propane manifold problems

I have been building a single tier stand for the past 8 months and have not yet brewed on it because of the manifold. I have no problem admitting that I am not the most DIY friendly individual. I have assembled and disassembled the propane manifold about 7 times now. Used pipe dope, used gas teflon tape, and continue to get leaks. When it does hold it, it doesn't hold for long. I've all but given up. Are there other options out there? Should I have a hollow tube welded onto the stand and plumb the propane that way? is there somewhere I can buy an f'ing manifold? I'm at wits end!

on top of that, even if I do get the damn thing sealed...I have zero confidence that it will actually hold.

any ideas?

You are using the regulator BEFORE the manifold right? I don't remember what pressure propane comes out pre-regulator, but I know it's pretty damn high. What type of pipe dope are you using? Can you upload pictures?

PM Hoppyguy with brewsteel aka badass brew stands. he does make manifolds. But with pipe dope and a couple pipe wrenches its a fairly easy straightforward assembly.

I tried using the dope, it was a mess and leaked. Others were more successful with it. I took the whole thing apart again and (yellow) teflon'd the living daylights out of it. Like minimum five to seven wraps, starting right up at the top threads. Then screw in until very firm, but don't overdo it. Some people more expert at plumbing than me said that over tightening can cause problems.

And I am glad you are using leak detector spray, whatever it is called. Don't make your own, buy it from the store.

I don't think you can over tighten gas pipe, unless its to the point it snaps obviously. I'm a huge fan of pipe dope, don't like Teflon for gas systems

I'm not a fan of the pipe dope. If there's any cutting oil left on the pipe threads (female and/or male threads) it won't stick worth a damn. Been there, done that, tossed the t-shirt in the trash along with the dope.

I ended up using the yellow tape, and even though my tank regulator will never go above 10 psi, I pressure tested my manifold from the gas QD all the way to the burner orifices at 125psi before I considered it "done"...

Cheers!

Can you post some photos of the assembly? Perhaps there's something else going on.


We use Rector Seal 5 for all our assemblies. It's faster and easier than tape. Granted, we do a lot of assemblies, where as DIYs typically do this once.