I don't know if my C02 regulator is broke....My regulator has the adjustment screw with the - and +, and to increase pressure you turn it clock wise. And to decrease your suppose to turn counter clock wise, but when I want to dial it down a tad (by turning counter clockwise) It does nothing...Ill turn counter clock wise to try to decrease pressure, but nothing happens. The only way it will decrease, is by pulling the pressure relief pin on the regulator, but when I do that, it immediately drops to zero, not just a PSI or two. Am I missing something?
Welcome to Beer Advocate @chevyboy069 There's probably someone in one of the following forums that can help you. Home Bar https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/forums/home-bar.43/ Homebrewing https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/forums/homebrewing.8/
The regulator is a one way valve Once gas leaves the bottle and goes into the keg you can't put it back into the bottle. So if you pressurize your keg to 20 psi and then turn the dial back thinking your keg is going to get 10 psi, well it isn't. The bottle gas is at around 800 psi, depending on temp. The regulator regulates the released pressure. Simple. If you pull the PRV you will release gas in the keg, and the regulator will then put gas back in. The regulator will stop once it has reached the set pressure. Cheers.
Wow that makes a little more sense, so if I put to much pressure by accident when adjusting/setting pressure....do I pull the the pressure relief valve on regulator or coupler attached to the keg? And do I hold the relief valve open or just a quick tug ? Ur very helpful. I see you may have messaged me back but I don’t see the response or conversation, maybe it’s cause I’m on my phone
As an aside, this is the only downside to having a check valve in your gas line. Without a check valve, turning down the pressure at the regulator will vent the excess gas from the keg, so it will behave as you expected it to. That said, this is a small price to pay for the upside of a check valve.
Think about when you fill your tires. If you set 40psi on the pump your tires will be filled to that level. But if you realize that's an overfill, re-setting the pump to 32psi will do nothing (what you experienced). You must vent to below the desired setting and refill. You don't have to go to zero before refilling, but should get below desired pressure. Your beer is a little more complicated because the liquid retains gas in addition to the headspace pressure. So if the beer is over-carb'ed and you release the headspace pressure the CO2 in the beer will come out of solution to fill the headspace, stabilizing when the beer saturation is equal to the headspace pressure. Here's where it gets complicated: if the keg is full (small headspace), releasing the headspace pressure to zero will cause the beer to off-gas. But because the headspace is small (full keg) the pressure will return to almost where it was before (only a slight drop). If beer is over-carb'ed it may require several "burps" of the headspace to actually make a difference. If the keg is near empty the other extreme happens . . . a single burp will cause the small quantity of liquid to off-gas into a large headspace, causing it to become near flat. Think about opening a bottle of beer. If you immediately re-caped the bottle you would only lose the CO2 volume in the neck. The beer would off-gas until the neck is re-pressurized, but that would be a slight decrease overall. If you poured out most of the beer and re-capped, the small quantity would off-gas almost completely into the bottle. That's a lot of words to say that ideally you want everything to be in equilibrium. The carb-level is dependent on pressure and temp, but stabilizes only when given enough time. Nothing happens fast when it comes to carbing beer. Also, if you're not using a carbonation chart, here's a good one: https://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table/
Port largo I appreciate all your input, some is hard to understand, I totally get the tires reference , that’s a good way to think about the air. I will only have 1/4 kegs of Coors Light in my kegerator, how will I know if it’s over, or under carbed though like u mention? And also, I have seen that psi chart everywhere and I try to figure out what it’s saying with the v02 volume or whatever and degrees vs temps and I don’t get it at all lol. I have been trying to get my fridge to be consistent at 38ish but my fridge blows, the thermometers in my fridge said 36ish but the three cups in my fridge in diff spots were all frozen so I’m confused as to how ....I’m trying so hard to understand all of this, I’m horrible
Nah. You'll get it. Plus you are engaged in the forum so all of us will generally stay on it with you. Just remember liquid holds CO2 gas, and the amount it can hold increases as its temperature decreases. So... A warm can of soda comes from the factory with a set amount of CO2. Leave it in your hot car and then open it. All that gas has left the liquid, is in the head space right near the tab, and escapes, along with plenty of soda, on your lap. Same can. Same amount of gas from the factory. Leave it in your fridge and when you open it there is little gas escape, it stays nice and bubbly. Same cold can poured into a glass, lots of dissolved gas, sits on your kitchen table for 6 hours and gets to room temp. Flat. Now wrap your head around the inside of a beer keg. Voila.
wow good way to put it....but bad news....I just returned the insignia pos kegerator, for an exchange and going to attempt one more time and hope the first one was a faulty fridge/thermostat. Although the one I got in exchange, I get home, and there is a huge dent on the one side, and the 3/4 wheels sit evenly on ground. Unless this kegerator magically holds decent temp and the thermostat actually works this time, ill be returning it and looking into a keg king kegerator. What a major POS kegerator, one of biggest regrets I ever made
