For many beer lovers, a kegerator system is one of their greatest investments for the home bar. The convenience of simply being able to pour a cold beer is great, until you face issues because you haven’t adequately maintained your system. In this post we will cover the basics on how to maintain a kegerator to ensure your beer keeps flowing.
How to maintain a kegerator beer lines
Frequently cleaning your beer lines will avoid needing to replace them prematurely. We recommend cleaning your lines after finishing a keg of beer. This can be quickly and easily done with our Carbonation Cleaning Kit. This is used by mixing your cleaner in a plastic bottle and securing the cleaning kit to the top of the bottle. We recommend StellarOxy or StellarSan. Place the liquid (black) disconnect on the top cap and the gas (grey) disconnect on the side cap. Pour from the tap, as you would a beer, until all the cleaning solution has run through the lines. Depending on how dirty the beer lines are, the cleaning solution can be left in the beer line for a couple of hours. Repeat this process with clean water to flush the lines until the cleaner and any residue is gone.
Maintaining kegerator disconnects
Disconnects secure to the keg posts. The liquid disconnect (black) can build up residual, sticky beer, which may cause issues with leaking and the disconnect not seating correctly. Therefore, rinsing the disconnects in a container of warm water will avoid this problem. There are ball bearings that can be heard rattling when the sleeve is pulled back on the disconnect and shaken. The absence of a rattle is an indication to clean the disconnects.
Maintaining keg posts
Keg posts require little attention, however, the o-rings benefit from the regular application of a food grade lubricant. The o-rings can be lubricated with every keg change. Check your o-rings regularly and replace them as they start to wear to reduce the risk of a liquid or gas leak.
These few maintenance tips can help to reduce larger problems occurring and ensure your beer keeps flowing, without issue.