Replacing trunk lines

[jmorgan]

I work for a restaurant chain that has never offered any formal training for techs on draft beer. I do all of the refrigeration, air conditioning, commerical kitchen equipment in my area. I do as much of my own repairs as I can and if I ever have any questions I can usually find answers on this forum. I am facing my biggest challenge. I have a system that has the trunk line in a chase under ground. We have had someone out to diagnose the problem and it is a flooded chase.(which is what I told them but they wanted an expert opinion) My boss wanted to know if I could do it and I feel like I can. In the past when this has happened we always run the trunk line overhead thru the attic, add a blender and nitrogen. I feel like I can do this myself fairly easily the only thing that I am not familiar with is in figuring out about the lift, resistance, chokeand if all this applies to my situation. I am not sure if I am wording all of that correctly. I guess anyone can run the lines and connect them at each end but I want to be sure the system is balanced and everything flows correctly. The current equipment is all manufactured by Perlick and is a 6 product glycol cooled system.

[svengahl]

I do not believe Perlick is the distributor of this Flooded Truck. I believe this is distributed thru a company called Twisted Tap. Flooded truck is a line system that has the beer lines encased buy a large tube that is flooded with circulated glycol. I highly do not recommed going with a Flooded Trunk system. One major problem with this Flooded Trunk system is that if you do have a rupture in one of the beer lines, that are encased by the gylcol, you can have glycol enter into the beer.

Having an underground chase way is the best way to get the product from the cooler to the taps, if you have new construction. Going overhead is generally the only way in some older establishments. One problem going overhead is that you need to stay away from any heat source, like the grill flues, and heating ducts. Some places get real hot, from the heat in the kitchen, and the overhead space can also get very hot and work your cold line unit to death.

As for the amount of restriction, there is a formula that you use to figure out how much restriction to add, before you connect the lines to the towers. I would have to go thru my files to find it. I use these 1/4" diameter white plastic auger looking things, I call bits, and put them in a 1/4" ID line and clamp them off with unions so they can not flow out. If you call Perlick they can set you up with a trunk and advise you on the restriction you will need.

[Scott Zuhse]

I work for a restaurant chain that has never offered any formal training for techs on draft beer. I do all of the refrigeration, air conditioning, commerical kitchen equipment in my area. I do as much of my own repairs as I can and if I ever have any questions I can usually find answers on this forum. I am facing my biggest challenge. I have a system that has the trunk line in a chase under ground. We have had someone out to diagnose the problem and it is a flooded chase.(which is what I told them but they wanted an expert opinion) My boss wanted to know if I could do it and I feel like I can. In the past when this has happened we always run the trunk line overhead thru the attic, add a blender and nitrogen. I feel like I can do this myself fairly easily the only thing that I am not familiar with is in figuring out about the lift, resistance, chokeand if all this applies to my situation. I am not sure if I am wording all of that correctly. I guess anyone can run the lines and connect them at each end but I want to be sure the system is balanced and everything flows correctly. The current equipment is all manufactured by Perlick and is a 6 product glycol cooled system.

Check your private messages. Call me for consultation on this issue.