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Has anyone ever seen a keg leak in the body of Chinese Kegs?

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  • Has anyone ever seen a keg leak in the body of Chinese Kegs?

    Today I saw something that I have never seen in my 14 years of professional brewing. We were filling kegs today and noticed that one was leaking through a pinhole leak half way down the side of the keg. It wasn't on the seam but right at the edge of the small flair in the middle of the body. The seam happens to be in the center of the flair. It happened to be one of the new PBST Chinese Kegs that we got about a year and a half ago.

    Has anyone seen this happen before in any keg? Has anyone had this problem with the Chinese Kegs that are being manufactured today? I hope this is a freak occurance and not something that I will see occurring on a regular basis.

  • #2
    A closer look at the hole show a hairline crack.

    A closer look at the hole reveals a hairline crack about 1/4 inch long and perpendicular to the seam.

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    • #3
      Re

      Had it happen to two Labatt kegs I bought used from Kegs.com a few years ago. Sometimes the mid weld fails. Call Frank Ma at PBST - I bet he will replace the keg.

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      • #4
        i have seen hairline cracks on chinese kegs before. Frank seems to always make good on this issue.

        I once had a newly purchased Franke keg show up with a tiny pin hole right next to the top spear port. pissed straight up in the air like a geyser when we filled it. Franke sent us a new one immediately. We returned it when we got the new one. great service.
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        • #5
          Happens regularly. Typically, you see pinholes at weld overruns, either where the handle is welded and the weld overran into the space, or on the center seam, where a weld overlapped and went too far. Occasionally (I've seen it twice) you will see a pinhole in the body of the keg, where there is no weld.

          If it's a crack, and not near the weld, examine the keg for signs of freezing or overpressurization. A good indicator is galling on the bottom of the spear retaining ring, or misshapen top/bottom. This is one of the reasons the guy washing the kegs has to be ON all the time, so that you can catch this stuff before it goes out!

          If you have newer chinese kegs, I urge you to find time to do visual inspections on every keg within the first year of life. Pinholing in the body of the keg indicates poor manufacturing process, and other indications can be rust spotting inside, gathers or wrinkles that grow over time, and eventually failure...often a large split that starts where an undiscovered pinhole was hiding.

          Oh, and a lot of European companies subcontract to Chinese manufacturers, so don't assume your kegs are from the UK because you bought them from a UK company....:-)

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