Nothing coming out of tap (ball lock corny keg)

I recently got a 5 gallon ball lock corny keg, but am having nothing but trouble with it. I was originally getting nothing but foam coming out of it, so I upgraded the liquid line from 5 feet to 10 feet. After the conversion, I would get a lot of air pockets in the beer line, and eventually it just stopped flowing altogether.

I know that:

  • the keg has pressure (from pulling the relief valve)
  • The liquid line dip tube going into the keg is not clogged.
    • The poppet came loose once and beer went flying everywhere.
  • There don't seem to be any leaks anywhere in the setup.

####Edit 1

The poppet in the liquid post keeps falling out and will not stay up in the post, such as:

Could this be the problem?

Topic kegerator keg corny-keg homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

You MUST have the poppet in place. And it must be working properly.

There are two poppets that work together. One in the post on the keg as pictured AND there is also one inside the beverage line disconnect. It is usually a clear like plastic nub. Both poppets are spring loaded, and need to push on each other to create an open path for liquid to flow.

Because you are missing the poppet on the keg there is nothing to open the poppet in the beverage line connector.
(Also, faulty poppets due to failing springs or miss seated issues will partially open the poppets which can cause excessive foaming as well.)

1
answered at

Sounds like the dip tube and gas tube got reversed when it was rebuilt, or the tube is missing its oring. But then you would have gas comming out the faucet (not "nothing") and would hear bubbling from c02 going in through the dip tube.

If there is "nothing" comming out not even gas.

  • Clogged dip tube
  • Clogged nipple valve
  • Bad ball / pin lock (not depressing nipple valve)

How to fix, if ball lock

  1. Make sure gas (white) goes to nipple labled "in" and (black) goes to nipple labeled "out". White locks fit both in and out nipples, black only fits out.
  2. Remove ball locks.
  3. Release all pressure
  4. Sanitize top of keg and remove the out nipple. Remove the tube make sure it's the long one, clean and clear.
  5. Inspect the nipple valve, by plugging in into a disconnected black ball lock and run it under water, it should flow easily.
  6. Sanitize and reassemble.

Or it could be you broke the tap. If it's not a perlick, the ball lever may have broke. Allowing handle movment but not opening the slide valve.

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