When this conversion is necessary
Not when changing the spear type – that works without any intervention on the keg as long as the neck carries a standard thread. The conversion is only needed on threadless necks. There the spear is not screwed in but inserted and held by a retaining ring.
Necks like these turn up mainly on kegs from the British market and on American drop-in systems. A fleet keeps running with them – just with narrower options, more expensive spears and more effort in reconditioning.
What the conversion delivers
- Every spear type becomes possible. The standard thread is the only neck system that takes practically every spear family.
- Cheaper spare parts. In manufacturers' price lists, threadless spears cost up to a quarter more.
- No more single-use rings. A retaining ring is damaged once it has been removed and must not be used again. A thread, by contrast, can be used practically without limit – it does not wear out through use, only through mishandling.
- Defined, verifiable preload. Tightening is to around 70 to 80 Nm, retightened after the first filling. The Brewers Association gives 61 Nm as the lower limit; we deliberately sit above it. A torque can be documented, a retaining ring cannot.
What a fleet operator says about it
A British keg rental company that has converted more than 30,000 containers this way gives these reasons: lower reconditioning costs, higher efficiency, a lower failure rate and better workplace safety. That is not a manufacturer's claim but the calculation of an operation that knows its own figures.
Straight talk on the direction – and on the limits
Conversions only ever run from threadless to threaded. Nobody offers the other way round. That is perhaps the most telling argument in this whole question.
When it is not worth it. With small quantities, and with kegs that are close to being scrapped anyway. Converting a keg with a damaged or bent neck is money lost – and we say so beforehand, not afterwards.
To clarify in advance
- Which neck system?
- Quantity
- Condition of the neck and the chimes
- Target date
Not sure of the neck type? Send a photo of the neck taken straight down from above. And if a spear has been removed: a square seal means threaded, an O-ring means threadless.
British or American kegs in your fleet?
With mixed fleets we sort first and calculate afterwards. Often the conversion is only worth it for part of the stock – we say that too.