Try removing the non-return seal from the inside of the cap and blow through the valve from the outside. There should be no resistance. If you get resistance then the valve may be blocked, mashing you aren't getting much (or any) co2 into the barrel. Another symptom of this is can be that the outside of the co2 canister nozzle frosts up while injecting due to the co2 venting past the black o-ring to the outside air rather than going into the barrel.
Leaking Barrel Cap
- Thread starter Steeley
- Start date
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I did expect that to be honest. The seal not properly covering the hole made the gas leak dramatic but also take a look at my post a little further up the page showing how slack the rubber seal had become even on a new valve. A new pressure release rubber will, I think, solve the issue. You can buy replace seals - just google “S30 valve seals”, here’s one to get you started:
S30 Complete Valve Seal Set - Love Brewing
I must admit, I don’t seem to get that same noise you usually get when you put Co2 in the barrel, I will remove the non return seal and blow through the valve and see if I get any resistance, I won’t be able to try the Co2 again till tomorrow, I have run out of bulbs.
How do you know for sure its something to do with the cap?
I've had PB bodies split at thew seam as well as pinhole leaks on the body.
Have you tried soapy water testing which should isolate where your leak is?
Otherwise you are just lurching from one potential leak source to another.
I agree with @terrym , confirm where the leak(s) is/are. Soapy water spray is one way. I have a water butt I use. No water in the barrel, squirt of gas and stick it in the water butt (could use a bath if SWMBO will allow) to test the tap and almost full of water to test the cap. Whichever way you do it it’s better to identify where the leak is than taking educated guesses, even if they turn out to be right.
I have actually got the barrel about 2/3 full, pressurised it and sprayed the top part with soapy water, but I couldn’t see any bubbles either at the cap end or on the body, I carnt now see it being the tap and If it was, I would obviously see the leak, so my only option that I can see is to pressurise the barrel tomorrow, when I purchase some new bulbs and go over that barrel with a fine tooth comb
If you are losing internal pressure via a gas leak, sooner or later the PB internal pressure will balance with the outside world. And thereafter when you open the tap to dispense beer the head of beer inside the PB will allow you to draw off a small amount but in so doing a vacuum starts to be created within the PB. And there then comes a point where the internal PB and outside pressures must balance and so air is drawn into your PB through the tap, aka glugging. So if this happens it is not the tap that is faulty there is a leak path above the 'water line'.
And if you have glugged air into your PB through the beer several times trying to fix the leak, your beer is probably on its way to spoiling so I would get stuck in soonest before you lose the lot through oxidation.
That’s why I filled the barrel with water, I lost a full barrel a couple of weeks ago, so if I am right, this is what is happening, between the water line and top of the barrel there is a leak, either the cap, or the barrel itself and when I have pressurised the barrel I check the cap and barrel with soapy water and I should find the bleeder
