Regulator Pressure Issues

[grahamotter]

Hi all,

First of all, thanks for answering all my previous questions. I don't think I ask questions which have already been answered if I'd researched but I believe my questions are usually quite unusual. This one is quite interesting (or so it is to me anyway!)

I have a 4 regulator set up:



My 1st reg (attached to the bottle) is set to 30psi. The first secondary reg is set to 10psi, the second secondary reg is 20 psi and the last is set as low as possible to push wine through some 3/8 line to the taps on my fridge (probably about 8 but without a guage I can't tell)

Recently I've had a leak which drained a whole 6.35kg CO2 bottle in a month!! I thought I'd found and fixed the leak by submerging each reg in water and connecting the gas (a little like finding where you have a puncture on a tyre)

My question is...

At 22:30 tonight I had the whole set up as pictured. I switched off my 1st reg (bottle mounted and so master reg) so that the lines would be filled with 30psi CO2 and believe would stay at 30 psi. I noticed that my 1st secondary reg was at 10psi, my 2nd secondary reg was, for the first 5 seconds, at 20 psi but then dropped to about 10 (and then further dropped to 8ish after about an hour). My last reg I can't tell what it's at.

I've submerged all my regs individually in water and attached the co2 and fixed all points which I thought were leaking by using a bit of ptfe and petroleum jelly, depending on the origin of the leak.

I've found that after 45-60 minutes my 2nd reg is displaying a lower pressure that what it was set as, even after the 1st 5 seconds it dropped further than what I expected it to drop to which was to 10psi. I expected it to drop from 20psi down to 10 (which it did after 5 seconds) but after about an hour it was down to about 8.

I'm confused with where my co2 is going. If the 1st (bottle mounted and so master reg) is at about 30psi, my 1st secondary reg is at 10psi (switched on) why does my 2nd secondary reg lose pressure (this one is switched off)? Like I have said I have submerged all regs and there appears to be no leaks. When the CO2 leaves my bottle mounted reg and into my 1st secondary is my 1st secondary drawing off the pressure it's set to before passing to the 2nd secondary or is the pressure set at the bottle mounted reg passed through all 3 via the pass through's? My 1st secondary doesn't lose any pressure

I hope this makes some sense to someone (I've had a couple of glasses of the amber nectar whilst trying to figure out where my co2 is going!! )

I tried soapy liquid on all the connectors too but nothing showed as a leak which is why i tried the 'push bike tyre pucture' identifier method.

If it sounds like a ridiculously small amount of loss I will be able to live with the loss as I've a 6kg bottle from Calor. In the past, until recent, I've had problems getting refills leading to lengthy waits for more co2 or problems with filling the bottles leading to trying to source a new bottle altogether (expensive). Now I just return to Calor and get a shiney new one!!

Thanks for the help in advance and sorry if this doesn't make sense. If anyone needs more clarity on my situation please ask and I will advise.

The beer still tastes 10x better than pub beer anyway, and a hell of a lot cheaper but I hate wasting something which could be avoided!!

Kind regards,

Graham

[grahamotter]

Just checked the regs this morning and all are showing 0psi. I've switched the master reg back on to refill the lines with pressure and the regs are reading 10 and 20 psi as they're set to. I've switched off each secondary reg so that there's no pressure going to the beer/wine.

Will check again around lunch time to see if I've lost pressure. If I have lost pressure there must still be a leak. As I've tested using submersion in water and can't find any is there another way to find a leak? I also tried soapy water but that dodn't show anything

[Jim]

What kind of fittings are those on the middle reg?

I think I'd be looking very carefully at the connections on the primary side, particular the runs between the secondary regs. If the leak is very slow, though, you'll be hard pushed to find it with the 'bubble' technique.

Have you tried using a brush and soapy water by the way? It's a lot easier than submerging things in water!

[grahamotter]

All the fittings are 3/8 push fit type. I'm not sure if the middle reg is John Guest fittings but 3/8 push fit all the same.

I'll give the soapy water with a brush trick a try. I used soapy water in a spray bottle before and it didn't show up anything. I've looked at the set up just now and both of the regs with display dials are showing 0psi so there must still be a leak somewhere.

Thanks for the help

[grahamotter]

Well I found my leak!!

On the 3rd reg (one on the left with no gauge) there was a leak around the line inlet. I found it by using a brush and very soapy water. The first time I tried the soapy water technique I used a spray bottle and my soapy water mixture must have been too dilute. I'm surprised I didn't pick it up by submerging in water but nevertheless I did pick it up by using the soap trick. All of the other connections had no movement when the soapy water was applied but this one I could easily see bubbles forming around the line inlet.

I've taken this reg off altogether and put a stopper in the end of the middle reg. So far (after 60 minutes) I have the same pressure as I did when I switched the primary gas on at the bottle mounted reg and then off again. Seems to be holding pressure. I guess I just need a new JG 3/8 reg adapter! Happy days!!

Thanks for the advice. It was going to drive me mad until I found it. I'm going to try to seal the dodgy JG reg connector before buyng a new one. If it doesn't work it'll just be a few quid for a new one.

Kind regards,

Graham

[Jim]

Glad you've got it sorted.