Primary and Secondary CO2 regulators

[Otter]

It looks like you can use them as secondary regs. I used a left-hand/right-hand threaded coupling to put the primaries in-line with the secondary. When I turned the CO2 on, I was able to set them to the pressures I needed for each of the kegs.

Now if I could just find another regulator, I could have one for each of my 5 taps.

[atomicpunk]

Otter - a follow up if you don't mind.

Your setup sounds like what I will be doing as well. It is easier to get my hands on used "primaries" but I want them in my "secondary" bank.

Do you have any pictures of your setup and the a link to the parts you used to connect them all by chance?

Thanks!

[11amas]

You could probably find a high pressure manifold from the tank (maybe with some rigid tubing?) and have several "primary" regulators on each branch. Then, you could even run a secondary from the one primary. Just an idea...never tried it.

[ajdelange]

Primary regulators are designed to work at a higher inlet pressure but, in the CO2 application, must regulate well at output pressures down to a couple of psig. Secondary regulators are designed to take an intermediate pressure down to serving pressure (a few psig). Thus you might expect that a primary regulator put into service as a secondary one might not work as well as a secondary regulator in terms of its ability to control pressure accurately. There is one way to find out. Hook the extra primary regulator up at the output of the main primary and see how good a job it does. If it works OK then keep it. Otherwise sell it on E-bay or give it to a brew buddy.

[11amas]

AJ, if you rig up a manifold on the high side, you would be dropping pressure for every branch you have in parallel, right? If you start off with a min. of 500psi and three branches you still have something like 167psi per branch. Wouldn't this be better for something looking for higher pressure than feeding it 10-30psi off of another primary?