FOB Detectors and How They WorkFOB Detectors and How They Work

In the world of shipping, FOB means Free On Board and is a term that explains the point at which goods being shipped become the responsibility of the buyer. FOB origin or FOB shipping point means that once the seller has shipped the goods they are at the risk of the buyer. FOB destination means the seller retains the risk of loss until they have been received by the buyer.

However, in the pub trade FOB has a much more prosaic meaning and is Foam On Beer, which is something you don't want. When your keg gets empty your tap starts spitting and spraying foam, which causes waste beer because you have to refill the lines with beer and purge the air from them. It also causes down time for your customers. The simple answer to the problem is FOB detectors. FOB detectors do exactly that: detect when the keg is empty and immediately shut it down. The FOB detector means that you get no foaming at all, and when you tap the new keg you immediately start pouring beer, so no waste and no down time for your customers. Simply tap the new keg and you're off to the races.


This is how FOB detectors work: the beer that flows through the beer line and FOB lifts a float ball to the top of the FOB detector chamber. As your keg starts to empty and the beer flow is lighter, the float ball drops inside the chamber. This leads to a seal immediately being placed on the FOB outlet port, eliminating loss of beer by cutting off the flow into the beer line when the keg empties.

A FOB detector has to be cleaned in the same way as your beer lines are, on a regular basis. It is recommended that a FOB detector should be disassembled every three months and cleaned using a beer line cleaner. While a beer line cleaner is great for removing organic matter, it is not as good at removing mineral deposits such as beerstones so you should also use an acidic beer line cleaner to remove these.

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