Air in the beer line

[bamadws56]

After sitting for a while, I get bubbles in my beer line coming from the keg. It makes the first pour sort of cough once before the beer starts to flow, causing foam. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to make it stop?

[djc]

Your system is unbalanced, the pressure is too low for your temp. Look for the newbie / foam threads to explain it all.

[PointPleasantNJBeerguy]

Agree...Listen to djc. Common rookie issue.

[KillianBoy]

bamadws56,
Yup, what djc, said, BTW it isn't air, it's CO2, it breaks out of solution when your system is unbalanced, check out my thread:

http://www.micromatic.com/forum/us-en/trouble-shooting-beer-quality-home/9458-newbie-owners-1st-steps.html

If you still have problems, PSI, Beer (v/v), temperature, make model and mods made, thanks.
KB

[bamadws56]

thanks for the quick responses. i know it's CO2 and not air, i should have said bubbles in the beer line...lol. I've read the newbie link that you provided. I will be doing several of the upgrades mentioned in that one and other threads.. I have a Danby 645. I need to bypass the thrmostat, mine won't adjust. I am upgrading the fan and adding a blower for the tower. Great forum! Love all of the info!

[stn]

As several of us tried to tell another member, you need to make sure you understand balancing before you run off and make a bunch of mods. No fans, tower coolers or other tweaks are going to help you if you don't understand the relationship between v/v, beer temp and psi.

[KillianBoy]

bamadws56,
Again yup, what stn says, sometimes a too powerful tower cooler, improperly made, can cause more problems than it solves, with your unit all it will solve is 1st glass foam, the internal fan should circulate air enough for government work.
The only mod that will help without much work is to go longer beer line, thermostat should go up and down when adjusting, from what I remember the lowest temperature you can go is 36 degrees, try up and if it goes up than it can be adjusted, just that it kinda gets stuck at 36.
Is it used or new?
Sorry about correction about "air", I didn't want any confusion regarding what gas is in beer line, by saying "air", I'm not sure if you thought it might be a leak of some kind.
Look through Danby sticky on ways to bypass, some members have found they could get the beer down to 38 without mods, but the first I would do, besides going longer beer line, is the resistor trick, easy and cheap.
KB

[bamadws56]

As several of us tried to tell another member, you need to make sure you understand balancing before you run off and make a bunch of mods. No fans, tower coolers or other tweaks are going to help you if you don't understand the relationship between v/v, beer temp and psi.

Yep, got it. My Danby is second hand and the thermostat is broken. The beer reads at almost 50 degrees. I hadn't read about bubbles in the beer line yet. But now that I know it all relates to balancing, no more issues. If I have more trouble getting my system balanced I will post again: thanks for the info!

[KillianBoy]

bamadws56,
You have one of the most troublesome units, a used Danby, any Danby will take work to get running right and as being used you don't know the usage and abuse unit had. So real quick and to hurry things along, just in case you don't have the instructions, this is how to adjust the thermostat:

Press either ARROW UP or ARROW DOWN ONCE and RELEASE. The LED display will begin to flash and show the previous temperature setting – signifying the temperature is ready to be adjusted.

Each depression ARROW UP or ARROW DOWN will increase or decrease the temperature incrementally by 1 degree (F/C) until the desired setting is reached the temperature can be set between 36-46 degrees.

Note: the display will flash for 5 seconds from the time the last button was activated before resuming display of the internal temperature of the cabinet.

OK, if you did this I'm sorry, if you did this and set temperature at 36 degrees and beer temperature is actually 50 degrees, I don't think your problem will be solved by modifications, it might be a refrigeration problem.
KB

[bamadws56]

I did this but it won't adjust at all. It sits on the factory setting of 41 and won't change no matter what. Actual beer temp is around 47 degrees. I have to get a better thermometer to get a no BS temperature. Once I get that I will re-consult the v/v charts to get everything squared away.

[KillianBoy]

bamadws56,
Balancing and v/v charts will be meaningless until you get the temperature of unit down, if the digital display won't flash at all, something is wrong with control board or display. Try and unplug unit for a 15-30 seconds, then plug back in and see if unit resets, if you still can't get the display to flash and/or adjust, you may have to bypass board. Before attempting to bypass, make sure the compressor shuts off, if the unit cycles on and off, it might be worth it to bypass, if the unit doesn't turn off and beer won't get colder, something is wrong with refrigeration.
KB