[beveragebob]

Maybe it could be a bad oring on the gas side of a keg? I've had that happen before. Check your Orings, keg lube them all if they look decent and check for pressure drops on the regulator system.

[enso]

The gas connectors on the keg would be a possibility if I had them hooked up...   

Okay, so I have not had time to rip the whole thing apart and rebuild.  I did make a pressure tester/bleed valve though.

It has me stumped.  What does this tell me?

http://flic.kr/p/8zhv8D
I opened the middle regulator with the pressure tester attached.  There was a slight discrepency in the pressures listed but I figure that was just different gauges.  I left it this way overnight.  Today I find that the test gauge gizmo is still reading about the same pressure, maybe a .5 unit drop.  The regulator itself, several unit drop.  The blue tap marks where the needle was t start with on the gauges.

What does this mean?

[tschmidlin]

I'm assuming gas could not flow backwards to the other gauge, either because of a one-way valve or because you shut off the valve?

I'm also assuming you shut off the gas at the tank?

Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks to me like you've narrowed it down to gas bleeding out of that center gauge.  I know rebuild kits are available, for example this one, but I have no idea how hard it is to rebuild a gauge.

[enso]

I did not shut it off at the tank but I did shut it off upstream from the bank of regulators.  I should say, I also did this same test to the first regulator in the series.  It too did the same thing.  Only it did not "bleed" quite as severely.

It seems strange to me that if the regulator is leaking that it would not also drain the pressure from the tester gauge.

[enso]

Well, I figured that part out anyway...

So the reason my tester was not losing pressure was that I forgot I had check valves installed on the outputs of the regulators.  I was reminded of that when I finally ripped the whole thing apart today.

Which leads me to believe the leak is almost certainly coming from the regulator bank.  Whether it is a regulator, or all of them, or just a connection is yet to be determined.

I will now test each regulator seperately.

Thanks for all the advice thus far.  Hopefully this will get resolved.

[tschmidlin]

Yeah, check valves, that's what I meant by "a one-way valve".  I have trouble coming up with the right words sometimes

Well, at least you've narrowed it down a bit.  Let us know how it goes.

[enso]

Yeah, check valves, that's what I meant by "a one-way valve".  I have trouble coming up with the right words sometimes

Well, at least you've narrowed it down a bit.  Let us know how it goes.

Oops.  Guess i missed that or it only registered subconsciously.  I would have come to my conclusion faster had I.  Yeah one way valve, check valve, same difference.

[enso]

Well first test is a fail.  I hooked up one of the secondary regulators alone with the pass through plugged and my pressure tester hooked up to the check valve outlet last night.  This morning both gauges were registering a drop in pressure!  I had sprayed all connections with soapy water and witnessed no bubbling.

I even used special gas teflon tape I found at the hardware store.  I had not seen that before.  It is thicker and less stretchy/flimsy with a slightly yellow tinge to it.  It is intended for use with propane, natural gas etc. so I figure it was good for this purpose.

AHHHH!!!!   

I am thinking I may and try opening up one of the secondary regulators today to see what I can see.  Never done that before so I may be sacrificing the regulator as it may get damaged...   

One other possibilty I am considering is that the gauges themselves are leaking?  As I was reassembling the secondaries (rewrapped the threads and put gauges, and fittings back on) one of the gauges got damaged somehow and is no reading 8 psi all the time.  I started another thread inquiring about gauges.

[enso]

At long last!  The leak source has been found!  It was not the regulators after all.  It was the cheap @ss ball valves I got from  morebeer have had problems with in the past.  Trouble is, I never saw any leaking from them despite dunking the entire junction under soapy water!  I just finally got frustrated and removed the T section they were a part of as a last ditch effort.  No more leaks.

Thanks everyone for your help along the way.  Man that was frustrating.

[tschmidlin]

Wow, what a pain!  Well, at least it's done.

Sorry about the hose problem too, man, it's almost enough to make someone want to stop having homebrew on tap . . . nah.