Balancing question - beer line restriction calculation

[scott_va]

I am running standard 5' of 3/16" ID beer line. My rig has a dual tap tower, so I have those little elbow fittings behind the shank to allow room for both faucets. I also have to use 90 deg coupler elbow fittings on the beer line at the keg end.

Do I need to account for these fittings as extra restriction on the beer line when I am doing the balancing calculations for the optimal CO2 pressure? Or are they insignificant compared to the drag in the 5' of vinyl beer line?

Cheers

[djc]

If beer is coming out of the faucet and you are happy with the pours then I'd say you are there.

[spdbump]

The restriction added by these parts is minimal so no need to figure in restriction calculations. Im asuming the elbows off the shanks are short and connect directly to the beerline?

[scott_va]

Yes, they do a quick 90 deg right behind the shank and connect to the beer line.

It sounds like they are insignificant so I'll ignore them when doing the mental arithmetic for setting pressure.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers

[scott_va]

I stumbled across a very useful layman's guide to balancing draft beer. Pictures are worth a thousand words and the guide has diagrams showing what "volumes of CO2" are, what is happening when you are under-pressurized and over-pressurized, how temperature affects CO2 take-up, etc.

Here is the link - I hope others find it useful.

Welcome to my home draught dispensing page!