What Do an Empty CO2 Tank and a Frosty Freezer Have in Common?

If you’ve seen my profile on Twitter, you may have noticed that I say I can fix anything. Now in reality, we all know that that’s not quite true as some things just can’t be fixed. However, this isn’t one of those times.

I won’t make you wait to find out the answer to my blog title. In essence, both the empty CO2 tank and the frosty freezer were symptoms of things that were broken around the house. And the thing that I find most interesting about it, was that the underlying issue for both my keezer (a beer dispensing devices made out of a freezer; same origin as kegerator) and my deep freezer was ultimate the same. The problem: an improper seal was letting air get where it wasn’t supposed to be — whether it was the warm air in the garage or the CO2 keeping my kegs nicely carbonated.

Don’t worry, I’m able to proudly still keep my “Can Fix Anything” title, both stories have happy endings!

Let’s start with the supposed frost-free freezer. It was pretty apparent there was an air leak towards the top of the freezer as that’s where all of the frost was accumulating. A bit of googling led me to believe that the freezer gasket was the issue. The only problem is, replacement gaskets are surprisingly expensive. I would have never guessed that 12 feet of pretty narrow vinyl would cost a hundred bucks!

Fortunately, I’m resourceful and found another way to fix it. After going back to my good friend Google, I found an article that talked about how vinyl can get dried out. After putting a large towel over the main freezer section to keep it as cool as possible. Then I carefully first cleaned, then spread a thin coat of Vaseline around the whole gasket. It was pretty amazing how different it felt before and after doing so. I also loosened the screws in a few places where the gasket wasn’t completely tucked behind the door, and then re-tightened them.

At that point, I was feeling pretty optimistic that things were going to work better, but time was the true ultimate test. The next morning, Korey yells out to me asking where the key is to unluck the freezer. The seal was now so tight that she thought it was locked! Freezer problem solved.

Fixing the keezer also involved finding out where the leak was coming from. Fortunately, there was something that recently changed right before the issue manifested itself… the changeover to a new keg. And kegs are pretty simple creatures. They have an inlet, an outlet, and a large mouth. Applying pressure to the keg outside of the keezer, resulted in a slow leak through the liquid ball valve. Keg lube didn’t help, but changing out the post on the inside did seem the problem. Only time will fully verify that the problem was solved, but fixing an obvious problem on the offending keg has me feeling pretty confident.

What’s broken for you recently? How did you fix it? Let me know @TalkToErik