The Different Types of Gas Regulators Used for Dispensing Beer or Soda

Primary vs Secondary, Soda vs Beer, and Brands

Regulators can be confusing because there are so many types and configurations, but this article should straighten it out for you and help you choose the regulator you need for your beverage of choice.

What is a beer/soda (including soda water) regulator and what is its purpose? - A regulator takes a gas at a higher pressure and reduces it down to the pressure you need for your beverage or to a group of secondary regulators that reduce the pressure for a variety of beverages.

Primary Regulator - A primary regulator is used to reduce pressure from a high pressure cylinder so it can be used at the “next stage” This could be the final pressure going to one or more beverages that are at the same PSI or it could be reduced to a pressure that will be further reduced by secondary regulators. We will talk about brands and types of regulators later, but the brands we use most often are CMB and Taprite for primary regulators.

Secondary Regulator - The purpose of a secondary regulator is to take pressure from the primary regulator and reduce it down to the pressure needed for a single beverage (or group of beverages that are at the same pressure). There are two main types of secondary regulators.

• A conventional secondary like the CMB or Taprite. At first glance these look like the primary regulators above, but notice they do not have a nut and nipple to attach to a CO2 cylinder like a primary regulator. These bodies have a nipple to connect to the primary regulator via a standard beer style gas hose. They bodies are joined together so you can supply the first one with gas from the primary and it will feed gas to the other bodies in the line. Normally if you are serving beer and/or soda you would set your primary at around 45PSI and the secondary regulators where you need them. You can go up to around 50PSI with a secondary, but remember you need the primary even higher to supply the gas. Normally the range is around 1-35 PSI depending on your application. Each regulator can supply an individual beverage or an air distributor if you have multiple beverages at the same PSI you need to feed off of one regulator.
• The more compact GovReg® secondary regulator is a great option. Although it needs a separate adjusting tool, the secondary regulars themselves are much less expensive and compact. With these regulators you have them at the end of the line directly on a Sanke D coupler for store purchased beer or with a pin lock or ball lock disconnect for homebrewed beer, carbonated water or other beverages. Click here to see a great video showing how these GovReg® regulators work.
• Direct connection of Primary Regulator vs Connection via a high pressure hose - In the vast majority of situations you will want to connect a primary regulator via a nipple and nut directly to the CO2 cylinder. This is the safest and most convenient way to connect the regulator to the CO2 bottle. However, in some situations (normally commercial, not home applications) CO2 cylinders are connected via a high pressure hose. Again, this works well in some situations, but it does pose some danger if the hose was to be somehow cut because the pressures are extremely high. Regardless of which system you use, remember to ALWAYS secure your CO2 bottle with a chain or safety wall bracket.

Regulator Brands - There are many different brands of regulators. There are also a lot of very marginal imported regulators on the market that do not hold pressure well and have other issues. We normally use CMB or Taprite primary regulators, but there are other good American, Italian and German regulators on the market. The CMB regulator has a five year warranty, one of the best on the market. One consideration to take into effect is the availability of spare parts. Both CMB and Taprite have parts available so you can keep your regulator working for many years…many brands do not offer parts and are discarded if they develop issues.

Adjusting a regulator - Most regulators adjust in a similar way. They have either a nut (like CMB) or a plastic cap (like Taprite) that you turn clockwise to increase pressure and counter clockwise to reduce pressure (note, on Taprite pull the cap out before adjusting and push back in after adjusting). One exception would be the GovReg® regulators which use a special tool to adjust the pressure. This allows them to be extremely compact and not take up much space in your Kegerator or Keezer. Click here to see a quick video on adjusting the GovReg® regulator.

We hope that this explanation of the different types of beer regulators has been helpful,but if you need more help please email us at help@kegconnection.com or call us at 325-356-5204. Our mission is to help people with draft beer equipment!