are dip tubes dip tubes?

[San_Diego_Matt]

I bought a stash of kegs last night and took one apart tonight.

It's a challenger keg and the gas dip tube is plastic. It's also only about an inch long.

Do these things matter? Is plastic a concern? The dip tubes on some of the other kegs I have are several inches long. Is an inch too short? The beverage out dip tube is metal and it's straight and goes right downto the bottom of the keg so no issues there.

I havent checked any of the other kegs yet, but assuming they're all challenger and all have plastic gas in dip tubes, what should I do?

TIA

Matt

[a10t2]

I have eight kegs and I don't recall exactly, but they're right around 50/50 gas and plastic gas dip tubes. No problem as long as you can get it sanitary, and even then as long as it doesn't touch the beer, who cares? As far as length, I know a few people who actually cut them down as short as possible, just to make sure beer won't flow backward into the CO2 line if the keg is over-filled. Other than that concern, it shouldn't matter.

[mordantly]

allegedly, there is a company that makes special stainless tubes to replace them. i bought some of the corny/firestone ss tubes and am going to drill out mine so they fit. i can't stand the idea of old soda-soaked plastic in there, and if removed the poppet won't properly be located.

[henrythe9th]

I drilled out my 1 firestone to make a corny gas tube fit,, the tube is 5/16 but I had to go 1 size larger 21/64 to get the tube in without binding

[San_Diego_Matt]

so I broke down 2 other kegs and they're both cornelius brand and have metal dip tubes for both sides.

I realized I don't know how to tell the difference between gas and beer on these things though. On one of the kegs one of the posts, the gas side, is a 12 point and the other is a 6 point. Is that correct? On the other keg, the posts are different. They're both 6 point, but the gas side has a groove cut into the middle of it. Is that how these things work? 12 point or groove is gas and straight 6 point is beer?

[mordantly]

yes, gas (IN) is generally a 12 point nut but ALWAYS has a "polarizing" line machined in the faces of the nut. beer (OUT) will NEVER have any line or be a 12 point wrench.

when you put the posts back on, check the keg top for IN or OUT as they can be reversed. let me tell you it took me a few head scratches to figure out why all i got was co2 out of my fresh-filled keg of RIS.... first i swapped the tubes, and NO beer. so i started all over with the proper post and dip tube. you do that once and won't get fooled twice: i banned my one neighbor from talking while i rebuild kegs.