[Pinski]

Greetings,
So I'm in the process of building up a Holiday 7CF Keezer.  I believe I'll be able to stuff 5 corny kegs and a 5 lb CO2 tank inside the Keezer without much trouble.  I'm trying to decide if I will be better served by adding a secondary regulator to the CO2 manifold to isolate 4 of the valves at service pressure and having one that is adjustable for carbonating.  OR; would it make more sense to  run all 5 Keezer lines at service pressure and just buy a second 5lb CO2 tank and standard regulator so that I can carbonate, clean corny lines, apply CO2 "covers" to racking carboys, etc. without having to continually open the keezer lid.  Any thoughts or examples of successful similar configurations would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers!

[tygo]

I just set up my kegging rig about a week ago so I'm about where you are in terms of experience in kegging.

I can get five kegs and a 20 lb tank into my 14.8 CF chest freezer.  I'm thinking you may be overly optimistic in thinking you can get five kegs and a 5 lb tank into a 7 CF one.

If you want to have kegs at two different pressures I recommend getting a dual primary regulator.  This is the one I have.  So far so good as far as I'm concerned.

I also have a three-way distributor which I haven't hooked up yet.  When I do I'll be able to have four kegs on the gas at the same time, one at one pressure and three at another.

[gsandel]

if money is no object, buy another tank, but otherwise, 4 on tap isn't so bad.  I have a 7cf with a collar and can fit 3 cornys and a 5 gallon sanke (which is slightly bigger) with room to spare, but not enough for 5.  I don't own 5 cornys to test if I would have enough room for them without the sanke 1/6th barrel.  My collar isn't wide enough for the 5th keg on the hump.  My tank is 20# so, it doesn't even fit on the hump, so I drilled through the collar.

good luck.

[tubercle]

5 kegs + 5 lbs CO2 = a lot of trips to refill.

Trade it for a 20 lb and store it out side the box if necessary.

[Pinski]

Thanks for the picture. Goes along the line of what the supply guy was recommending only his suggestion was to attach a secondary regulator to the distribution manifold in between the first and remaining four valves.  I think eventually I'll do this but for now the keezer is still a work in progress and I have yet to add the collar and fix the hardware. Still developing the vision I guess. Hoping that the beers I'm currently producing will all serve adequately at about 10PSI.  I'm new to kegging but from my first effort it sure seems like having an auxiliary CO2 tank not attached to the dispensing system with dual valves; one line having an in/out line connector attached for corny servicing and another with just a hose to add gas to carboys/kegs when transferring, would be pretty darn useful.  Am I envisioning this correctly? That the way to create a CO2 "seal" above the siphoned beer is to add CO2 for a few seconds into a carboy or keg through an open ended gas line?

[Mark G]

There's many different ways to go about it. I carb my beers at serving pressure, so don't have a separate regulator for that. The way my set-up works is, I have a 20 lb tank, outside my 7.2 cu ft chest freezer (with a collar). I have two regulators attached to that, because I like having the option to have two different levels of carbonation available for my beers. The two lines run through the collar into the freezer to a 4-way and a 3-way manifold. I can fit 6 kegs in my freezer. The extra line has a ball-lock disconnect attached by a flare fitting. That way I can use it to seal corny's or take the disconnect off and purge carboys, etc.

[corkybstewart]

I put a quick disconnect on my gas line(tank is outside) so I could use it for purging and other processes.  it worked great(don't know where or when it went) and kept me from having to open it when I just needed the gas.  But somehow I've accumulated a bunch of CO2 tanks and have one dedicated for pushing/purging.  I would strongly recommend 2 things:  at least one 20# primary tank and at least a 5# backup tank.  I can get 1.5-2 years out of my 20 pound tank and I have 6 cornies on tap, but you cannot tell ahead of time when it will run out without weighing it.

[maxieboy]

+1 on 2 CO2 tanks. The bigger one to run the kegerator and a 5# for cellar duties. For even more convenience; a regulator for each. The 5# can be used for temporary backup in case the big one kicks early Friday night!

[Pinski]

+2
Yup, I'm going with the 20 pounder and another regulator. (immediately after work)  I'll move the 5# out for chores and backup.  It may be that I'll install a secondary regulator in the keezer down the road so that I can vary the service pressure in a few lines.  The next big step is developing the design for the keezer buildup.  I've seen some AWESOME concepts from fellow members lately. Frankly it can be a little overwhelming because there are so many great options.  S'pose there are worse troubles if that's all I have to worry about at 3:45 on a Friday.

CHEERS!