Perlick to Shank Connection - Coupling Gasket

So I bought two Perlick 525SS's from Beverage Factory and bought shanks from Brewmasters Warehouse. The diagram for the Perlick http://www.perlick.com/store/webcatalog2.php?catno=1&sectno=1&grpno=3 shows an O ring seat (item 3 on the diagram) and a coupling gasket (item 4). There is a ring that is sitting just inside the teeth for connection to the shank. Is that the O ring seat or the coupling gasket? I don't see anything else further inside the faucet so I can make the distinction and figure out if I'm missing one or the other. This seems so simple and I've managed to become terribly confused.

Thank you in advance for any help. I've been brewing for six months and have finally made the leap to kegging. This forum has been incredibly helpful along the way! Cheers!

The thin black o-ring immediately inside the shank end of the 525ss is the "coupling gasket". No clue about the "o-ring seat", I'm pretty sure I was too hot to mount my six faucets on the t-tower to spend any time peering inside them

fwiw, when you go to install the faucet on the shank, make sure to lube that "coupling gasket", at least with water but keg lube would be even better...

Cheers!

Thank you for the reply, got everything hooked up last night and all is well!

Glad to read that. Enjoy your new faucets!

Just for the record, the mystery O-Ring identified as item 3 in the 525SS diagram is the seal for the "forward sealing" ball valve. Installed, it resides inside the faucet spout, just beyond the valve lever port.

The reason they placed it where it is in the diagram is it has to be inserted through the coupling end of the faucet (with the valve lever removed) and pushed all the way forward to its home.

Don't know why this didn't register with me earlier, but I was drinking beer at the time

Cheers!

They designed it this way because their original foreword sealing faucet was not their design. They were manufacturing the their faucets under license from the designer. Then the original designer went under and Perlick "believed they were still manufacturing under license from the patent owner. The case went to court and the final decision was the person licensing the design did not own the design. This forced Perlick to quickly come up with their own design. I don't like the new faucets as much as the old ones.

Interesting stuff, Tom. When did the design change actually occur - and can the "old" style be discerned from the "new" style?

Cheers!

The old design was closer to a standard faucet - a stainless steel plug was moved back and forth when the andle was moved but the seal was in the front instead of the back. The new Perl model came out last year.

The original faucet was a Ventmatic but the designer of the original went under. Some users claimed the Ventmatic was a better faucet but I took one of each apart once and everything I could measure was the same. I suspect they were both made by the same Chinese manufacturer.