Keggers: Watch your seals

[Ian...]

Hi Folks
Just a tip for anyone who kegs their beer (I do a mix of keg and bottles). I have lost carbonation in two kegs so I re-injected CO2 and did the old soap test which revealed the seal in the screw-caps were not compressing, in fact they were really hard. I re-primed the kegs and soaked the seals in warm water for a few minutes until they regained their flexibility and put the caps back on the kegs. I injected some CO2, did the soap test and they are fine. These kegs are only 5 months old, so I reckon this is down to the really low temperatures in my garage... around 2 degrees C. I will get a couple of sets of spare seals ASAP but I will also ensure that the top of the keg is covered in a towel or something just to keep the temperature up a degree or so.
Cheers

Ian

 

[BigYin]

take it these are king kegs or another brand of plastic barrel?

Certainly the low temps can affect rubber o rings, but I thought the ones on the newer king kegs were actually silicon rather than rubber??

 

[Ian...]

Yes plastic barrels (not the really cheapy ones), not King Kegs. I can't say exactly what the 'o' rings are made of, but they did get quite hard in these temperatures, not brittle-hard, but they did lose their compression properties.

 

[BigYin]

can you move the barrels somewhere a tiny bit warmer?? Maybe when you do come to replace the seals you could look for suitable silicon ones and they should cope better in low temps :thumb:

 

[winelight]

I think NASA can confirm O rings perform badly in cold conditions...

 

[kev]

Lol.

K

 

[Ian...]

can you move the barrels somewhere a tiny bit warmer?? Maybe when you do come to replace the seals you could look for suitable silicon ones and they should cope better in low temps :thumb:

Unfortunately no. The garage is my domain, the rest of the property belongs to SWMBO, I think I just lodge there really :lol: Mind you, she does enjoy drinking the stuff though