Air pressure gauge - stupidity 101!

[SilverShadow]

Hey there, brew crew

Seems like I've unwittingly wandered into brewer-bozo territory....

After kegging my beer last night, I pressured it up to 14psi & put it in the shed. As it was a cool night, I thought I'd let mother nature do the hard work with cold crashing....hence took my first step down stupid street

In my haste, I left the air pressure meter attached to the keg overnight, and upon taking it off today noticed that the needle is now rather conveniently stuck at 10psi

I've brought it in to warm up, and hope the needle will return to 0 once it reaches room temp.

My question is: is the pressure meter now totalled, or is there any way to try and 'aid' it back to its correct calibration?

Thats guys, and any flabbergasted emojis or comments most welcome!

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

Not sure I understand your question

Leaving the keg under pressure is exactly the right thing to do - even better, as you say, if it is cold

The meter at 10 psi - is that measuring the pressure in your keg or gas bottle?

Is your gas bottle still attached?

If not the pressure in the keg has dropped because some of the CO2 has been absorbed into the beer - which is what you want

If you bring it back up to room temp some of the gas will come out of the beer and the PSI will increase until you drink some

 

[Buffers brewery]

I over-pressured a 0-15 psi gauge. Took it out of it's case and gently "encouraged" the pointer back to zero (nearly). The pointer was just a press fit on the shaft.

Edit: I assumed you had over-pressured the gauge and it was showing 10 psi at atmospheric pressure

 

[SilverShadow]

Not sure I understand your question

Leaving the keg under pressure is exactly the right thing to do - even better, as you say, if it is cold

The meter at 10 psi - is that measuring the pressure in your keg or gas bottle?

Is your gas bottle still attached?

If not the pressure in the keg has dropped because some of the CO2 has been absorbed into the beer - which is what you want

If you bring it back up to room temp some of the gas will come out of the beer and the PSI will increase until you drink some

Hi there,

Sorry, I probably wasn't specific enough.

I've removed the air pressure meter from the keg (but left it pressured) and disconnected the gas.

Essentially the pressure meter is disconnected from everything, but reading 10psi

 

[SilverShadow]

I over-pressured a 0-15 psi gauge. Took it out of it's case and gently "encouraged" the pointer back to zero (nearly). The pointer was just a press fit on the shaft.

Edit: I assumed you had over-pressured the gauge and it was showing 10 psi at atmospheric pressure

I may have to give that a try

The gauge goes up to 30psi, but stuck at 10psi. When I disconnected it from everything the needle did move slightly, so maybe it needs the right amount of persuasion

 

[chrisb8]

Hi there,

Sorry, I probably wasn't specific enough.

I've removed the air pressure meter from the keg (but left it pressured) and disconnected the gas.

Essentially the pressure meter is disconnected from everything, but reading 10psi

Do you mean the guage on your gas regulator? The first one I had stuck on its first use and I had it replaced.

 

[SilverShadow]

Yes, gas regulator.

Sorry, had been a long day yesterday when I posted!

 

[chrisb8]

Sounds like what happened to mine
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/faulty-regulator.91948/

 

[xozzx]

So your regulator is showing 10psi when the quick connect is removed from the keg? If so you will still have pressure inside the liner from the regulator to the disconnect as the disconnect closes when removed. If you back off the regulator and pull the bleed ring it will drop back to 0, or if no bleed ring then remove the disconnect from the liner and it will release the CO2,

 

[xozzx]

If you post a couple of pics it might be easier to see what the issue is, likely it is easily fixed

 

[SilverShadow]

Sounds like what happened to mine
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/faulty-regulator.91948/

That's pretty much what's happened.

I've had a quick go with it this morning - reattached to the keg and added some C02

The needle moves just fine when adding C02, and returns back to 10psi after disconnecting. Seems like 10 is the new 0!

I can probably live with it tbh, but it's annoying as I'm not sure whether the calibration is now skewed & not measuring pressure properly

 

[SilverShadow]

If you post a couple of pics it might be easier to see what the issue is, likely it is easily fixed

Sorry, I should have added these earlier.

In this pic the C02 capsule is added, because I reconnected to the keg this morning, to see if the needle moved when increasing keg pressure (which it does)

However, regardless of whether C02 capsule is connected or not, you can see the needle is not setting back to 0

I guess I can just live with its 'new setting of 0', if need be

 

[peebee]

It has been over-stressed as @Buffers brewery suggested, whether you remember doing it or not. The gauges are naff and easily over-stressed (needle hitting the stops hard), or with loose indicator needles as @Buffers brewery said.

Dismantle cover and try (gently) to move needle back, or if you are really dab-handed try and bend the linkages to get the needle back (requires a steady hand ... or loads of determination 'cos "a steady hand" isn't how people describe me and I do it ... in a moment when I'm not just randomly falling over that is).


[EDIT: Just noticed, it's one of those really diddy little ones that you can't dismantle ... live with it!]

 

[SilverShadow]

Yeah, I think I'll just live with it. I just wasn't sure if there were any tricks/tips (other than trying to pull it apart) that might have worked


Thanks for the replies guys