Beer Forum

I recently purchased some cleaned and pressure-tested ball lock kegs from CHI. I also purchased a kit to replace the O-ring set and poppet valves on each keg. The kegs arrived a couple of months ago and I haven't had time to do anything with them until this weekend.

I used the pressure relief valve on each keg lid to vent the pressure from each one - there was a lot of pressure in each keg, and that pressure had held for a couple of months. I pulled the dip tube out of each one and used a tubing cutter to cut about 1.5" off the end of each dip tube, then replaced each dip tube in the keg it had come from. I was pleased with myself for successfully completing the first thing I wanted to do with each of my kegs.

Then I got to thinking - the kegs held pressure, the O-rings didn't have weird soda aromas, and obviously the poppets hadn't leaked. Should I just leave well enough alone, clean and sanitize, and put beer in these bad boys? (After figuring out where the hell to put the keg lube, of course. On the lid O-ring?) Or should I replace the O-rings and poppets while I'm thinking about it? I'm leaning toward not doing anything because (1) I'm lazy, and (2) I can't screw anything up that way. What does the Army think?

I would replace the o-rings...not the valves though...

Agreed. Poppets should be fine.

Yep. Replace the O-rings and save the new poppets for when the old ones fail. They will eventually, but it could be a while. It took 3 years for my first poppet leak, and it's good to have replacements on hand when they do, trust me.

Thank you, gentlemen! This shouldn't be a difficult job.

Where exactly does the keg lube go? Is that just on the O-ring around the lid? Or all of the O-rings?

I use it on all of the o-rings, including the large one on the lid.