Primary and Secondary CO2 regulators

[Otter]

I recently purchased some corny kegs on craigslist, and the guy threw in a couple of regulators with them. Two regulators were primary regulators with the tank attachment, and three were secondary. Unfortunately two of the three secondary regulators had cracked bodies. I was able to salvage one of the secondary regulators to use in my kegerator for dispensing at a different pressure.

My question is: Can I rig up the primary regulators to do the same thing? Can a primary regulator only be used when it's attached to a tank? Or can I put it in line with my secondary regulator inside the kegerator? FYI, The primary regs are left hand threaded at the high pressure, and right hand threaded at the low.

I already have a primary on my tank, and I run the gas line to a 2 way manifold inside my kegerator. I attached the secondary regulator to the manifold, and set it to a lower pressure than the primary. I just set the primary to the psi needed for the beer requiring the highest volume (usually my wheat beers).

I used to have a 2 keg kegerator, but have recently built a 5 keg kegerator and I would like to use the regulators.

[ziggy]

What do you mean by primary and secondary regulators?

[Mylo]

I have seen a 6' section of reinforced tubing with regulator fittings on both sides. It is designed so that you can put your primary regulator away from your tank - presumably inside your chest freezer. From there, you can 'T' off your primary - and go to another manifold, and the secondary regulator. A quick google search should get you in the right direction.


Mylo

[Stewbacca]

you can remove the nipple from the regulator on the high pressure side that attaches to the tank and install one of these. http://www.beveragefactory.com/draftbeer/regulator/component/1319070_threaded_nipple_left.shtml

Then it would be just like the other secondary you have... Ive never tried removing the nipple on the high pressure side though.. you may need an impact wrench to get it off...

Hope this helps..

EDIT: Also if you poke around in the beer regulator components section you will see the hose mylo was referring to

[Otter]

I already have a primary regulator attached to my CO2 tank.

I was looking at the regulator bodies and they say Minimum pressure of 500psi. If I attached these inline with the secondary regulator already in my kegerator (I found a left hand/right hand coupling) would it be enough pressure to crack the seal on these regulators?

I may just have to hook them up and see if they'll work. Otherwise, I'll just have a double primary regulator that I can sell to somebody.

[BigNastyBrew]

IF I'm reading your post right, I just watched a youtube video this morning about secondary regulators. The guys knows what he's talking about and he was specifically dealing with a kegerator with secondaries. He has a line coming off the primary regulator into the secondaries and recommends only 20-30 psi going to these secondaies. He had 3 secondaries daisy chained together for different pressures to the kegs.

I'm pretty sure it was this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhDrhsM4 ... re=related

But I can't watch it to verify because my internet at work sucks. If this is not what you're talking about then I just wasted a bunch of typing.

[Otter]

Thanks for the video. That's exactly what I'm doing, except that I have one secondary regulator and two primary regulators. So I'm trying to run a line from the primary regulator that is attached to my tank, to a bank of regulators inside my freezer. The regulators inside are one secondary and two primary regs.

My issue is the difference between primary and secondary regs. Will the primary regs operate at the same low pressure that secondary regs operate at?

[BigNastyBrew]

You're welcome.

Then someone else will have to chime in. I'm JUST now getting into kegging and forced carbonation. I was watching the video to get my keezer build down.