HomebrewandBeer.com forum

I would have thought the tux thing and the gas cylinder thing would be reasonable analogies. I don't believe I have ever worn a tuxedo, although I did rent a suit for my own wedding - one of those silly Abraham Lincoln three-quarter length jobbies.

I'd definately recommend kegsonlegs. Too bad you can't get yourself to sydney though, as you get your first lot of gas free. That brings the initial price down to $255- 2 years BOC or Air Liquide rental price alone.

My monthly rental is $13.71 including GST. If we had kegsonlegs up here I would definitely buy one!

I recon it's a service set up by brewers for brewers. They are always the best ones. Look at Craftbrewer for example.

I dont mind renting my bottle. The idea of kegs on legs style has put me off. the prices are good and all but what i dont like is that you go and buy a brand spanking new bottle and when it runs out you could get one that is dinged up and dirty. Not sure this actually happens at all as i dont do it so maybe you guys that have it could say.

Timmsy,
It depends on whether or not your local mykegonlegs supplier is also a gas refilling station. My local HBS here in Kambah currently provides refills but doesn't do the refill on site, ie, Colin exchanges your bottle for another full one - so you don't have any delays in getting a full bottle of gas - swap and go...

Now he admits that not all bottles are exact same vintage, so yes, you may score a refill in a bottle that's older (or indeed newer) than your original bottle.

Colin is in the process of setting up a refilling station in the HBS and he just told me on the phone that he could take your brand new bottle and refill it and you could pick it up, say, the next day - so you re-use your own brand new bottle and know exactly where it's been. I much prefer that method personally....

Cheers,
TL

I will deffinately be going for the kegs on legs option and i dont particulary care how old the bottle is as long as it works and gasses my kegs and saves me paying a stupid amount of rental each year

Timmsy wrote:I dont mind renting my bottle. The idea of kegs on legs style has put me off. the prices are good and all but what i dont like is that you go and buy a brand spanking new bottle and when it runs out you could get one that is dinged up and dirty. Not sure this actually happens at all as i dont do it so maybe you guys that have it could say.

What's the difference with the rented ones?
Do they give you a sparkly clean one everytime?

...and the service hasn't been going all that long, so the bottles are all almost new anyway.

Out of curiosity, what pressure are CO2 bottles filled to and what is their volume?
(Volume can be roughly calculated from the W.C. figure stamped on the cylinder).

Rabz

G'day Rabz,
It's not the pressure that's important - it's all about weight...

The CO2 is decanted to the gas bottle in liquid form. So when you take the bottle home and weigh it on a reliable set of scales, subtract the tare weight stamped on the bottle and the difference in kilo's is the quantity of CO2 that's been added to the bottle. You may find that you haven't got a completely full bottle of CO2 after all....And to be fair, it's hard to completely fill a CO2 bottle with liquid CO2 - there will always be headspace, incidentally at very high pressure, which is why we need a regulator on the bottle before we can use it at the relatively miniscule pressures that we use with our kegs...

Cheers,
TL

TL,

Thanks. I was trying to work out a per litre gas cost - to compare it with some of the other gases I buy. I guess that makes it just a little harder, and my gas blending training never took into account a liquid source. So I guess I am out of luck!!

No great loss as it was merely a curiosity thing.

Rabz

OK just to finish of this thread diversion (sorry):
Now this is back of the envelope stuff....
According to BOC CO2 has an expansion ratio of 847:1 from solid to gas. So lets assume 800:1 for liquid to gas.

An aluminum CO2 cylinder looks to be about a 3 litre vessel.

So 800x3 = 2400 litres
In the thread prices ranged from $30 up to $50 odd so at $50:00 a fill :
50/2400 = ~2 cents a litre

As a comparison
Helium (not balloon gas) retails for about 8 cents a litre
We use around 2400 litres in a fill which is around $190 + 02 + Air + GST.
This lasts about one or two dives.

So all up not too bad.

Rabz

Tipsy wrote:

Timmsy wrote:I dont mind renting my bottle. The idea of kegs on legs style has put me off. the prices are good and all but what i dont like is that you go and buy a brand spanking new bottle and when it runs out you could get one that is dinged up and dirty. Not sure this actually happens at all as i dont do it so maybe you guys that have it could say.

What's the difference with the rented ones?
Do they give you a sparkly clean one everytime?

hahahaha well thay better!

Im not fussed paying the $12 or what ever it is. Its convenience for a porber like me that can not afford the initial outlay for a bottle

If you want to talk about helium, do it over here.

Cheers,
Greg