Beer Engine and The Great Dictator!

[Oldspeckledgit]

A while back I bought two beer engines on the well known auction site. A good deal at £30 for the two.
One is a Hi Gene and the other DDG. I believe these are actually the same company, or rather were, as I think they ceased trading some while ago.
The DDG is your bog standard cylinder type which I have stripped down and thoroughly cleaned and appears to be working fine -might just have to replace a washer or two.
The Hi Gene one is a different kettle of fish altogether. It doesn't have a cylinder but a sort of pressurised thingy called a Dictator, which states on it that it contains oil under high pressure, and should not be opened.
It's linked to a small black box arrangement through which the beer is presumably pulled as the Dictator is opened and closed by the pump action. There is an inlet and an outlet on the little black box.
Problem is - it doesn't work - and I'm a little nervous about dismantling the whole thing in case I end up with the Great Dictator embedded in the garage wall ( or worse me!) with oil dripping from the ceiling. Anybody come across one of these and can impart any knowledge? Thanks

 

[BeerBloke]

It's not a beer engine I@m afraid. It's a fake one. In my neck of the woods they were/are very popular with GK.

They basically use a 'boink' pump (flojet) in the cellar and when you pull on the handle you open a valve allowing the pump to lift the beer up from the cellar.

You can get repair kits for them though.

Hope that helps.

 

[Hawks]

It's not a beer engine I@m afraid. It's a fake one. In my neck of the woods they were/are very popular with GK.

They basically use a 'boink' pump (flojet) in the cellar and when you pull on the handle you open a valve allowing the pump to lift the beer up from the cellar.

You can get repair kits for them though.

Hope that helps.

Cheeky bar stewards...

 

[Oldspeckledgit]

Cheers BeerBloke - that explains a lot.
I kept thinking to myself "how can that pull the beer through".
It didn't occur to me what it actually was.
Fortunately the other beer engine I bought with it is the real thing otherwise I would be feeling quite annoyed, not to say embarrassed at being conned.
Oh well - lesson learned.

 

[Hawks]

£30 is still pretty good, and you could maybe sell the other one ?