Ball lock disconnects

EvanAltman36

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First of all, sorry for hijacking the board with all my questions lately. I've kegged my last 3 beers and I'm loving it so far. However, I had some issues with removing the plastic disconnects from the posts on my recently-emptied keg. I recall that it took a little more effort than usual to get them on in the first place, so it didn't really come as much of a surprise. But I actually broke them in the process of removing them. Could this just be an issue with the posts or the disconnects themselves? Any advice? The other times I've attached and detached the keg have been pretty smooth; a little elbow grease but nothing crazy.
 
Sometimes a fitting here or there is tight for me, but I've never broken the disconnector... Sounds like it is time to complain to your supplier. Doesn't sound normal at all to me.

+1 on switching to kegging
 
Thanks, I contacted them and they said they could supply me with new posts for the keg. I'm not at home so I don't know for sure who the manufacturer is, so I need to confirm that first. I have 3 kegs but have only used 2 of them; one has an integrated plastic gas in tube while the other has a separate metal gas tube. The latter is the get with the difficult posts. I know those things should be snug, but they were straight up locked on there and going nowhere.
 
I wonder if the wrong post was put on the gas side. (Is that possible? I've never tried) If it was incorrect sometimes it's hard to get the disconnect off the post. If it's particularly bad it might break it. I put mine on the wrong side occasionally and I've only had to take apart the ball lock disconnect once. Most of the time it was just hard to take off.
 
Are the posts/disconnects actually different? I mean, I know the colors are different, but I thought that was more about differentiating the in and out than anything. And both were equally difficult to remove, so I don't think it mattered much.
 
Look at the posts closely, they should be different. The posts usually have some kind of marking where the wrench goes to differentiate them in addition to the actual shape of the post. If you are having to fight with attaching a quick disconnect, try attaching the opposite quick disconnect and see if it is easier. That will tell you if the posts are backwards. If so, you'd have to vent the keg, and switch the posts.

I look at an existing keg just to make sure I've got it right whenever I keg a fresh batch. I also marked which is which with a sharpie just so I don't get it confused. Thinking back, I did get hung up on this a couple times. Would make a good blog post.
 
On all kegs (regardless of manufacturer), the gas in post has a groove where the wrench fits and is different from the beer out post. The only way to mix them up would be to cross-thread them, so just finger tight and then snug with the wrench. I think your post 'O' rings are bad and binding on the disconnects. Try swapping them out and always use keg lube (or vegetable oil) on the posts.
 
Cool, I'll take a look. Could be that I had them wrong or something. I guess my fear is that I'll jack them up again, but we'll see what happens. Thanks for the advice, it's pretty awesome to get on here and get answers. I'm sure a lot of you are shaking your heads at the questions I ask on here, which is why I appreciate the non-judgmental responses even more.
 
Hey, we've all been brewing beginners. The mission of this site is to make that much less painful.
 
In a stroke of awesomeness, I discovered that the "in" post does indeed have little notches, though they're almost unnoticeable. So I switched them and, voila!, the disconnects pop on and off like a glove. My other kegs have much more recognizable notches, which makes it much easier. Thanks again for the help!
 
Sorry I didn't see this earlier. I'd have been able to help.
I posted a keg cleaning tutorial here.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=807&p=5029&hilit=keg+cleaning#p5029
Sorry but I forgot to include that the Gas Post on Ball or Pin lock kegs will always have notches in them or have a 12 point nut design.
One other thing that is very helpful is to use a generous amount of Keg Lube on all of the rubber gaskets.
Hope this helps.
Brian
 
The Brew Mentor said:
Sorry I didn't see this earlier. I'd have been able to help.
I posted a keg cleaning tutorial here.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=807&p=5029&hilit=keg+cleaning#p5029
Sorry but I forgot to include that the Gas Post on Ball or Pin lock kegs will always have notches in them or have a 12 point nut design.
One other thing that is very helpful is to use a generous amount of Keg Lube on all of the rubber gaskets.
Hope this helps.
Brian

Excellent post, thanks!
 
Just an fyi... I got some colored o-rings so I wouldn't get confused about which was which and they swelled up from the keg lube. This made them very difficult to take off and had me questioning myself on in's and out's til I figured out what was going on. The standard black ones have never been a problem.
 

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