Balancing Keg Pressures

wolfie7873

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I've got a 4 keg system on a 4-way distributor. I usually keep it set at about 11psi for serving which seems to work well. The system is only four months old, and so I'm just now starting to rotate taps. I had three kegs on originally, and when I added the fourth, the line pressure seemed to increase. That is to say that without changing the dial on my regulator, the gauge read greater than 11, link closer to 15. I was able to vent and dial back in over the course a couple days. Now that I've swapped another keg, the same thing is happening only more dramatically. What I had set for 11 is now at 25 and making a mess of my partial kegs. I think I get the physics behind WHY, but WHAT protocol can I use to carb a new keg without mucking with the pressure in my partials?
 
some cheap regulators leak, also you will back feed pressure from a keg that has more than the bottle is set at so so I just bleed the lines regularly when unhooking an hooking anything, also when force carbing a keg always unhook the others, bleed the lines then hook back up

if you don't have separate regulator pressure gages which can run $200 for 4, you can buy a check valve that prevents back pressure

a trick for raising pressure hold the screw or handle pull the regulator relief valve while adjusting, do this a couple of times and it wont rise

question, do you have you co2 tank in the keezer or out?
 
The bottle is inside.

So if I understand you, you're saying, close off the valves to the partials and vent them. Then add the new keg to the system and open all the valves. Then vent the regulator valve while dialing in the pressure?
 
correct and yes pressure in the co2 bottle will increase if in a cold keezer so that could be your culprit, I took mine out and the raising pressure went away
 
Tried it last night and it worked like a charm. Thanks!

The CO2 bottle is inside because it's a fridge not a freezer and I didn't want to drill more holes than necessary. I plan to move to a chest freezer soon, and will consider moving the CO2 bottle outside. Makes it easier to read the gauge for sure.
 

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