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Author Topic: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase  (Read 16740 times)

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase
« Reply #15 on: November 05, 2010, 04:00:41 pm »
That sucks man.  :(

Since I prime and carbonate the beer in the keg now and just use the tank to push the beer my usage has gone way down. I filled my #5 tank back February and still have about 700psi in it.  ;D
Well, that's why I trade instead of fill :)
Tom Schmidlin

Offline jeffy

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Re: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase
« Reply #16 on: November 05, 2010, 04:05:43 pm »
That sucks man.  :(

Since I prime and carbonate the beer in the keg now and just use the tank to push the beer my usage has gone way down. I filled my #5 tank back February and still have about 700psi in it.  ;D
Well, that's why I trade instead of fill :)
Really the only reason to refill a tank is if you have a nice, clean, new, shiny tank that you're proud to own.  It's what's inside that counts.  I exchange mine at the local welding supply shop.  The fire extinguisher company near me was not a bargain because they had to send them out (probably to the welding supply place).
Jeff Gladish, Tampa (989.3, 175.1 Apparent Rennarian)
Homebrewing since 1990
AHA member since 1991, now a lifetime member
BJCP judge since 1995

Offline evandy

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Re: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase
« Reply #17 on: November 05, 2010, 05:04:54 pm »
Since I prime and carbonate the beer in the keg now and just use the tank to push the beer my usage has gone way down. I filled my #5 tank back February and still have about 700psi in it.  ;D

You do know that, like propane, the only real way to measure how full a CO2 tank is is to use a scale, right?  Like propane, that 5# (or whatever) tank has liquid CO2 in it.  The gas pressure will only vary with temperature until the liquid is gone.  Once the high-pressure needle starts to drop AT ALL, your tank is essentially empty.

Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase
« Reply #18 on: November 05, 2010, 06:10:19 pm »
I fill mine at the welder's supply by work. Used to go the a fire extinguisher shop. I avoid places like Matheson Tri-gas that require me to leave the tank overnight since the others will do it in a couple minutes while I wait and for cheaper.  ;)
You have places that will fill why you wait?  All of the places near me send them off to one of their other facilities to have them filled, so the wait is generally more than one day.   :-\

The fire safety place fills while I wait.  The first time I had a thick book.  Only got about 3 pages read and they came out with the tank.
Jeff Rankert
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Home-brewing, not just a hobby, it is a lifestyle!

Offline euge

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Re: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase
« Reply #19 on: November 05, 2010, 06:14:06 pm »
Since I prime and carbonate the beer in the keg now and just use the tank to push the beer my usage has gone way down. I filled my #5 tank back February and still have about 700psi in it.  ;D

You do know that, like propane, the only real way to measure how full a CO2 tank is is to use a scale, right?  Like propane, that 5# (or whatever) tank has liquid CO2 in it.  The gas pressure will only vary with temperature until the liquid is gone.  Once the high-pressure needle starts to drop AT ALL, your tank is essentially empty.

Yes. They weigh it out. I've seen it. I think ten+ months on a #5 tank is impressive at my consumption levels.  :D I used to do about 3 refills a year when everything was force-carbed. As far as the needle dropping YMMV. I have a saying: in the red- it's dead.


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Offline corkybstewart

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Re: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase
« Reply #20 on: November 05, 2010, 06:23:06 pm »
I get swap refills at the welding shop.  Sure the bottles are ugly but I've never had to pay for a hydrotest. 
I recommend getting the biggest bottle you can.  I pay $20 to fill a 50 pound tank delivered to my office.  Once my 20 pound tank goes dry(been 2 years now) I'll hook up the big one and probably die before it does.  20 pounds costs $12, 5 pounds costs $10 and my 2 pound traveling bottle costs $8.
Build a relationship with them and it pays off.  The welding shop didn't have a 5 pound tank swap one day so they gave me another 20 pounder.  Somebody left a 2 pounder there and never came back for it so they gave it to me since there's no market for a bottle that small
Life is wonderful in sunny White Signal New Mexico

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase
« Reply #21 on: November 05, 2010, 11:50:21 pm »
That's awesome corky.  The guys at the new welding place are getting to know me, they only opened in the last year or so.  I don't get in there too frequently since the tanks last so long, but they know I'm a brewer and we talk beer.  I need to take them some samples next time.   :)
Tom Schmidlin

Offline corkybstewart

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Re: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase
« Reply #22 on: November 06, 2010, 10:32:01 am »
Our company probably spends $50-75K annually with these guys.  But they're afraid of drinking my homebrew, one of the employees lives down the street from me and visited once but since he's a hard core Silver Bullet drinker my stout overwhelmed him after one sip.
Life is wonderful in sunny White Signal New Mexico

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase
« Reply #23 on: November 06, 2010, 01:58:29 pm »
Maybe you can serve them a glass of water with a drop or two of your stout added :)

The guys at my local place like good beer, they like to go to the local bottle shop/pub or one of the breweries after work.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline CASK1

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Re: Kegging and CO2 refills/purchase
« Reply #24 on: November 08, 2010, 11:20:27 am »
That sucks man.  :(

Since I prime and carbonate the beer in the keg now and just use the tank to push the beer my usage has gone way down. I filled my #5 tank back February and still have about 700psi in it.  ;D
FYI as long as there is any liquid CO2 in the tank, the tank pressure will not change. Once the gauge pressure begins to drop, you're "running on fumes". It may still last awhile, but there is NOT a gradual drop in tank pressure as CO2 is consumed from a full tank.