Bought used tap tower. It's filled with spray foam insulation. Need to replace lines.

[pricelessbrewing]

So bought a used kegerator. Have no c02 tank. New lines, kegs, disconnects. Old regulator and tap towers.

Need to replace all the lines, but found out the tap towers are filled with spray foam. How exactly can I remove this foam so I can detach the the faucets and replace the lines with clean ones?

Tried scraping it away but that's not going to work, it's throughout the entire tap tower.

Acetone maybe?

I mean once I can cut/detach the hose lines off the faucets I should just be able to push the old lines out. However getting to that point has proven difficult.

Help please.

[psychodad]

I don't know if this will work, but you can buy spray brake cleaner at Walmart, Auto Zone, etc.. I would suspect it will not only dissolve the insulation, but the old beer lines as well. Additionally it shouldn't harm the tower metal.

Again, I've not tried this, just pretty sure it would do it. Try at your own risk.

[pricelessbrewing]

That sounds wonderful. I have a bit of the foam sitting in some glass jars, one with starsan, one with acetone, and one with alcohol. We'll see if any of those work. If not I'll go pick up some spray brake cleaner.

[KillianBoy]

pricelessbrewing,
If you can get the shank off tower, the tower off unit, all you need is a long knife to cut insulation off tower and slide entire mess out of tower. Cut beer line at shank, get a 1 inch box wrench, the shank should come off easily (make sure faucet is on shank).
I hope you got it cheap, the ONLY reason I would buy a used kegerator is that it came WITH a CO2 tank.
KB

[pricelessbrewing]

It did come with one, and it was cheap, but the c02 tank can no longer be filled or exchanged as it has a rounded bottom and noone near me will fill a tank of that type.

[KillianBoy]

pricelessbrewing,
Sounds like a paintball tank, if it still has the anti-siphon tube you might still use it, check with paintball stores and check with them which way should be up.
There were a member that uses such a bottle for a party dispensing unit.
KB

[PointPleasantNJBeerguy]

For the amount of work to get that foam out of there it would be easier just to buy a new tower..Plus you will have new line, faucet, shank, and fittings.No worn exposed brass fittings..
If its the older 2 1/2" column. Micromatic has the whole thing for $51.00 in chrome plated. Or s/s tower for $81
Chrome Tower Link

[pricelessbrewing]

Got 2 dual tap towers with faucets for $20 each. Worth some time investment to try and make it work. Pretty sure new ones are like 100+? Even if I have to replace all the fittings it's still a significant savings for me.

Even better would be if i can just dissolve all the foam and sell the other one cleaned up and ready to go with new fittings and stuff.

[KillianBoy]

pricelessbrewing,
If this is standard spray insulation, you really don't need to dissolve, mount tower to scrap wood, clamp to worktable. best to remove the shanks from tower and use knife to cut insulation from tower, you probably will have to remove shanks anyway, if you don't want to remove shanks, attack foam from bottom, use a long screwdriver to break adhesion to sides. If after breaking attachment it still won't slide out, you can pour a little acetone down channel you made, this should break adhesion and whole mess should slide out whole. Trying to melt the hole mess is overkill, just got to cut as much out with sharp tools and use chemicals to break adhesion to tower.
KB

[pricelessbrewing]

pricelessbrewing,
If this is standard spray insulation, you really don't need to dissolve, mount tower to scrap wood, clamp to worktable. best to remove the shanks from tower and use knife to cut insulation from tower, you probably will have to remove shanks anyway, if you don't want to remove shanks, attack foam from bottom, use a long screwdriver to break adhesion to sides. If after breaking attachment it still won't slide out, you can pour a little acetone down channel you made, this should break adhesion and whole mess should slide out whole. Trying to melt the hole mess is overkill, just got to cut as much out with sharp tools and use chemicals to break adhesion to tower.
KB

Good suggestion. I'll give it a shot. I'll upload a couple pics once I get home.

[THE ICEMAN]

pricelessbrewing,
If this is standard spray insulation, you really don't need to dissolve, mount tower to scrap wood, clamp to worktable. best to remove the shanks from tower and use knife to cut insulation from tower, you probably will have to remove shanks anyway, if you don't want to remove shanks, attack foam from bottom, use a long screwdriver to break adhesion to sides. If after breaking attachment it still won't slide out, you can pour a little acetone down channel you made, this should break adhesion and whole mess should slide out whole. Trying to melt the hole mess is overkill, just got to cut as much out with sharp tools and use chemicals to break adhesion to tower.
KB

Yeah, good luck with that, not likely.

Take a hacksaw blade, just the blade, and slip it down the inside of the tower to 'saw' the foam around the perimeter of the tower. You may have to work from each end to get the full length cut out. Easy as pie.


THE ICEMAN

[psychodad]

I think Iceman's hacksaw idea is a good one to remove as much of the stuff as you can. But you'll still need something to remove the rest of it. But with the majority removed, it should be less messy to chemically remove it.