king keg failures

[gunner]

Hi all,
I started all grain brewing about 3 years ago, during this time i have bought 5 king keg bottom tap barrels. I had one split after about 18 months use, on close examination, where the barrel had split there appeared to be an indentation where the plastic was very thin, as i hadn't sent off the warranty card I put this down to experience. Imagine my horror when i got home this evening to find the newest of my barrels was leaking, I haven't had chance to examine it properly yet but it seems to be from an area on the base where it sits( I'm just sterilising a spare keg now so I can transfer the contents of the leaking one). This seems a very high failure rate (2 out of 5 or to put it another way a 40% failure rate) they haven't been dropped or knocked about. Just wondering wether anyone else has had problems with these King Kegs or have I just been unlucky

regards

gunner

 

[Runwell-Steve]

I had 2 king kegs, they both split at the base.

 

[gunner]

just an update there appears to be a small speck of material embedded in the plastic where the leak was coming from which i presume goes through to the inside of the barrel, not very happy about this!!!

 

[ricardo]

Bad luck with the kegs mate.
I would be having serious words with whoever supplied them ASAP.
Hope you manage to resue your brews.

 

[Runwell-Steve]

Does you crack in your keg look like this one.

This seems quite common.

 

[ricardo]

My crack looks nothing like this..........
:lol: :lol:

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

mine does. looks like i now have a scrap king keg and loads of redneck ale at 5.6% to drink pronto

 

[gunner]

Hi Runwell Steve,
the crack in your photo looks like the crack on my first barrel failure, on my keg this was set into a depression so the thickness of the plastic was less than for the rest of the barrel, so I guess this was a fault in the moulding process (?) The second failure was caused by a partcle of foreign material embedded in the plastic, i'm not sure what this particle is made of, possibly metal? judging by other comments posted so far, is there a better make of barrel anyone can recommend?

gunner

 

[Runwell-Steve]

I got on best with the budget barrels when I was using plastic kegs.

I have switched over to shiny Cornelius kegs now, they are marvellous.

 

[BrewDan]

+1 for the cornie kegs as Steve said. I used a king keg prior to getting cornies, I think I have been lucky enough not to have a problem with it though. I think my friends use the budget ones from wilko without a hitch

 

[RobWalker]

+1 for cheapos, nothing gone wrong yet fingers crossed! My dad also has a 20 year old spherical keg which still works a treat :-)