Any preferance? Which are more commonly used? It looks like both will work, just want to see what most people here use before buying any.
Marc
Wed, Jun 11, 2014 - 4:04pm
#1
Pin or Ball Lock Corny Kegs?
The majority of stuff at the brewhouse is set up for ball locks and that is the more commonly seen keg. However we have everything set up so that the lines will connect to a male flared fitting. This allows you to easily change the connector for both gas or liquid. I own both ball and pin. Both will work just fine I say go for the cheapest option.
Thanks for the reply. From what I've found it seems like ball lock is slightly preferred, but not worth extra money. Hopefully we can find some soon.
The dimensions are usually a little different too. Ball Lock tend to be skinnier and taller while Pin Lock are shorter and fatter, also I believe ball lock have a manual pressure release valve while most pin are static, the manual is helpful when purging O2 before filling and stuff. If in the course of your shopping around you see mentioned converted ball lock, that means that it is the dimensions of a pin lock keg, someone just replaced the pin lock posts with ball lock posts. The dimensions may matter if your planning on stuffing a keezer or kegerator. for instance I can get 4 ball locks in my keezer but only 3 pins would fit, and Lucas has a fridge setup and he has a layer of ball locks with pin locks above, he didn't have enough room for two layers of ball locks so a layer of each was an elegant solution that worked out for him. For what it's worth Pin lock was Coke's system and Ball was Pepsi and everyone else...bottom line is it really doesn't matter too much beyond getting what's affordable and what dimensions will fit your needs.
Thanks for the info. I don't really have a end game for this, eventually want a keezer, but not in the plans for a while. Right now it is really to force carb to bottle and share.