likely one of those newbie questions that I think I already know the answer to, but would like to confirm.
Have had 4 kegs (pin lock) I purchased last year - don’t remember where - for $99. Couldn’t pass it up even though I wasn’t ready to start kegging. I am now!
I just got around to re-furbing the kegs - although I did a thorough rinse last year. Over this past weekend I soaked the insides for several hours with PBW (with the pieces and parts inside), replaced all the o-rings (lid, dip tubes, posts), and lubed them. When I re-attached the tubes, posts, and top I inverted the kegs to let the PBW hit the tops for a bit. Water leaked out from around the lids - all of them.
I am assuming that since the keg was not pressurized at all with gas (all the accessories are on their way) the lid would never be fully sealed. Should I withhold the final verdict until I’m able to put a little gas on them?
You hit it on the head. The bail alone can rarely seal a keg. I hit a keg with about 40psi for five minutes to seat the lid. From there it should stay sealed.
As mentioned, pressure it needed to ensure a seal.
I like to “test” my kegs at 10psi pressure to see if they may be problematic during serving. Basically, hit with 10psi and see if the lid will seal at that low pressure. If it doesn’t, and I have others to swap with, I’ll swap lids and try to find the best combination. Nothing scientific, just trial-and-error. Once I feel like they are good at 10psi, I’ll hit with 30psi to ensure a solid seal on the lid and to store for any duration.
Most of my kegs leak a little until I put some gas in them. Once you can pressurize them, if they still leak, then start with the keg lube and other solutions. Until then, relax.
One thing I have started doing in the past couple years, is after I clean an empty keg, I sanitize it, and pressurize it. The I pour some starsan around the poppits of the posts, and lid of the keg. Sometimes I see a stream of small bubbles indicating a leak… once I take care of all those, I leave it pressurized for a week or two and then test to see if it still held pressure over all that time.
Now I have a sanitized keg that I know will hold pressure when I am ready with the next beer… once less thing to worry about.
That’s kind of what I was thinking of doing as well Wingnut. I don’t have to keg (the first batch) for another two weeks but I have all 4 kegs cleaned and re-furbed. I took delivery on all the pieces and parts for the frig-to-kegerator conversion that will be happening over the next couple of days, including the empty CO2 tank. My LHBS now fills tanks so I thought I would get that filled now and test the kegs as you described with sanitizer so it’s ready to go when the fermenting IPA is ready to rack.
The StarSan idea is a great one, but instead of pouring it over the lid, get one of these spray bottles to dispense it. Also very useful to sanitize any surfaces too large to drop in your StarSan bucket.