Leaky Plastic Pressure Barrels

[terrym]

Plastic PBs, they have been about for years, Beerspheres, Boots (both now gone), budget PBs and currently King Kegs and Wilko. There will be others. However, you love them or you don’t. They are relatively easy to clean and keep fresh especially with a 4” cap, they cut out all the fiddling about at packaging time compared to bottles, there is less waste beer compared to bottles (ever worked out how much yeasty beer is left in a bottle after pouring out the clear stuff multiplied by 40), they are more space efficient than lots of bottles, and for some lower carbed beers they are ideal, in my case stouts. BUT they leak. It’s either gaskets or fittings, which can usually be fixed or better leak prevented in the first place, or worse they FAIL.

I’ve had four new and one gifted 30+ years old PBs in the last 3 /4 years and I’m now down to two, even though I do my best to look after them, especially by not over-pressurising.

The old one lasted a couple of brews then developed a leak in the body. Scrapped.

And of the other two that failed, one had a crack down the seam, and the other firstly a leak on the seam at the neck (which I fixed internally with silicone sealant) and then a pin hole in the body. (although Youngs did replace it for me). Both effectively scrapped.

And yesterday I found that the cap on one of the remaining two PBs had cracked in service and that allowed CO2 to leak since the cap couldn’t pull down properly on the gasket. Fortunately I keep spares.

So in my case just about everything that could leak has leaked, and could fail has failed, and I wondered how others got on with their PB, or not.

 

[Dutto]

Over the years I have had to:

• Replace the Pressure Relief Rubbers.
• Replace the Non-Return Rubbers.
• Replace the CO2 Injector Point.
• File the top flat on all four PB's (2 x 10L and 2 x 25L).
• Add Vaseline to all threads and "O" rings.
• Replaced all four bottom taps at least once.
• Replace the plastic CO2 Holders with a metal one.

They can be a problem, but I still use them.

As funds become available, I am moving over to 10 litre Growlers; mainly because I find the flexibility of using 10 litre Growlers (and 10 litre PB's) stops me getting bored of drinking 25 litres of a brew.

 

[foxbat]

My one KK lasted about 3 years before the cap seal stopped working. Even a new cap didn't fix it so I cut my losses and went 100% bottling.

That lasted for a very long time until I discovered corny kegs and will never go back. Anyone suffering from PB woes and not wanting the bottling hassle should try it. A corny can be batch primed with sugar just like a KK if force carb is a no-no for anyone.

 

[Sambill]

I've recently moved to cornys but you can seal a king keg nicely. The trick it to sand the rim of the keg dead flat so it sits evenly against the rubber seal. The moulding is really bad on a lot of them, I held my king keg at about 12 psi nicely the last time i had cider in it, the loss was barely noticeable and was presumably mainly being dissolved into the cider.

Cornys are the way forward, it's just a shame to bin the kegs if they can be fixed.