From the beginning, using my Blichmann BeerGun bottle filler was an exercise in frustration. It is top heavy and I mistakenly trusted it in a heavy glass pitcher, but the weight of the beer and gas lines knocked it over and broke the pitcher: it really needs to rest in a plastic bucket on the counter or tabletop, which takes up a lot of space I don’t have to spare. Also, I had some issues with foaming (not really the fault of the beer gun).
The worst part was the bottom rubber valve seat (black rubber tip) would come off at the slightest provocation. It become a free-floating nuisance that enjoyed a tour of several bottles, pint glasses, and a growler, leaving me scrambling to disconnect the gun from the keg while beer squirted everywhere. Not to mention the hassle, I anticipated spending a fortune on replacement rubber tips.
Looking at the way the tip moved when the filler was actuated, it sort of crept off the end of the clip it mounts on (upward in the bottom photo, taken after I bent the clip). Because the clip didn’t position the valve seat centrally over the stainless beer tube, the tube would push more on one side than the other causing the rubber part to creep off and come loose.
bent clip in direction of red arrow
I bent the clip slightly to better align the tip with the gun, and it managed to stay on for a record four bottles with no sign of giving up. That’s all I needed it for at the time, so I stopped there. Time for a beer!
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I use this counter-pressure filler, and it works great: http://morebeer.com/products/counter-pressure-bottle-filler.html
There’s an accessory package you can get for it – I highly recommend that too. It’s a bit pricey, but it works very well.