Cask breather troubleshooting

[Rmr9]

I have a cask breather I bought from RLBS a few months back and I noticed over the last couple days that my CO2 tank has been slowly emptying even when I’m not pulling pints. It seemed fine at first but not so much anymore. I’ve done the soapy water trick on all the connections and haven’t seen any bubbling so I’m thinking it’s the breather itself.

Is there an easy way to check the breather to see if there’s an issue?

 

[Honk]

I suspect its not the answer your looking for but my easy way to avoid CO2 leaking is to switch it off and disconnect when not in use.

 

[Rmr9]

Thanks Honk. I think that’s the best bet for now. I’ll definitely do that in the future. Trying to dig up some schematics on how to take one of these apart but it’s hard to find.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Thanks Honk. I think that’s the best bet for now. I’ll definitely do that in the future. Trying to dig up some schematics on how to take one of these apart but it’s hard to find.

Did you have any success with this? I am thinking of using a cask breather, but if they're no good, I may have to go down the lpg regulator route.

 

[Rmr9]

I decided to go the route of turning off the CO2 and closing the vent opening on the cask widge when I wasn’t drawing a pint. It worked, I didn’t lose an entire tank of CO2 this time and my best bitter was good for about 2 weeks. It’s a bit of a pain to have to turn it on and off each time but I got used to it.

 

[mentaldental]

I have had a similat problem with cask breathers. I normal disconnect the CO2 when not intending to dispense beer.

I discovered the other day that the valves on CO2 cylinders have a double seal. In other works the valve shouldn't leak if fully closed or fully open. If partially open the valve itself can leak.

 

[Rmr9]

Yeah, it’s a pain to open and close the CO2 whenever I want to pull a pint in my setup but it’s also better than emptying a full tank in a day or two. I was thinking about using the cask breather to limit oxygen uptake during cold crashing but the leak issue has me rethinking that approach.