I’ve been considering changing my beer lines and going with the duotight fittings etc… Does anyone have and tips for this change? Does it save space in the keezer? What are some advantages or disadvantages, or tips?
I went with Duotight a few years ago and am very happy. I eliminated all hose clamps and have never had a leak of gas or liquid. I use flare fittings to connect to the CO2 manifold. The one part that disappoints me is the Duotight ball-lock quick disconnect. I thought it would save a fitting to use it, but I don’t like the design because it is very hard to get the center pin straight. Instead I use regular QDs with flare fittings and Duotight-to-flare adapters on the ends of the hoses.
I haven’t and probably won’t change my beer lines.
But I close transfer everything and use the duotight ball lock connectors to create jumpers for the transfers. They work really well with that and I appreciate how easy they are to take apart and clean the lines.
I think my beer stays fresher longer with the oxygen-barrier lines that work with Duotight fittings, but some of the Duotight fittings aren’t that robust.
Good to know
Yeah, their beer tubing is the best I’ve tried. You can use it with regular flare fittings if you prefer.
Love my Duotight fittings, but buy extra if you plan to change your whole system to duotight. When I was first getting used to duotight, I overtightened several fittings, which led to really small cracks overtime. I have replaced a handful of my fittings since switching over back in 2022. Whenever there is a sale, I tend to buy more just to have on hand. Since only a couple places sell them, they can be hard to get in a pinch.
Pros - shorter lines & low o2 egress. I use 5-6 ft lines except for 2 taps which are 10ft plus for high carb level beers, belgians, etc. The actual line is pretty cheap too, vs the vinyl/pvc, etc. (questionable “food grade” quality).
-I skipped a bunch of fittings and just forced fit a bunch of connections where there were small barbs, which was quite easy. Kept the intial investment way down. I’ve slowly been adding the proper connections as i change out the tubing every year or two.
I have a 9 tap kegerator so it was a big initial investment to make a change, but I also change all my lines every year, plus or minus, so the upgrade was a no brainer.
I went to EVA Barrier tubing and Duotight fittings some years easier ago and I will never go back to vinyl tubing. Cleaning the lines much easier and the line lengths are shorter due to the ID of the EVA tubing. My main reason for switching was that I occasionally make a sweet stout infused with peppermint for the holiday season and vinyl tubing would pick up the peppermint flavor and I could taste it in other beers on that particular tap. The fittings seal well and I only had one minor leak when I did not get the tubing seated well into the Duotight fitting on the tap shank that was easy to correct. They fittings fit my tap shanks and threaded ball lock connectors well (I do not use the barbed ones since the threaded ones are easier to remove and clean). I highly recommend them!
I finished building a new keezer a few months ago and decided to go all DuoTight. I was a bit skeptical at first since you just push the fittings together instead of using clamps, but I haven’t had a gas or liquid leak. Easy to clean, good pressure from the taps too.
I have found over the years the duo tights are not reliable enough for anything but chilling systems. The seal inside the duotight can leak
Anyone can chime in here on this question. I’m still trying to figure out exactly what items are needed to change over to duotight. I have a barbed manifold in my keezer. Will I need to get the duotight manifold with the cut offs, guages, and gas pressure controls? I don’t see where they have any fitting to attach to barbed fittings. In my keezer I have 3 tap lines and one I designate with a longer gas line for force carbing and purging kegs. I have my CO2 tank inside, I’m considering moving it to the outside and adding another keg and tap etc…
I also have a kegerator I’m going to update to duotight fittings.
My big question is how do I know everything that is needed to make these upgrades? Some recommendations, tips, etc… are greatly appreciated…
Duotight makes an adapter from their fittings to 1/4" flare fittings. I replaced the 1/4" NPT -to- barb fittings on my manifold with 1/4" NPT - to - flare fittings so the duotights can go right onto the manifold. If you can’t do that you could put a very short piece of tubing on the manifold barb and use a barb-flare fitting on the other end of the tubing.
Thanks, that is exactly the type of info I need.