17 replies to this topic

[BrewerGeorge]

Best thing I've ever seen for gas lines are McMaster p/n's 51525K276 and51525K286They're these great little polycarbonate quick disconnects that are air tight with just a 1/4 twist. In my system, everything that supplies gas has a male coupler and everything that receives gas has a female. My gas QD's have always been barbed because it was originally cheaper, but it was a bit of a pain. The addition of a female coupler on a short (4") piece of hose solved that problem. Everything just gets switched around as needed with these guys. I have a couple of short jumpers with the female coupler and a flare fitting on the other end to mate with a bev QD for when I want gas down the long tube. The Beergun has a female fitting, as does the rig I use to push beer from Better Bottles. I've made a Y splitter with a female IN and two male OUT couplers in case I need to carb an extra keg or for Beer gunning. I even have plans to add an in-line regulator so I can have two different pressures. The gas side is almost infinitely variable and I can make these changes in seconds without tools. I'd recommend you buy two packs of females because you'll find tons of uses for them and you'll always have more receivers than sources.Oh, and I've been using them since May of '06 and they've never leaked. I highly recommend them.

[DubbelEntendre]

I use #P019#P020from https://www.northern...s-handling.html which I love, but the ones listed above are significantly less expensive and I can pick them up Will Call from McMaster. Once again McMaster is the best homebrew supply store.

[chuck_d]

I think you can link mcmaster these days like so...https://www.mcmaster.com/#51525k276https://www.mcmaster.com/#51525K286Edit: These are significantly cheaper than the QDs I've been grabbing from NB like Dubbel.

Edited by chuck_d, 21 May 2009 - 08:22 PM.

[BrewerGeorge]

I think you can link mcmaster these days like so...https://www.mcmaster.com/#51525k276https://www.mcmaster.com/#51525K286Edit: These are significantly cheaper than the QDs I've been grabbing from NB like Dubbel.

Cool! I copied that post directly from the other board, and you couldn't link to McM-C back then.These things really are awesome, and cheap enough that you find all kinds of ways to use them creatively. I've added an extender piece of tubing with opposite fittings on each end so I can send gas up to six feet away from the canister. I have a piece of tubing with a female QD on one end and a Schrader valve on the other for balls and bike tires and such. I even filled the center of a female one with epoxy so I can use it as a cap. I still haven't gotten around to making that downstream regulator, though. BTW, they do not require clamps. The barbs are very big, difficult to get in (hot water method) and basically impossible to get out.

[chuck_d]

Cool! I copied that post directly from the other board, and you couldn't link to McM-C back then.These things really are awesome, and cheap enough that you find all kinds of ways to use them creatively. I've added an extender piece of tubing with opposite fittings on each end so I can send gas up to six feet away from the canister. I have a piece of tubing with a female QD on one end and a Schrader valve on the other for balls and bike tires and such. I even filled the center of a female one with epoxy so I can use it as a cap. I still haven't gotten around to making that downstream regulator, though. BTW, they do not require clamps. The barbs are very big, difficult to get in (hot water method) and basically impossible to get out.

Oh yeah, I've already build some of those extension cords. I'm in the middle of trying to reach a fully closed system myself. Mainly to avoid lifting 11 gallons of wort into my wine cooler. My gas distribution system plan is to link off a secondary regulator for my kegerator and have just one regulator dedicated to pushing stuff around. I've been trying to figure out a way to build different caps and I love the idea of putting some epoxy on some tubing. I will definitely be using this.

[Kremer]

Those look like a larger version of the luer lock fittings on medical stuff.

[gnef]

I did a quick look, but couldn't find any that had female flared adapters rather than the barbed end. My mcmaster skills can sometimes be lacking and can't find things though. Do you know if they have flared adapter ones?

[BrewerGeorge]

I did a quick look, but couldn't find any that had female flared adapters rather than the barbed end. My mcmaster skills can sometimes be lacking and can't find things though. Do you know if they have flared adapter ones?

No, they don't.A short piece of tubing (2-4") or so solves that, though. A flared adapter on one end and the poly QD on the other.

[3rd party JKor]

Less than $10 for a set of 10? Dayum, Imma get me summa deez.You've been using these since '06 and you're just telling us now? Thanks, George!

[BrewerGeorge]

Less than $10 for a set of 10? Dayum, Imma get me summa deez.You've been using these since '06 and you're just telling us now? Thanks, George!

There was a post on the other board about a year ago...

[3rd party JKor]

There was a post on the other board about a year ago...

'08 - '06 = 2 years!

[WallyG3]

Bought 2 bags of Females and 1 bag of Males today. Thanks for the heads up! I've been looking for something like this for a while. It's such a pain when you have to disconnect a gas hose! I have been using a brass air hose coupling on my utility tank, but did not trust that fitting to use on all the connections in my fridge. For the price, this is a no-brainer!

[stadelman]

I'm designing a cleaning pump for lack of a better term. It will be a fountain pump that I'll hook tubing up to to circulate cleaner or sanitizer through for the purpose of cleaning and sanitizing the tubing. I want to use quick disconnects to switch out connectors for various types of tubing.George... How well do these QDs stay connected? My concern is they'll come loose and I'll have cleaner or sanitizer shooting all over the place.Thanks for your help!

Best thing I've ever seen for gas lines are McMaster p/n's 51525K276 and51525K286They're these great little polycarbonate quick disconnects that are air tight with just a 1/4 twist. In my system, everything that supplies gas has a male coupler and everything that receives gas has a female. My gas QD's have always been barbed because it was originally cheaper, but it was a bit of a pain. The addition of a female coupler on a short (4") piece of hose solved that problem. Everything just gets switched around as needed with these guys. I have a couple of short jumpers with the female coupler and a flare fitting on the other end to mate with a bev QD for when I want gas down the long tube. The Beergun has a female fitting, as does the rig I use to push beer from Better Bottles. I've made a Y splitter with a female IN and two male OUT couplers in case I need to carb an extra keg or for Beer gunning. I even have plans to add an in-line regulator so I can have two different pressures. The gas side is almost infinitely variable and I can make these changes in seconds without tools. I'd recommend you buy two packs of females because you'll find tons of uses for them and you'll always have more receivers than sources.Oh, and I've been using them since May of '06 and they've never leaked. I highly recommend them.

[BrewerGeorge]

They stay together very well, but they're not very big. Also, you wouldn't be able to easily remove them from tubing if you had that in mind; they basically have to be cut off of 1/4" tubing.

[3rd party JKor]

I've been using these on some of my CO2 lines. They've saved the day a few times. Since I have about 50/50 ball lock/pin lock, it makes it very easy to switch between the two. Especially for something like using my CPBF, I can go right from filling out of a ball lock keg to a pin lock keg without messing with barbed fittings.Nice call on these, George!

[stadelman]

Thanks for the quick response!I won't necessarily use these to temporarily connect the tubing that's being cleaned to the pump. They'll just be used for switching between different types of interfaces to the pump.Great find... thanks!

They stay together very well, but they're not very big. Also, you wouldn't be able to easily remove them from tubing if you had that in mind; they basically have to be cut off of 1/4" tubing.

[drewseslu]

Bought 2 bags of Females and 1 bag of Males today. Thanks for the heads up!

I like those odds!

[DgNt]

My system has 5/16 ID hose, will these work? Would appreciate any leads to cheap QDs that would work with 5/16" ID hose.Thanks!