Kegerator problem with foam

The reason you see clear beer followed by foam is because there is typically a bit of a bend at the top of the beer line. When the cold gas soaked beer leaves the keg it has adequate dissolved CO2. When that beer sits in the line for a bit and warms up, the gas breaks out of solution and will float to the highest level in the line. This happens all along the beer line until the amount of dissolved gas under pressure equilibrates with the temperature of the liquid. Remember warm liquid holds less dissolved gas than cold liquid. This creates a pocket of foam. Then you pour a bit and the clear beer immediately behind the faucet comes out, followed by a lot of foam at the highest spot, followed by foam free but flat beer.

There you go. Temperature problem. Called that one waaaay back. And until you get your beer to 38 degrees in the keg and 38 degrees in the line and tower you will suffer with foamy pours.

The fact that the top of your keg is so much warmer than the bottom only makes all this worse. Again, a $400 kegerator doesn't work the way it is supposed to. It needs to be a $700 kegerator. You are going to spend a bit of money to make it marginally better, maybe. But it will probably never be as good as it should be.

Cheers.

 

What exactly would be the difference between a $400 and $700 kegerator?

 

$300 to be exact.

it's just a box with a compressor. everything else is parts. so instead of a decent $45 coupler you'll get a coupler with chrome paint that flakes and might not fit very well. the faucets on the cheap kegerators are really atrocious. there is no joy in those. screwy t-stat on the Nostalgia. drip try, maybe a steel pan. maybe. small tower made of thinnest gauge metal possible and the chrome is little more than spray paint. plastic hinges. plastic interior, which don't hold #160 kegs very well. never a tower cooler and that is mandatory. crappy casters if any. everything is as cheaply made as absolutely possible.

built around a price point. it looks like a regular kegerator, until you try to pour beer and it can't do the only job it is supposed to do.

lastly and just as important, the place that sells $400 kegerators has no experience and doesn't know what to do for the customer.

you can probably buy a toaster for $15 instead of $30 but it isn't going to work very well if at all. the professional toaster is $100.
Cheers.

 

You need a thermometer, going on 6 weeks now. You need a forward closing faucet (rear closing is why yours is sticking). Beer line easy to change but you need to know what type of connections you have to figure out what you need to buy. Get 10' of line.

 

Judging by the amount of problems you've had with this Im surprised they didnt give you a gift reciept to return it.

 

You can't achieve balance at 46, the line isn't going to help. You have the thermostat at the coldest setting?

 

I believe there is a modification you can do to the thermostat mechanism that will allow you to drop the temp. I've seen discussion about it in the Micromatic forums. Give it a try Micromatic.com

 

I thought I might bump this thread with a helpful hint for newbies that I learned the hard way. Something I had NOT picked up in reading through various threads was that the diameter of the beer line also impacts foam. I was getting OK pours previously with beer at 38deg F, 10ft lines, and 15PSI on my homebrew lagers. I was using 1/4" inside diameter beer lines. I swapped them out with 3/16" ID lines and noticed an immediate improvement in my pours.

 

If it won't get cold after adjusting the screw then I'd say you are out of luck. Not much more you can do. Maybe it shipped low on refrigerant from the factory.

 

Here's another thought: Is there a chance that prior to you first noticing this over foaming that you somehow managed to highly overcarbonate your keg? I had a regulator that went bad and put 35 psi of CO2 into my kegs. Rebuilding the regulator alone didn't fix the issue. Reply to this thread if you think this may be an issue.

 

I just saw csice's post re the temperature. 46* definitely won't work. That 8* down to 38* is critical. Your compressor and thermostat are still under warranty. Contact the distributor that sold your kegerator to you and have them send a service man out to check your unit. If they can't get it down to 38* consistently, they should replace it for you. My Kegco is a little pricier than yours and works like a charm.

 

This is a very interesting thread. I've had several kegerators, first a regular fridge with a picnic faucet where I just opened the door to pour a fridge. I had significant foaming issues with it, first from outgassing because I mistakenly assumed foam was due to too much pressure and turned the pressure down. After research, I learned about setting the correct pressure. Then I had zero foam in the hose, but it came out so fast that it would foam just from the violence of the pour. I added a long (12') small ID hose and that solved that problem.

About the time I had that thing pouring great, my wife bought me a kegerator. Darby is the brand and it was from Costco. I'm assuming this falls into the POS catagory since I think she paid around $300 for it. I've never been able to get that to pour well. The first beer is always foamy as heck and subsequent beers poured immediately were pretty decent.

I'm fascinated by the temp discussion. I'm going to do some experimentation with it to see if what I can find out. I don't even have a keg right now because I have so much bottled beer that I have to drink while it's still fresh. I can experiment with the temps, however.

I've also had faucet sticking problems, so I'll probably look into upgrading that. I came here (BA) primarily to learn about DLD, but damn there's a wealth of info here. It reminds me of the guitar forum (FDP) that I visit. Helpful people, nice atmosphere.

 

The best way to take your kegerator's temperature is to put a glass of water on the floor check the water temp with a decent probe thermometer. I prefer the type which can be re-calibrated for accuracy.

https://www.foodservicesuperstore.c...tal-ea.html?gclid=COaJqeHIw8sCFYZefgod9jgPeQ#

A Forward-seal faucet will solve your sticking problems. My favorite is here: https://www.perlick.com/bar-beverag...sing/tapping-hardwarecomponents/beer-faucets/

Stainless is a nice upgrade and this is an area where you do get what you pay for.

If I were you, I'd deal with the temperature issue first...we're happy to assist.