CO2 Leak: Help Please?

[BDP]

Hi all, great community you have here.

I have owned a home use beermeister for about a year now, have probably put about 15-20 quarter kegs in it thus far without a hitch on the same CO2 tank. Suddenly, today, I'm having a problem with the latest keg I picked up.

When I connected the keg, and turned the CO2 back on, I heard a loud, fast leak from the tank in back. CO2 is leaking like crazy from the threads between the dual-gauge regulator and the CO2 tank! I haven't touched this tank or the nut that connects them in a year, and it's been fine. I removed and retightened the connection as best I could with a wrench, SAME THING. My regulator is a Taprite with a built in washer, so I don't need one there.

When I disconnect the coupler from the keg, and place it in the open position, CO2 doesn't leak from the threads at the tank connection, and I do feel it coming out at the coupler. When I place the coupler in the up/closed position, CO2 again leaks from the tank at the threads (I do not recall it EVER doing this before, am I correct in assuming I should just hear no gas running while the coupler is disconnected and off?).

Finally, when I connect the coupler to the keg and lock it down, I turn on the CO2 again to be met with the loud, fast leak right where the tank connects to the regulator.

This is a very old looking CO2 tank my distributor gave me when I went in for the exchange, could it be a bad tank? Bad regulator? Help?

Does anyone know what is going wrong here?

Any suggestions would be most appreciated, I want to drink some of this beer! I'm baffled as I've done this 15 times before without a problem. What's suddenly going wrong here?

Thanks,

BDP

[Jughead]

Are you sure it is leaking from the regulator to tank threads? Have you put dish soap and water on it to verify from the bubbles that it is actually leaking out? If I hook up a flat keg to my regulator, and the regulator is set fairly high, it makes an awful racket that could be mistaken for a leak, until the pressure in the keg equalizes with the regulator.

[BDP]

Thanks for your reply.

There's no question. As soon as I turn the CO2 tank on, even slightly, I feel a rush of CO2 coming out right where threads meet tank. It's as if it's not getting a good seal there (if it were, I don't see how it would even be possible to leak).

However, what baffles me is that, when I open the coupler I do feel the CO2 making it all the way through. It doesn't leak at the threads then.

All signs point to the seal being bad where the CO2 tank meets the regulator. However, it's like the pressure building up inside the line gets so much that it looks for any way out, and the threads is where that happens.

I'm confused becuase I hadn't touched the tank or the regulator at all and it just started doing this out of the blue. I can't tighten that regulator to tank connection any tighter than it already is.

So what am I missing here? Any thoughts?

[Jughead]

Maybe try some teflon tape on the coupling?

Anyone else have any ideas? Any plumbers in the crowd?

[YamahaXS]

sounds strange.

don't know why this would start all of a sudden. I got the idea that you had not changed your tank, or touched the regulator at all before this started.

I would dissconnect the regulator from the tank, and visually inspect the both male and female threads of the coupling. Maybe some dirt or something is there that is causing this.

If I remember right, the regulator has seated o-ring or washer to form a seal between the end of the tank threads and the regulator. You said you had the washer. Remove it and inpect for cracks or just replace it to see if that fixes the problem. I can kind of imagine a hairline crack in the washer that expands when under pressure. Yeah....I bet this is the problem, if so, you owe me BEER! when can I come collect?

[BDP]

Hey guys, thanks for the help and suggestions!

The washer is sort of built into the regulator, so it wasn't something I could replace.

So I took some teflon tape as suggested and used a ton of elbow grease on the sucker, and lo and behold, leak stopped! I guess the regulator just came loose or got fussy or something. It's on there REALLY TIGHT now but hey, I have beer, so all is right in the world.

You guys rule. Thanks a lot for your help!!!!

BDP

[fretlessman71]

Just don't try putting something in your keg like Bud Light, ok? There are those here among us who have laughed people out of cyberspace for lesser offenses.... :D

Welcome to the boards!

[BDP]

Aha, never fear. ;)

I keep a great local wheat beer on tap from the Appalachian Brewing Company in Harrisburg, PA. You guys would LOVE it. It's fantastic.