All Foam

[osubrewcrew]

I am having troubles with my hair kegerator. When i pour a pitcher its 95% foam pitcher after pitcher. i have read every post and nothings worked anywhere from checking the rubber ring on the keg to temp and psi levels. i tried letting it sit and turning the psi up by 1/4 and waiting to check for bubbles in beer lines and repeating. nothing has worked, the lines are 3/16 5' long the psi i've tried is 8 to 10 12 to 16 even tried crazy high amount of 20 to 22 as posted in another thread (this didn't work for me) the temp reads any where from 36 to 39. I’ve ran around 12 kegs now and i've cleaned the lines every time. all i have ran is coors light. the first 10 kegs was ok not as bad as now but is not what my boss is getting out of the same kegerator. plz can i get some one to help me before i sell it and start over with a different maker i have tried everything thank you for your time.

[Acmemfg]

You have covered most of the bases. Only things I can think of that may be issues would be:

1. A kinked beer line
2. Some sort of gunk in the faucet (like maybe a clogged vent hole?)

You mentioned cleaning the lines but did you also scrub out the faucet and coupler?

[Hophead]

Sounds like gunk in the faucet to me too. Just "cleaning the lines" isn't enough. The faucet needs to be taken apart and scrubbed after every keg.

[osubrewcrew]

sorry to leave that out i let everything the beer goes through soak in the blue stuff they use at the bars i got some from a friend at bww. the beer line is hung over the side of the keg to where i can see it to check for bubbles and there are no kinked part of the line but i cleaned it all faucet, lines, and the coupler scrubbed them all with a brush this last keg is by far the most foam ive ever seen i just cleaned everything for the second time on this same keg last night so i let the pressure build up again an let it set all day i get off at 7 tonight i am going to try it again thank you for the help. people please keep posting and help me out

[Sketch]

Be sure to understand that simply changing the PSI won't have immediate response. You need to allow the system time to adjust to the changes - sometimes taking up to 24 hours.

[cubby_swans]

Also, when you say the temp reads anywhere from 36-39... what reads that? A thermometer in the unit? Please take the temperature of a glass of beer (foam?). Pour a glass, dump it, chug it, or get another glass and immediately pour a second glass. Take the temperature of that second glass with a calibrated thermometer and see what that says.

[psychodad]

Pour a glass, dump it, chug it, or get another glass and immediately pour a second glass.

Chug it please. I shudder to think that this fine forum would advocate the dumping of beer when there is an economic crisis going on and many people have to go without beer. And I suggest drawing the second pour into the same glass to offset the effect of the room temperature glass on the beer being measured.

[KillianBoy]

osubrewcrew,
Needless to say you need to get the actual temperature of the beer, set the PSI to right level of said temperature (or whatever you had it before the foam). Check flow of beer as it comes out of faucet, if all white all the time then post whether the faucet was disassembled and thoroughly cleaned or just soaked, even if you cleaned, post if you cleaned vent holes, this can cause all foam. If clean, look at the check ball, a filthy one can cause foam. If all this done look at the seal on the keg itself, a damaged one can cause massive foam. Sketch is right PSI needs time to settle, you may have over-carbonated beer, when you did the flashlight test the bubbles stopped because that was the carbonation of the beer, every time you adjust the PSI tug on pressure relief valve once or twice to bring down the PSI. I'd say check faucet first, that sounds like culprit.
KB

[osubrewcrew]

thank you again i have checked the check ball and the vent hole on the facet the lines stay clear of foam and bubbles all the way to the faucet when beer is flowing out it is all white the keg isnt damaged at all. i am buying a new Thermometer so when i get that i will post

[KillianBoy]

osubrewcrew,
Really don't want to get picky here but try to be more clear in posts, garbled message on post means we have ask for an answer again. OK, by what I can translate, check ball is OK (didn't you try and run without?), vent hole and faucet fine (did you mean 1 vent hole clean or forgot the "s"), there are 2 vent holes in faucet, faucet needs to be disassembled to find the 2nd one. When you say keg isn't damaged are you referring to the keg itself or the "KEG SEAL", (the black seal where the coupler attaches to the keg), also banged up keg won't cause foam (unless it's where the coupler attaches to keg). Clear beer from coupler to top of unit with flow from faucet being all white might be a sign that something is irritating the beer after the coupler, either the shank, faucet or beer line, if beer line is too old no matter how well you clean beer line, if old, it will cause foam. But all this is moot if the temperature of beer is too cold, find temperature of beer first (let foam settle before taking temperature), then see where that leads you.
KB

[osubrewcrew]

its ok im not always clear, yes i i did take the check ball out all tho did make the beer taste better than old plastic, yes i did clean the 2 holes in faucet, the keg seal is fine, i checked the temp of the beer after clearing the lines an foam and the temp of the beer is around 38 to 40 i took it about 4 different times. the beer lines are only about a year old, this keg is almost empty what im hoping is after drinking all this keg(after i wait 5 mins on the pitcher to clear of foam) getting another and with a miracle it fixes it.... long shot but ive tryed everything short of a new kegerator

[pvs6]

thank you again i have checked the check ball and the vent hole on the facet the lines stay clear of foam and bubbles all the way to the faucet when beer is flowing out it is all white the keg isnt damaged at all. i am buying a new Thermometer so when i get that i will post

QUOTE: "the lines stay clear of foam and bubbles all the way to the faucet when beer is flowing out it is all white "

I can interpret that statement to mean 2 different occurrences.

Case 1) [foam at the tap / clear beer in line]
The steady state of the beer in the beer line is solid beer with no foam and bubbles, as it should be. When the tap is snapped open pure foam floods out but the beer you now see flowing up the beer line is still solid foamless beer.

Case 2) [foam at the tap / foam in the line]
The beer in the beer line is solid as it should be until the tap is snapped open then the beer line filled up with foam rising out of the keg and spewing out the tap.



Case one is case closed. It's the faucet. Solutions; Clean it, fix it or replace it.

Case two, the foam is generated somewhere before the beer line. Meaning the coupler or keg itself. Solutions; finish this one and try a new keg, When you return the old one tell them of your plight and that the keg may be damaged. If the new one works again then
you may be able to get a refund for the bad keg. If new keg doesn't work either then fix or replace the coupler.

[osubrewcrew]

case 1 is what is going on... steady clear beer no foam in lines even through the tower up to the faucet after the faucet the pitcher is being filled up with 95% foam. i am cleaning the faucet one last time ive checked the 2 vent holes in it again , on the end of the faucet shaft (if you would call it that) ball side was a little darker than the rest of the shaft, i did clean it to give it shine back but still didnt fix it. i am going to order a faucet

[KillianBoy]

osubrewcrew,
By getting a new MM faucet may not solve your problem, the Chinese shank on the Haier was slightly different from the MM faucet I bought, the difference may seem insignificant but will cause problems. I would replace beer line before faucet, if not get both a new faucet and shank.
If kept clean the Haier faucet will work, disassembled to component parts cleaned with proper cleaner will not cause foam. Couple of questions about your cleaning procedure. Since the faucet shaft nut was dirty, did you remove and clean the shank (the part the “ball side” lies against when the beer isn’t flowing)? Have you been cleaning by connecting cleaning bottle to shank and gravity feeding the BLC down beer line to coupler? If so you may have to use a small brush to clean the inside of the shank.
Haiers aren’t bad as long as you clean all parts (as all units), I used to do a full cleaning every keg (took shank off tower, disassembled faucet, coupler cleaned everything with BLC). The last 2 kegs (6 months) I’ve just disassembled faucet brushed out coupler and cleaned shank with brush. Everything seems fine, after the next keg I’m going to do a full cleaning like I did before.
Couple of comments and questions on some of your posts. You can’t compare units in different places, each of you clean differently, set thermostats differently, and have different environments, every unit is different even if they are the same model. This problem keg, was it foamy from the start or did it pour well in the beginning and get bad near middle and what size of kegs have you been using and what mods have you made to the unit?
KB

[osubrewcrew]

thank you not much time im at work, half barrel keg coors light, i did clean faucet with the white powder that came with the kegerator that turns blue when wet, i will try and find a smaller brush to get into the shank no mods at all. will post more when home