kegerator problems - cleaning and height of coupler

[Stefan A]

Tonight I needed to change kegs in my Summit kegerator. So, after removing the old keg, I decided to clean the beer line using the cleaning kit that came with the kegerator. I followed the directions that came with it. I filled a bucket with a gallon of water and a tablespoon of cleaner. Then filled the small bottle with the solution and attached it to the tower. Placed beer line still attached to the coupler into the gallon with remaining solution. Proceded to pour. Solution leaked out of container and from the connection at the tower. Then water stopped going through. So I tried opening and closing the coupler. Nothing. So I just removed the beer line from the coupler and water went through. Meanwhile, solution is getting all over me and my wife is holding a towel under the tower. A complete mess. The plastic container where you pour the solution is complete junk - the lid won't even tighten. As soon as you try to tighten it, it strips. So you can't get a good seal. Are there better cleaning kits? Did they just give me bottom of the line junk?

The other issue is that the "A" coupler for my paulaner is pressed against the top of the kegerator. I had to remove the keg from the kegerator to tap it. I got it back in, but the beer line is pressed against the top of the kegerator. It is not folded or kinked , but it's a tight squeeze. Is this OK?

Thanks,
Stefan

[danno]

are you trying to connect a Euro coupler to the cleaning bottle? could be that the bottle is only sized for an american sankey...

if your line isn't kinked or folded like you say, there shouldn't be a problem, but any pressing could change the restriction which will upset the balance of your system. if it's thick walled tubing of 3/16" line, you may be OK, the only way to really find out is to see how the beer is coming out...

good luck...

[brian92]

To get water/cleaning solution to flow from the tower through the coupler, you will need to stop the backflow preventor on the coupler. It's the little white ball inside. I just put the cleaning brush up the coupler to move the ball up. Once you get the solution flowing, remove the cleaning brush to trap the solution in the line. Leave it for 15 minutes, then put the brush back in the coupler and flush with a few rounds of fresh water. Also, if you have the coupler submerged in a bucket of solution, there is no way you will get the cleaning solution to flow from the tower and out the coupler since you've created a vacuum. If you need to submerg the coupler, do it during the 15 minutes when you are soaking the beer line. This is a good time to soak your facuet parts as well. Finally, I'm not sure why you would get any leaking where you mount the cleaning bottle to the tower. That should be tight and sealed when you connect the bottle to the tower.

For tapping the keg, you might want to get an elbow that connects to your coupler if you are worried about kinking. There are a couple of options.

http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/fittings-pid-BE-213-3.html
http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/fittings-pid-FT872.html