First, almost all of the fittings are brass. I wanted to upgrade as part of this effort and convert everything to stainless steel. I know brass can be used, but it isn't as SHINY. In addition, the false bottom was connected to the valve via a piece of pipe that I felt was potentially too short, and a bunch of compression fittings that I could never get tight enough. So, I feared that part of the problem might be some leakage at the compression fittings, generating somewhat of a spiral.
Finally, the whole thing leaked. Twice. It leaked liquid slowly out the front bottom underneath the valve, and it leaked air into my tube as I was draining.
All of this needs to be fixed. So, while I am not sure this will fix any of these issues, I have decided to replace the hardware in there and give it a little change. I'll have to brew once I get it all set up to determine if there is any actual change. And there are some additional upgrades I want as well (sparge arm or other sparging device, valve on my HLT, etc.) that may help.
As for this part, I bought a stainless bulkhead weldless keg kit from BargainFittings.com and installed it (more to come in a subsequent post).
- Remove all of the hardware from the cooler and wipe it down.
- Wash all the new parts in PBW.
- Rinse the parts thoroughly, and let them air dry.
- Wrap both sides of the nipple with teflon plumbers tape. Add an O-ring to the nipple and screw on the lock nut
- Thread the nipple through the cooler wall and attach a washer and then the valve on the front, hand tighten, then tighten with a locking set of pliers (vise grips) on the inside. I just used my hand to hold the valve on the outside.
- Screw on the coupling on the inside.
- Add teflon tape to barb and screw it into the valve on the outside.
- Fill with water to a level above the coupling.
- Check outside for leaks (YAY no leaks!!!)
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