Jockey Box Maintenance

[dhempy]

This last weekend (whist you were all "festing") we hosted a 120 person wedding reception here and I my gift to the bride and groom (aside from providing the venue) was some home-brew. During the cleanup of my jockey box, I use compressed air to blow out cleaning solution / water etc. and I noticed some bubbles coming from places that they shouldn't have.

My jockey box is a 2 converted to 4 tap MoreBeer version with 2 coils (orig) over a 2 path chill plate (added). The "leaks" were all detected around the plate fittings which I tightened up quite a bit considering ... I know that these were all very snug when I built the thing a few years back ... but now they were quite loose. It turns out that many of the hose clamps weren't snug either. Even the shanks took a bit of tightening. Looks like my assumption of "build and forget" was wrong.

Anyhow, I figured it was worth a post to remind others to check your jockey box fittings next time you pull it out ... and then do whatever required maintenance is necessary. I'm going to try to remember to do these checks when I assemble it for use (I keep my taps stored separately off the box).

Dan

[JonW]

Don't use hose clamps - oetikers only. For the fittings going into the cold plate, do you have the plastic washers or do they have an o-ring? Many of the cold plate style fittings are 1/4" MFL screwed into the plate, but if you don't have an o-ring or washer in there, they can leak. For the shanks, I like to use the same flange/collar on the inside that I use on the outside. It greatly increases the surface area used when tightening the shank nut (as opposed to just the shank nut tightening against the ice cooler surface).

[lexuschris]

Thanks for the tips!

After the homebrew fest, this topic came up and we were all wondering what everyone else is doing for jockey box maintenance and storage.


--LexusChris

[lars]

Also, I'd be careful using an air compressor to blow out your lines. The oil from the compressor can and on may compressors does contaminate the compressed air. Which can then contaminate your lines... and nobody likes contaminated beer lines

[JonW]

I was thinking similarly about the compressed air, but not for oil, but rust. All compressors get water build up in them and often times have water and rust particulates in the air unless you have a good filter/drier.

[dhempy]

Great points on compressed air ... I've got a pretty good filter on mine so I don't worry about it (much) ... or at least I didn't use to worry about it much!

Dan