How to fix the manufacturers imperfections on a king keg neck

[Godsdog]

This is a simple guide to what is a a manufacturing imperfection on the sealing face of the king keg neck(high spots) to enable you to get an air tight seal
first find a piece of mdf or other nicely flat piece of wood a bit larger than the neck diameter
then find some fine sandpaper and glue it to the wood with no more nails or the like
put something flat and heavy on it until it drys
then either like in picture 4 very carefully upturn the barrel onto the sandpaper face and twist the barell left to right a few times.conversley you can do it with the barell upright and hold the sand paper block in your hands.after a few twists you will see the sealing face of the barell quite clearly and it will be around 3mm wide,this should fix the imperfection,i have fixed 3 upto now as it is a really common problem with akkS

 

[Dutto]

I had recently purchased one of these whetstone blocks from Lidl and used it to smooth off the top of the King Keg.

http://directtoolsales.co.uk/diamon...00-grit-600-grit-400-grit--200-grit-313-p.asp

I started with the coarse plate and finished with the very fine plate. It now seals perfectly with a tiny amount of Vaseline on the keg threads and a little "tweak" with a spanner when tightening. :thumb:

 

[Godsdog]

I had recently purchased one of these whetstone blocks from Lidl and used it to smooth off the top of the King Keg.

http://directtoolsales.co.uk/diamon...00-grit-600-grit-400-grit--200-grit-313-p.asp

I started with the coarse plate and finished with the very fine plate. It now seals perfectly with a tiny amount of Vaseline on the keg threads and a little "tweak" with a spanner when tightening. :thumb:

a tad expensive Dutto.....£18,unless you have other uses for it after :thumb:

 

[chewie]

The thing that pisses me of is that this is a common occurence yet they still charge £50.00 for these pieces of ****e, well done for the infofix but really people should be returning these for a refund or replacement that is up to the job instead of having to spend a few hours trying to fix them.

 

[GermLish]

I've got one from my LHBS, okay not so local as I had to drive to Brum, but wanted to see if the have good stuff.

Paid 30 Squids at brewgenie.co.uk for it and no issues.

 

[IainM]

Cheers for this. I had all but given up on king kegs.

 

[Bigjas]

It's funny, but I have never had an issue with the three King kegs I use. I also have a Youngs budget barrel that I use but has played up on occasion. I guess it's a bit of a lottery as to the quality of the keg regardless of the manufacturer.

Nice tip for flattening the top off though, thanks.

Jas

 

[Personal91]

Cheers for this. I had all but given up on king kegs.

I have 2 and am very happy with them ( seeing as they both have brew in them and keeping good carbonation )

 

[Dutto]

a tad expensive Dutto.....�£18,unless you have other uses for it after :thumb:

That's why I bought mine from Lidl for about £5! (I just used the link as an example.)

They have many uses other than tidying up KK tops and since buying them I haven't used a whetstone to sharpen anything. :thumb:

 

[Paddyg84]

Slightly off topic but how many bulbs of co2 should it take to charge a 5 gallon brew in a king keg? Any time I used mine it leaked away all the pressure so going to dust it off and try it again after seeing this fix.

 

[Graz]

Slightly off topic but how many bulbs of co2 should it take to charge a 5 gallon brew in a king keg? Any time I used mine it leaked away all the pressure so going to dust it off and try it again after seeing this fix.

What are you trying to achieve? If you dump a CO2 bulb into a full keg it will most likely over pressurise it as there is little head space and nowhere for the gas to go. You'll lose gas through the pressure relief valve until it drops below the opening pressure (~10 psi).

Most of use prime our beer so that it generates its own CO2 and this is then held by the keg, typically gets to around 7-8psi. We then serve the beer using the pressure that has been build up from priming. Once this drops away and the flow of beer reduces then add a bulb of CO2 (can be well over half the keg empty if pressure tight).

 

[Paddyg84]

What are you trying to achieve? If you dump a CO2 bulb into a full keg it will most likely over pressurise it as there is little head space and nowhere for the gas to go. You'll lose gas through the pressure relief valve until it drops below the opening pressure (~10 psi).

Most of use prime our beer so that it generates its own CO2 and this is then held by the keg, typically gets to around 7-8psi. We then serve the beer using the pressure that has been build up from priming. Once this drops away and the flow of beer reduces then add a bulb of CO2 (can be well over half the keg empty if pressure tight).

Ah right thanks for the advice. Def must have a go at kegging again. Used the keg once when I.first started but for put off by it not holding gas. Bottling is great once it's done but pain in ass doing it.
If you put the gas in when the keg is full does it not absorb into the beer?

 

[Paddyg84]

What I mean is if you don't prime the beer but simply charge with co2 does this just force the beer out rather than make it fizzy? Now I realise where I went wrong maybe by not priming it as well as not sorting out the seal.

 

[Godsdog]

it can be difficult to ascertain where the gas is escaping, from,spraying a soapy liquid around the cap bottom while gassed and upside down may help the diagnosis or putting the barrel upside down in a bathfull of water,if you are certain its through the cap thread rather than the S30 valve then the fix I posted is easy to apply

 

[Adam Wrighton]

Hi Godsdog

I realise that this post is a couple of years old now, but this is the exact problem that I’m experiencing with my King Keg. I bought mine about 6 months ago so it would seem that the manufacturer still hasn’t addressed this problem!

Regardless, I’m incredibly pleased to see that you’ve discovered a solution to this. Do you remember what grade of sandpaper you used?

Kind regards

Adam

 

[kelper]

I've fitted square section o-rings to mine and a Schrader valve. I half fill with water and pump them up with a car tyre pump for testing. Then I check the pressure over a day or two. It drops initially because the tyre pump heats the air but the pressure should be steady after 12 hours. This also enables me to see at what pressure the relief valve 'lifts' at. I put food-grade grease on the rubber seal and threads. I tighten by hand until the barrel starts to turn.

I got fed up of the 8g CO2 bulbs lifting the relief valve and wasting half the gas, so I now use 16g bulbs and a bicycle tyre inflator - with this you can add puffs of gas and stop if the relief lifts.

Something like this

 

[Adam Wrighton]

Thanks Kelper. Good idea with the car tire pump - that should save me a fortune as opposed to testing with CO2 capsules!

 

[OldPeculiar]

I'm with Kelper, square section 'O'ring - bought from Ballihoo. I didn't have an issue, also the thing only cost me the amount for the O'ring as got it from a mate.

 

[Buffers brewery]

I used a similar method with new King Kegs. I had a glass fridge shelf left over after I converted the fridge to my fermentation chamber. I used a sheet of fine wet and dry paper that I taped to the flat side of the (toughened) glass shelf using masking tape and inverting the keg gave it a couple of twists on the W&D and it resulted in a nice uniformly flat face.

 

[kelper]

One of my Schrader valves is leaking. I think this is due to soaking in a chlorine based sterilser. The Schraders from Ballihoo are cheap and nasty. I have ordered some made of stainless steel but will also use an oxi cleaner. Brass is rapidly attacked by chlorine and it also attacks rubber and other types of seal.