How secure are compression fittings?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mpcluever

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2010
Messages
640
Reaction score
44
Location
here
Looking to terminate my immersion chiller with compression fittings to silicone hose inside my kettle that would connect with cam locks through the kettle wall so that the lid can be securely in place throughout chilling. I'm just concerned that the fittings will eventually leak. I'm hoping that since the fittings wouldn't ever really be stressed, that they'd be fine. How would flare fittings compare?
 
Are you saying that the end of the immersion chiller will have a compression fitting to a piece of silicone hose which is in the brew kettle. The silicone hose then attaches to a camlock bulkhead through the kettle wall?

If I understand what you are saying, I don't think it would be a great idea. When the silicone gets hot it will become flexible and what was a tight seal on cold tubing may leak on hot tubing. Additionally, even though silicone is rated for heat I would be worried about attaching it to the kettle wall where heat could be conducted in taking it above it's rated temperature.
 
Compression fittings should be leak-tight.

Why the silicone hose? You could just permanently affix it through the wall with compression fitting to 1/2 inch NPT, through the wall with a weldless bulkhead, then a camlock on the outside.

I think this is how people set up HERMs for the HLT, you are basically doing the same thing.

Although it seems like an awful lot of work just so you can keep the lid on the kettle during chilling. Saran wrap always worked for me when I was being paranoid (otherwise I just 'let it ride')
 
compression fittings are the only way to go with an immersion chiller, bombproof.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top