Toastkid
Active Member
- Joined
- May 9, 2020
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 5
Hi all. This is weird. Hopefully someone has some advice.
I got a regulator with gas line and ball lock disconnect all pre-attached, and seperately got a bottle cap carbonator. I attached it to a soda stream canister (the larger kind that has 425g of CO2) and was happily carbonating up my 2 litre beer bottles by using a add gas, disconnect, give it a good shake, add more gas, disconnect etc. I found that 5 lots of this was enough to carbonate a 2 litre bottle of homebrew, so that was all good.
Then, i thought i would try leaving it connected overnight, to save a lot of shaking. I left it connected at about 25-30 psi.
The next day, the needle had dropped to about 10 or 15psi, and when I opened the valve, nothing happened. "Oh ****, i've drained the canister" I thought. I assumed there was a leak or something and all the CO2 had escaped. What was weird was that the gas bottle weighed nearly as much as when i'd bought it - only about 50g less. A friend of mine has a different make of regulator, with a ball-lock connected directly (instead of via a hose like with mine) so I borrowed his, and everything was working again, with that other regulator. So, I just assumed that the first one had broken somehow.
But then, the plot thickens. I left my friend's connected overnight, and the next day the same thing had happened with his. The gas canister is still about 80% full though, going off weight.
I tried mine again today, and i think it is actually letting a slow trickle of gas through - i left the valve fully open for five minutes, not connected to the bottle-top carbonator (so just filling the hose up basically) and when I came back the pressure had risen to 40psi. When I connected it to the bottletop, a little bit of gas came in and then the needle dropped down to 10psi again.
I just did another experiment where I removed the ball lock, so gas was coming out the regulator into the hose, and then just venting into the air. I can hear a faint "pft" when the valve opens, and if I hold my thumb over the end of the hose then the pressure does build up, but only at the rate of about 1 psi per second. So, maybe it's just sort of jammed in a "letting a tiny bit of gas through" position. What I don't get is why the same thing would happen with both regulators after being left connected overnight. That's the really weird part.
Any ideas anyone? Anything I can try? thanks
I got a regulator with gas line and ball lock disconnect all pre-attached, and seperately got a bottle cap carbonator. I attached it to a soda stream canister (the larger kind that has 425g of CO2) and was happily carbonating up my 2 litre beer bottles by using a add gas, disconnect, give it a good shake, add more gas, disconnect etc. I found that 5 lots of this was enough to carbonate a 2 litre bottle of homebrew, so that was all good.
Then, i thought i would try leaving it connected overnight, to save a lot of shaking. I left it connected at about 25-30 psi.
The next day, the needle had dropped to about 10 or 15psi, and when I opened the valve, nothing happened. "Oh ****, i've drained the canister" I thought. I assumed there was a leak or something and all the CO2 had escaped. What was weird was that the gas bottle weighed nearly as much as when i'd bought it - only about 50g less. A friend of mine has a different make of regulator, with a ball-lock connected directly (instead of via a hose like with mine) so I borrowed his, and everything was working again, with that other regulator. So, I just assumed that the first one had broken somehow.
But then, the plot thickens. I left my friend's connected overnight, and the next day the same thing had happened with his. The gas canister is still about 80% full though, going off weight.
I tried mine again today, and i think it is actually letting a slow trickle of gas through - i left the valve fully open for five minutes, not connected to the bottle-top carbonator (so just filling the hose up basically) and when I came back the pressure had risen to 40psi. When I connected it to the bottletop, a little bit of gas came in and then the needle dropped down to 10psi again.
I just did another experiment where I removed the ball lock, so gas was coming out the regulator into the hose, and then just venting into the air. I can hear a faint "pft" when the valve opens, and if I hold my thumb over the end of the hose then the pressure does build up, but only at the rate of about 1 psi per second. So, maybe it's just sort of jammed in a "letting a tiny bit of gas through" position. What I don't get is why the same thing would happen with both regulators after being left connected overnight. That's the really weird part.
Any ideas anyone? Anything I can try? thanks
Last edited:
