[aeviaanah]

At work I use food grade anti seize to keep stainless threads from galling up. Is there something I should use for my new stainless beer shanks etc?

[day_trippr]

It wouldn't hurt to put a bit of keg lube where the faucet and tail piece thread onto the shank. I always re-lube the faucet o-ring when I clean my faucets so I have the keg lube out anyway...

Cheers!

[ajlee]

Would the same thing be good for the fittings on my stainless mash tun. I screwed the ss ball valve in and got it stuck.

[day_trippr]

I'm not sure how durable/persistent food grade silicone lube would be at mashing temperatures, but again it's not going to hurt anything to give it a try...

Cheers!

[aeviaanah]

Is teflon tape supposed to be used on these fittings?

[worxman02]

I just use teflon tape on mine.

[aeviaanah]

thanks

[zachattack]

Originally Posted by aeviaanah

Is teflon tape supposed to be used on these fittings?

On a mash tun fitting, chances are you're talking about standard pipe fittings (NPT). In that case, yes. On a beer shank/faucet, no you don't want to use PTFE tape.

PTFE tape is for fittings where the thread itself makes the seal, which means basically only NPT (tapered pipe threads). It's to help lubricate the threads and fill in any imperfections to help with the seal. Don't use it on any sort of straight thread with an o-ring or gasket (beer nut on coupler/shank, faucet) since it may prevent it from closing all the way, and don't use it on a flare-type fitting (MFL, CGA) for the same reason.

They're talking about something to prevent the metals from seizing/galling. Personally I don't see the need, but I guess I haven't thought about it too much.