I have a dual tap kegerator with room for three 5 gal kegs. I use a dual gauge regulator and off of one line I have a 2 way distributor so that I can carb up another keg while two are on tap. I've been doing this exact thing currently, with one keg carbing for 12 days and two on draft. One of the regulators was set to 12 PSI and the other to 10 PSI. Last night one of the kegs kicked but I didn't bother doing anything with it until today. When I went down to clean the line and keg, both regulator pressures were reading about 25 PSI and the CO2 tank was empty (which is shouldn't have been close yet). Any idea why this may have happened?
you almost certainly have a leak. the dual regulator is a one way valve. put it on a 2 way distributor without a check valve and gas will go one way only. you may have a leak AND a faulty regulator. check to be sure you dont have a leak. do you have the washer installed, and is it seated? no leaks at the gas connect? corny kegs have plenty of weak spots. race track o-ring? poppet valve? gas connection? check everything. if you have an unexpected empty cylinder you have a leak. fix that first. it wont fix itself. others might have a bot of insight, but im betting a bad seal. Cheers.
There most certainly was a leak. Is it possible then that at 10-12 PSI no leak was occurring but when the PSI went high, it was enough to force a leak at a certain point? Like I said, I had the third keg carbing for 12 days with that set up and the PSI was stable and there was no apparent leak. In addition, I wouldn't have touched the regulator, lines, or kegs that were on draft already for 2+ months.
I am most certainly not an expert but I have had leaks that drain co2 tanks. It's quite possible that when you hooked up your carbing keg at 12PSI there was a leak which drained the tank over the course of the 12 days.
Ongoing issues here, not leak related. The second gauge has continued to drift up after I set it for 10 PSI. If I vent the keg with all the valves open then needle will drop appropriately. I've done this a couple times, in addition I've dialed back the PSI valve, but after several hours I'll recheck the PSI on the gauge and it climbs back up to 20-25 PSI. Just a general systems question. If the beer itself is overcarbed from its time at ~20 PSI and then I vent the keg with the set PSI of 10, would the headspace in the keg develop a higher PSI as the CO2 in solution comes out? And would whatever headspace pressure it develops reflect the gauge reading? I'm trying to figure out if my regulator gauge is faulty.
