Flow Control(FC) Ball Lock Disconnect - Better than FC Taps

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

What great timing! I recently gave up on the Intertap FC taps and went back to the spring loaded version since they were CAUSING foaming; not reducing it. I have balanced lines (for most of my beer styles) that were working well before adding the FC faucets but thought I get them anyway for those other styles. I think I’ll give these a try instead and go back to the standard Intertap faucets.

[@KegLand]

No worries at all. Let us know how you go!

[@FiggyABQ]

Please please please start delivering to the US!!!! I would love to get My hands on this and you Nukatap as well.

[@b.e.d.brewing3909]

This is a super great idea: same principle as AC ducts: yes you can close a raster; but it is not as efficient as closing a damper at the AC unit. Very cool!!

[@KegLand]

Yes, exactly!

[@KieranShort]

That looks super handy.

[@KegLand]

Thanks Kieran. Yes I don't know why someone didn't make them earlier.

[@kessdoggie]

Posting my own follow-up. The unit I repaired is still working fine. I've got enough different sized o-rings that I should be able to replace any others that fail. I've finally imported a Nukatap FC faucet. I was happy with the regular Nukatap faucet working in conjunction with the restrictor, however I'm even happier with the Nukatap FC faucet - restrictor combination. Be curious to see what their V2 restrictor looks like, but for now I've got no reason to upgrade.

[@KegLand]

Yes this is now one of our highest priority products and hopefully this gets finished before the end of the year.

[@HomeBrewNetwork]

Awesome!

[@KegLand]

Yeah. They are really handy.

[@charleschapman2428]

I'm seeing the nukatap flow control with the self closing spring, thanks !

[@KegLand]

Yes it's the only forward sealing flow control tap ever manufactured with spring return. The way our patent is written I think it will be hard for anyone else to ever be able to offer this feature too.

[@kessdoggie]

Can this be used horizontally? I have limited clearance in my Kegerator with the height of some 1/6 kegs. I can put a right angle fitting on the key and install this horizontally if it will still work.

[@Peter-Southern-Victoria-Aust]

I have a kegerator and I was wondering can you use less beer line with one of these flow control ball lock disconnects? I'm not a fan of having all 2 metres of beer line inside the kegerator, it just takes up space, it gets in the way, I'd rather use the shortest amount of line possible

[@KegLand]

Yes you can but it will be different on different setups.

[@nathanparry8315]

When are these gonna be available again?

[@bonedrykneecaps]

@Bee Eff I think this is the one in stock - www.aliexpress.com/item/4001058445545.html?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.20ec447eZmOse7

[@indiekiduk]

From the other comments it seems there were many issues with the product perhaps it was discontinued?

[@KegLand]

We are currently working on a redesign.

[@RandomItchyUser]

Hello! is it posible to disassembly it for cleaning and o-ring changing?

[@seanrorie2081]

Great idea

[@KegLand]

Thanks Sean!

[@MAGACOPP]

I get the negative points to a FC Faucet…but what about people who want to have their kegerator not always be live?

[@chrislawrence6609]

Hi, I just got 4 of these from Williams brewing. There's no type of gasket to keep from leaking. I have some John guest style fittings from before the duotights were out. Can I just screw them on and I'll be fine? I noticed that's what you did in the video but I know you have duotights. Maybe they are different

[@kessdoggie]

Been trying to find the spec on the internal o-rings. I've got two of these and honestly love them. I've had one in service since last year and it, along with a spring loaded Nukatap faucet has allowed me to get perfect pours with minimal issues. The second one just went into service when I retired my Guinness for the season and leaks whenever I adjust the knob. The leak stops as soon as the knob isn't being turned, so I'm thinking it's just n o-ring issue. I emailed Kegland directly and never heard back. Still waiting for the Nukatap Flo-Control faucet, been on order since September.

[@simegeorge]

Mines started leaking a bit too :( Would be v interested if you ever do find out any info, cheers!

[@kessdoggie]

@@simegeorge Keep in mind what I'm about to say was measured with a set of Harbor Freight digital calipers. Also, please keep in mind mine essentially failed straight from the box. My other unit is still fine after a year of service. So, I pulled the failed unit apart. The ID of the tube looked to be 15.8 mm. The OD of the O-ring as installed was 16.2mm so a 0.4mm sealing fit. Seems like that should have been enough but I'm not an expert. I had some 7, 8, and 10mm ID o-rings on hand. The 8mm ID, 12mm OD, 2 mm CS o-ring seemed to provide the best fitment. I installed the o-ring, put a little sanitary silicone lube on it, reinstalled it and it seems to be fine after several hours. I'm letting everything chill and will try to readjust it later, but I did spin it end to end several times with no leakage. The o-ring sat in a 2mm groove, the o-ring that was on there measured about 13.9mm OD, 10.5mm ID, 1.8mm CS after it was removed. Hope this helps.

[@simegeorge]

@@kessdoggie that's very helpful yes, thanks ! Think it's the top o ring that's failing on mine as beer leaks out of the top when fully open. This has just started happening after about a year. Have ordered a nukatap flow control but would be good to fix the disconnect too. Thanks again!

[@KegLand]

We are currently doing a redesign on these. Should have something in terms of an alternative out pretty soon.

[@kessdoggie]

@@simegeorge I ordered an assortment of food grade silicone washers from Amazon. I replaced the automotive o-ring I was using, which was supposed to be safe for food contact with one of the silicone washers. Looks like the assortment would also take into account replacing any of the other o-rings. Since the Nukatap FC won't be available in the US due to patent issues with Perlick (per the vendor I had ordered mine from) I have ordered another regular Nukatap faucet. So far I've had great luck pouring ales and lagers with the FC device and a regular Nukatap faucet.

[@markwilliams5654]

Just got some Legland kegs..love them but u need to the change the rubber to a non marking rubber ..thanks

[@KegLand]

Thanks for that. This is a worthwhile consideration. I will discuss with the others.

[@tapiokivela4600]

Does the flow control close fully? Thinking about bottling with just piece of tubing attached to this and controlling the flow with this.

[@KegLand]

When fully closed you still get a very small amount of flow. Its not designed to completely shut off flow like the beer tap.

[@MetalHeadBrewer]

I would like to get rid of my picnic lines, what are the parts and part numbers for the items shown in the video. I have ball lock kegs. Thank you. P.S. what is the additional height added with the tap. Thanks🍻

[@keglandau]

The timing is no so good as we are just about to bring out the new Flow Control ball lock disconnect but a new part number has not been allocated yet

[@MetalHeadBrewer]

@@keglandau Thank you for your reply. So I should wait or do you still carry the parts in the video? What is the anticipated time for the new part release? Thanks

[@shiscott1]

So, if i understand correctly, using this type of flow control system, I could reduce the length of my beer lines inside my keezer? Are there recommendations as to the suggested length of beer line while using this type of adapter?

[@mattmholliday]

I have changed my keezer over to these. Before I had around 3M of line on each keg and 6M of line on a soda keg. I have swapped them all over to theses disconnects with around 60cm of line. Everything is pouring better then it ever has.

[@KegLand]

Yes, you can reduce your beer line length. If you use this device 50cm beer line would be fine.

[@shiscott1]

Thank you for the response. Looks like next time I change my beer lines I'm going this route. Thanks again.

[@edorton5309]

GREAT INVENTION, ANY CHANCE OF GETTING THESE IN EUROPE?

[@KegLand]

in Europe you can try: olbrygging.no angelhomebrew.co.uk brewolution.com brewkegtap.co.uk/ These guys all have ordered this stock.

[@bdiamond6199]

What about the states🇺🇸

[@Z33803]

So, could you have beer carbonating in the keg at a carbonating pressure and still pull a glass, testing the carbonation without getting all foam in your glass?

[@KegLand]

Yes. Provided that the beer was cold and you had not yet overcarbonated the beer there is no reason why this would not work.

[@Z33803]

Oh, that really is cool😎 I’ll be getting some keep up these great inventions 👍

[@tcox1215]

I've just purchased this and it leaks where it connects to the Kegland MFL, all over the place! What gives? Is it a deficiency with my product or does it not work well with this?

[@KegLand]

We have gone back to the drawing board with these disconnects and are working on a much better version which should be released sometime soon.

[@Blandat250]

I have 4 of them but they have stopped comming to Sweden or even stores that deliver to Sweden! I love the product but I can't recommend people getting it cos it's out of stock. 😕

[@KegLand]

We have gone back to the drawing board with these. We should have something in terms of an alternative soon!

[@tazmankb26]

do you have a US distributor?

[@KegLand]

Williams brewing and More Beer will be your best bet.

[@petercatto9795]

Can I ask a question I put hot water in the tag with sanitizer at the same time leave it overnight before I refill the kegs is that good or bad

[@KegLand]

That is no problem at all. Just be aware that most beer lines are rated to a certain pressure at ambient temp. So you might want to make sure you don;t use too much pressure with hot water in the beer lines.

[@ME-rv1pw]

I’ve been looking everywhere on how do disassemble one of these to clean it, does anyone here know how to do that?

[@KegLand]

You need to remove the flair thread fitting first and once you have done this you can undo the top.

[@ME-rv1pw]

@@KegLand thank you!!

[@craiggreengrass2924]

Would this works with bottle filler without dropping pressure to 2-4 psi?

[@KegLand]

Yes absolutely would be fine to use with bottle filler. It would reduce the flow rate for the bottle filler when the beer is flowing but it's important to remember to specific static pressure would be the same so you would have to check that your bottle filler is still suitable at your gas set pressure.

[@nall8500]

when will it be in the us

[@KegLand]

You can purchase them from www.williamsbrewing.com/-KegLand-Stainless-Flow-Control-Ball-Lock-Threaded-P4747.aspx now and I think www.morebeer.com will have these available very soon.

[@phantomcreamer]

Are John Guest fittings compatible with the threading on this?

[@KegLand]

Yes you can get the John Guest fitting to go onto this thread but why wouldn't you just go with the duotight instead. It's a better fitting: www.kegland.com.au/duotight-8mm-x-ffl-to-fit-mfl-disconnects-7-16-20unf-1-4-sae.html

[@PsychoCharlieCat]

Been sold out for months. Is it coming back?

[@Rowdelberry]

Got some on eBay if you are still looking

[@KegLand]

We are working on a new design for these bad boys.

[@boojea10981]

I really wanted to like this product but I found that it restricts the flow too much. I tried various combinations of beer line and lengths and in order to achieve an acceptable flow rate I had to use the Evabarrier 5x8mm tubing with a length of less than 12" (30cm) at serving pressured between 7-12 psi; that seems a bit unreasonable to me. I have 6 of these things and will probably only use them connected directly to the faucets on my portable Kegland mini keg setup. This is the first and only Kegland product that I have been disappointed with.

[@bphillipstn]

This has been my experience as well. The flow is alright at 30psi as shown in the video. But the flow is super slow when set to a lower useable pressure. We need a version 2 with a lot more flow.

[@lucasmoka3529]

@@bphillipstn Even if you restrict to the minimum? I'm guessing at zero there's no restriction at all, so it's hard to imagine how you go from 0 restriction to super restricted with nothing in between.

[@chrislawrence6609]

Can you please make this for pin locks!

[@KegLand]

That's unlikely. To be honest less and less home brewers are using pin locks. If I was you i would sell your pin locks second hand and make the switch.

[@chrislawrence6609]

@@KegLand I bit the bullet when I saw a sale on ball lock conversion kits the other day. I need these flow control disconnects in my life! Lol

[@KegLand]

@@chrislawrence6609 Good work mate. Switching over to ball locks is definitely the way to go.

[@cornfieldcraig]

Kegland needs to be more upfront that these are flow-restricting disconnects, not simply flow control. I had expected that fully open, these would function exactly like a standard disconnect. That is not the case! Kegland support acknowledges that these are flow-restricting and in a condescending tone suggested that it should have been obvious to me that this was the case. I tried three of these in my keezer for a few months. Not a single one is still in use. I’ve gone back to standard disconnects and various longer lengths of the 4mm ID EVABarrier tubing. In a typical keezer or kegerator, even with very short lengths of the large 5mm ID EVABarrier tubing, to pour a beer carbonated at 2.2 volumes, you’ll need to have the valve fully open to achieve a reasonable pour rate. If you have the dispensing pressure turned low due to a lower carbonated British ale, the pour rate will be painfully slow, even fully open. As a result, being adjustable was useless, since they were always fully open. These are best left for use on jockey boxes and picnic taps where you can crank the dispensing pressure without worrying too much about overcarbonating your beer in a few hours.The bottom line is that while they do manage foaming well, they do so at the expense of flow rate. These SIGNIFICANTLY restrict flow. There is a reason the video shows him using a short length of the large 5mm ID hose and 30 psi.

[@KegLand]

Hello Craig. I am sorry if we did not communicate this to you well enough. For the record we would like to make it known that the flow control mechanism has some inherent flow resistance so if you are using this type of disconnect you should use shorter beer lines then take up the resistance with the flow control mechanism. If however you are not happy with the product then please return them and we would be happy to refund you. With that said we have been looking at a new design and in the new design we would be able to make the fully open setting on the FC disconnect apply less flow.

[@cornfieldcraig]

KegLand Thanks. I would like to return these, but was unsuccessful in my attempts. Being in the U.S.A. I ordered from Williams Brewing. They initially offered a return, but we decided to try to resolve the issue with larger ID tubing, of which they sent a sample, gratis. However, after a few months of tinkering, testing, and frustration, my return period had expired and they were disinclined to allow a return. I would be interested as well in the updated version of the disconnects, in spite of my frustrations with the current version. As for the suggestion to use shorter lines, I was already using 2 feet of 5mm ID, low resistance EVABarrier tubing, which is marketed for long runs or for gas. My hope was for uniform, short lengths of tubing that could be used for dispensing all styles of beer without swapping lines in my keezer. I understand that flow rate will be reduced as the valve is closed. I can live with that.

[@cornfieldcraig]

KegLand Thanks. I would like to return these, but was unsuccessful in my attempts. Being in the U.S.A. I ordered from Williams Brewing. They initially offered a return, but we decided to try to resolve the issue with larger ID tubing, of which they sent a sample, gratis. However, after a few months of tinkering, testing, and frustration, my return period had expired and they were disinclined to allow a return. I would be interested as well in the updated version of the disconnects, in spite of my frustrations with the current version. Regarding the suggestion to use shorter lines, I was already using 2 feet of 5mm ID, low resistance EVABarrier tubing, which is marketed for long runs or for gas. My hope was for uniform, short lengths of tubing that could be used for dispensing all styles of beer without swapping lines in my keezer. I understand that flow rate will be reduced as the valve is closed. I can live with that.

[@KegLand]

@@cornfieldcraig what pressure are you running on your system? With such short 5mm ID line you should be getting quite good flow speed.

[@cornfieldcraig]

@@KegLand I have three faucets.with one primary regulator, plus two secondary, so the primary's psi is usually set to whatever psi corresponds to the most carbonated beer in my keezer. Generally speaking, that's around 15 psi. However, I usually have a British ale, like a porter or bitter which I attach to a secondary at 6-8 psi. If I use one of the flow control disconnects on anything needing more than 10 psi, it pours a nice pint at a decent flow if the Kegland disconnect is fully open, but using the same disconnects on the low psi beer results in a painfully slow pour. It's not that they don't "work", but since I never find value in adjusting flow with the disconnects and can't use them with low carb beers in my keezer, they're not providing me the convenience that I had hoped for. I appreciate the conversation. I hope it contributes to an improved version.

[@tbotlik]

I want to buy this product from Hungary, but i haven't find anybody who ships here. I would like to see global shipping from KegLand, because i like many of your products. In my country home brewing is just getting more and more popular. I know global shipping is probably not gonna happen, so i want to ask you to please get in contact with olaszsped.com , its the bigest homebrew supplier here, and send some of your stuff to him so we could buy it here. I would be really grateful! :)

[@davidfollingstad9917]

What o-rings does this use? Got two, and one do them has a nicked o-ring that needs to be replaced. Other one works great though.

[@KegLand]

Hello David. Yes we send these out with some spare post o-rings so it's best to use these on your kegs.

[@davidfollingstad9917]

I’m reffering to the internal o-ring... which is smaller in diameter and also thicker than your standard keg o-rings.

[@KegLand]

@@davidfollingstad9917 can you send us a photo in email I am sure we can supply you the parts but best if you send a photo.