Problems With Kegerator (or the parts)

Archibald

Archibald

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I tapped a couple of sixlets a week or so back and things went well. Then the flow became a trickle and eventually stopped completely. It was suggested I froze the beer, so I turned the fridge off and left the door open for 24 hours. I poured a beer about 16 hours later and got a less than optimal flow that graduated retreated until it was gone entirely again. If I slosh the keg around I can hear beer sloshing. I would think, even with the temp now set to the absolute minimum, that the beer is not frozen. Or that at least the beer that was thawed would be really cold sitting in an ice box. But not the case.

I am about 99% confident the beer is no longer frozen. The psi needle had been set at 12psi. Both taps produce no beer. I just cranked the regulator up so the gauge reads 35. Still nothing so I decided to wait and maybe it needs time to build up pressure.

Any other ideas/pointers? The beer in the kegs (by my standards) is excellent and I'm tired of buying beer when I should have 10 gallons waiting to please my tongue, belly and head. :D
 
Is this homebrew in the kegs? Did you pick up sludge and maybe hop matter when racking to the kegs? You leaving the gas on to your kegs?
 
It is homebrew. The first glasses poured had sediment but then ran "clear." I inspected the beer lines and they don't look clogged or mucked up. I have a portable ball lock tap I put on one of the sixlets and it poured a little better, then ran dry like the "normal" taps.
 
My guess is crud stuck in the ball lock. Those poppet valves have a way of catching crud and getting clogged.
 
I have frozen the lines, but never the keg contents. So I'm now in the habit of keeping the lines well away from the cooling panel at the back of the kegerator. When I did freeze them I could sort of get them going again by gently bending them back and forth and I'd always hear the ice cracking as I did it.

Now that I'm doing that I'm mainly hitting the crud in the disconnects problem mentioned above. Even on beers I wouldn't have expected to have a problem.
 
Pardon my ignorance but how does one clean this crud away when there is beer in the kegs?
 
Archibald said:
Pardon my ignorance but how does one clean this crud away when there is beer in the kegs?
Click to expand...
You’ll risk oxidation the way I do it, but then again it’s only for hoppy beers that need to be consumed relatively quickly before the hops fade, and that’s to do as follows:

- Disconnect gas line from the keg
- De-gas the keg via blowoff
- Remove the beer side poppet
- Clean the poppet and spring
- Reverse the process (put it back together) and try again.

Because the gas line will fit on the beer post, you can give that a try in hopes of dislodging the clog but when I do this, it typically clogs right back after a beer filling if I’m lucky.
 
When I pull the piece to release the c02, it was the faintest whisper. Which I assume means I'm not getting co2 into the kegs anymore for some reason. I suppose I could bypass the little piece that splits the gas off to two kegs and just tape one direct for the time being to figure out what's jacked up. I turned the co2 tank off and it whistled a bit coming off the regulator and I've only poured maybe 20 glasses or so off a full 5 gallon tank so I assume I didn't mysteriously run out of it. When I turned everything back on the gauges rose and the psi set where I wanted.

If I knew it was going to be this irritating I would have just bottled again. :D
 
Now it sounds like the regulator. Is this a brand new rig?
 
Oh I'm glad I chimed in now! Awesome stuff Archibald you bloody legend made my day. And it feels like something I would do :D.
 
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