Adding secondary regulators

Discussion in 'Home Bar' started by skeene, Sep 17, 2016.

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  1. skeene

    skeene Aspirant (274) Jun 9, 2006 New Jersey

    I recently bought a used commercial kegerator that came with a single regulator to connect to a Sankey tap. I think this is the regulator:

    http://www.kegco.com/regulators/541.shtml

    I want to modify the kegerator to take 3 corny kegs. Can I use a 3 body secondary regulator for this?

    https://www.amazon.com/Kegco-KC-LH-54S-3-Secondary-Regulator/dp/B00MFZ1HLO

    Can I connect that with the regulator I have so I have one regulator monitoring the Co2 tank and the other 3 are on the kegs? How?

    Thanks for any tips
     
  2. PortLargo

    PortLargo Pooh-Bah (1,737) Oct 19, 2012 Florida
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Yes, you can absolutely do what you propose. On the primary regulator you'll have a barbed output . . . connect your gas line (w/clamp) here and run it to the barbed inlet of the secondary (clamped again). Then set the primary regulator at or slight above the highest serving pressure you might need. You can then set three different serving pressures on the three kegs.

    Unsolicted advice: do you really need three different pressures? There is a cheaper way to to this with splitters/wyes that will give you the ability to feed three kegs (but they will be the same pressure). A compromise might be a dual secondary which would let you have two serving pressures and still feed three kegs.
     
  3. skeene

    skeene Aspirant (274) Jun 9, 2006 New Jersey

    I don't necessarily need 3 pressures, it just seemed the simplest thing to do since I already had one regulator. Is it easier/ cheaper to just to get another regulator and a 3 way splitter?
     
  4. PortLargo

    PortLargo Pooh-Bah (1,737) Oct 19, 2012 Florida
    Pooh-Bah Society

    Cheapest would be to get two "tees" and some hose clamps:
    [​IMG]

    Or you could get a "wye" or two:
    [​IMG]


    For a more sophisticated look use a three-way splitter:

    [​IMG]

    But first you need to know what styles of beer you'll be serving, that'll determine if you need different pressures. All these components are 1/4" npt which means they are interchangeable, you can swap out regs, gauges, wyes, shut-off valves, etc, fairly easily.
     
  5. mikehartigan

    mikehartigan Maven (1,397) Apr 9, 2007 Illinois

    I have multiple primaries ganged together like that. The advantage of all primaries is that you would only need as many regulators as kegs (assuming each keg gets its own regulator). With three secondaries, you'll need to spring for four regulators, since you'll still need a primary. This assumes your configuration lends itself to running multiple gas lines into the kegerator.

    That said, Y's, T's, or a manifold are far cheaper if you don't need multiple pressures.
     
  6. skeene

    skeene Aspirant (274) Jun 9, 2006 New Jersey

    thanks for all the tips. i'm going to spend the extra money and get the triple regulator, this is for homebrew and i'd like to keep the flexibility of different pressures
     
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