How to regulate Milwaukee Regulator?

[Tiffi]

Got my regulator yesterday and my husband set it up for me. Yesterday it was working the way I had it adjusted.

This morning there were no bubbles, I turned it all the way open, and after a little eruption of gas in the water it showed constant bubbles again. But only for a half a minute or so. I adjusted it and only little time later it slowed down again and stops ! What is that all about? Is it broke? Am I loosing gas?

 

[Hoovercat]

Tiffi, there should be two guages on the regulator. One guage shows the bottle's volume and should have numbers in hundreds. The other shows line pressure and should have numbers in tens. When you open the valve on the bottle, the volume guage should go up above any red area to 500 or more. The screw on the regulator controls line pressure and should be run in until the guage moves. You only need about 1 psi on the line. From there use your needle valve to set your bubble rate. It sounds like your welder may have sold you a near empty bottle but I could be mis-interpreting your info.

 

[Tiffi]

Ok, I don't have any red areas on the gauges. But here is a picture, so you can see how it looks like right now:

So now again, what shall I open and what shall it show?

 

[Hoovercat]

The left guage is tank volume and the right is line pressure. See the right guage that's almost at 10, run out the screw until it drops almost to 0. You do have a needle valve on your setup don't you?

 

[Tiffi]

Ok, thank you very much. I've just been on the milwaukee page for a second. The say I should turn the line pressure all the way up till it shown 10 and then adjust with the needle valve. That's what I did and so far it's running now . If it still runs in an hour I should have made it .

Thank you very much though, hoovercat !

 

[Tiffi]

Ok, maybe not, it's slowing down again .

 

[Tiffi]

I can turn the screw as much as I want and it's not going back until 0. It's not going back at all, only more up if I open it more.

Man, this is spooky 8O .

 

[QuantumCranker]

Unless you have a check valve, a little water (a little is all it takes to ruin one of these) may have ran into the regulator when there was no pressure in the line. Also the diaphragm in these has been known to have a slight break-in period see here.
http://www.plantgeek.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5320&highlight=regulator+break

 

[Hoovercat]

Tiffi, the line pressure guage will only drop as the line pressure goes down. You can crack open the line to your bubble counter to bleed off the CO2 in the line while adjusting the regulator. Otherwise, the guage will show increases instantly but decreases will take a long time to register. Basicly you'll be waiting for the excess pressure to go into the tank.

 

[Tiffi]

Aaah, that sounds logical .

The regulator is running the same bubble speed for about two hours now. I think it was like in the link QC posted. Probably just the spring in there to stiff. But I'm getting there !

 

[SnyperP]

You're regulator is cranked up very high. The right gauge almost reads 10..but that's 10 kg/cm^2. It's recommended that you run it at 10-25psi. You're at nearly 140 psi. This will make adjusting the regulator with the needle valve very difficult.
Also, with such a high pressure rating you run into a danger of breaking your right gauge.

I run my regulator at 20 psi.

 

[malkore]

Good job Snyper. Tifi is indeed running PSI way too high. Read the inside ring of numbers, you should only need 20psi.

Now, one thing I have noticed on both my Milwaukee's...they take a while to break in. The first day or two you'll have to keep turning up the right gauge pressure cuz it'll sink back to 0psi every 4-6 hours.

Eventually though, it'll stay put, and your bubble rate will remain steady.