Few problems with my kegerator

Discussion in 'Home Bar' started by msheils, Mar 5, 2015.

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  1. msheils

    msheils Initiate (0) Mar 5, 2015 Michigan

    Hi everyone! First time poster here and I hope you can help me out.

    I had my kegerator for almost two years and never had a problem until this week. It all started when my keg line froze (I keep my fridge in the garage and the last week sucked with temps -15F in Michigan). This happen a few times and I upped the PSI to around 14 and the beer took a second and then it came out. Well when the temp really started to take a dive my little trick don't work and I was fool and tried to bump it up to 20+ and still nothing. I took a mini heater to the tap and after 5-10 min the build up melted and I thought I was good to go.

    Then the problems started to begin. I opened my fridge and saw a nice little puddle of beer and noticed the coupler was leaking and the beer line connected to the coupler also was leaking. I unhooked everything and cleaned it out hoping that would work. The next day I had more beer leaking so I unhooked it again cleaned it out and took a wrench and tightend everything.

    So the next day I have no leakage :slight_smile: but now my beer pours out way too fast and I get giant amounts of head. When I first noticed the leakage my temp in the fridge was around 32F now it's back up to 38-39F thanks to warmer weather.

    So is there anything I can do to fix my issue? I usually keep my PSI around 10-12 and never had a problem. Even if I try to lower it the beer still pours out way to fast. Also, I'm almost positive the pressure has gone up without me touching it but only up 1-2 so not much. Or I'm I just being super paranoid because I had to move my keg to clean it out so it was shoken a little and just needs time to rest? Any help would be great and I figured I would start here before thinking about having to rebuy anything.


    Sorry for the long post and if I have any grammar errors. I'm at work doing this on my iphone :slight_smile:

    Thanks!
     
  2. billandsuz

    billandsuz Pooh-Bah (2,023) Sep 1, 2004 New York
    Pooh-Bah Society

    check to be sure the keg is not frozen. if it is, get it to a warmer area. indoors, but not hot, and leave it for a day until it thaws. do not let it sit too long at room temp though. once it is liquid, chill it to 38. my guess is that beer in the keg froze and not just in the line.

    tap the keg and turn the gas off.
    pull the pressure release ring a few times to vent gas. do this once every hour or so for a few hours.
    turn the gas on to usual pressure, 10-12.
    let the keg sit undisturbed for a few days until it gets to 38 and stays there.
    pour beer.

    if the beer froze it forced CO2 out of solution and it is sitting in the headspace. frozen beer is not going to pour correctly until the gas goes back into solution. it takes time for the gas to dissolve into the liquid. this probably also explains why you were not getting a good seal at the coupler.

    just remember that every change to the system takes a while to have the desired effect.

    regulators sometimes get stuck when it gets very cold. the usual problem is you lose gas. pouring hot water on the regulator body will get things going again. avg. temp in Syracuse was 7 month of February.

    don't heat the coupler, line, faucet... anything. the gaskets or lines soften you will possibly have a leak that will require rebuilding or new parts.
    Cheers.
     
    Jwale73 likes this.
  3. beerdumper

    beerdumper Initiate (0) Jan 8, 2015 California

    As bill suggested your problem could be one of two things. Pressure build up from off gassing, or the keg is over carbed. My guess by what you describe is that the keg is over carbed. It would be difficult to freeze the whole keg, but easy to freeze the beerline itself. I would suggest the next time you get a frozen beer line do not ever adjust the pressure to force the ice slug out. Instead wet a rag with hot water and a bucket of hot water and submerge/wipe down all the beerline and especially the back of the shank where typically there is a metal elbow if its in a tower. Then you can pull the faucet back and forth to help work the slug out. It can take 15min to 30min to work out frozen lines.

    I would highly recommend doing what bill suggests and bleeding the keg as it warms up. Even if the keg isn't frozen, warming it up will help it off gas more to bleed out the pressure more quickly.
     
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