Glycol Beer System Service and Repair, Newcastle and the Hunter

When a glycol system fails, you find out at the tap. Beer comes out warm, foams over the glass, and every pour costs you product before anyone gets served. In a busy venue that is not an inconvenience, it is a trading problem.

Summit Air and Refrigeration services, repairs and replaces glycol beer systems across Newcastle, the Hunter Valley and the Central Coast. We are a refrigeration company first, which matters more than it sounds. Most glycol faults are refrigeration faults, and diagnosing them properly needs someone who works on refrigeration systems every day rather than someone who only cleans lines. If your lines need cleaning as well, that is covered on our beer line cleaning page.

ARC certified, licence AU56998. Emergency response available 24/7.

How a glycol system actually works

Understanding the system makes the faults obvious.

A glycol power pack chills a bath of water and glycol to around minus 4 degrees.

A pump circulates that glycol out through an insulated bundle called a python, which carries the beer lines alongside the glycol lines all the way from the keg room to the font. The glycol keeps the beer cold along the entire run, then returns to the bath to be chilled again.

The beer never touches the glycol. It just travels next to it.

Three things have to work at once: the refrigeration side has to chill the bath, the pump has to circulate, and the python has to hold the cold in. If any one fails, the beer arrives warm, and from behind the bar all three faults look identical.

Common glycol faults and what they usually mean

Beer is warm but the chiller reads correct

The bath is cold, so the refrigeration side is likely fine. That points to circulation. Usually a failed or failing glycol pump, an airlock, a blockage, or a valve that has been closed and not reopened. Sometimes the glycol level has dropped far enough that the pump is drawing air.

Chiller runs constantly and never satisfies

This is a refrigeration fault, not a glycol fault. Low refrigerant charge, a failing compressor, a blocked condenser, or a fan that has stopped. A condenser packed with keg room dust is one of the most common causes we find, and one of the cheapest to fix.

First few pours are fine, then it goes warm

The system is not keeping up with demand. Either the power pack is undersized for the number of taps, the glycol flow rate is too low, or the python has lost insulation value over a long run. Common in venues that have added taps without upgrading the pack.

Warm beer on some taps but not others

Points to the python or the individual line rather than the system. Cold loss usually shows worst on the taps furthest from the keg room.

Excessive foam across the whole bar

Temperature first, gas pressure second. Warm beer breaks out of solution in the line and arrives as foam. Fixing the gas will not fix the temperature. If temperature and gas both check out, the next thing to look at is line condition and beer line cleaning frequency.

What we service

Glycol power pack service, repair and replacement
Glycol pump diagnosis and replacement
Refrigeration faults on integrated packs, ARC certified
Glycol level, mix ratio and condition checks
Python faults, insulation loss and cold loss on long runs
Temperature calibration measured at the tap, not just at the pack
System sizing when you are adding taps
Full system replacement and new installations

Why glycol systems get misdiagnosed

Glycol sits between two trades. Beer line contractors know the beer side but not the refrigeration. Refrigeration contractors know the plant but not the beer system. Venues end up paying twice and still pouring warm beer.

We do both. When we open a power pack we can diagnose the refrigeration circuit properly, and when we test at the tap we know what the beer should be doing.

Adding taps to an existing system

Before you add taps, the question worth answering is whether the existing pack and python can carry them. Adding four taps to a system already running at capacity does not give you four warm taps, it gives you a warm bar.

We check pack capacity, glycol flow and python spare capacity before quoting, so you find out beforehand rather than after the install.

Servicing Newcastle, the Hunter and the Central Coast

We service venues across Newcastle, Maitland, Cessnock, the Hunter Valley, Port Stephens, Lake Macquarie and the Central Coast. Scheduled servicing and emergency callouts both available, and we work around trading hours where we can.

Call 0418 979 116 or request a quote.