ball valves from home depot

Has anybody had any success using a ball valve purchased from home depot on there keggles? I'm thinking about going that route on my hot liquor tank
and I am trying to figure out ways to attach it to the keggle. It will be weldless ...any ideas will be appreciated thanks!

All of the valves I have seen at Home Depot are Galvanized Steel, Brass, Copper, or CPVC.
I haven't found Stainless Steel at HD but I may have looked in the wrong section.
I cannot certify the brass is Lead free either.

Hi

The ones they have at the local are all brass valves. Two basic issues:

1) Some people don't like brass (lead, corrosion, zombie attractors ...)

2) The seals on them are likely "low temperature". They aren't designed for continuous use at boiling temperatures.

Neither one may be an issue in your situation. There are some real cheap buys on valves on eBay ....

Bob

I never thought about ebay having ball valves, I will check it out .And as for the ball valve having lead in it I would have to double check thanks!

You can use brass but you'll pay $9 plus whatever sales tax.. several vendors including myself have all stainless kits for not much more. We've taken all the guesswork and trial and error out of making a weldless bulkhead.

Yup, What he said^^^. I got all stainless, with stainless camlocks for around 50 bucks for a march pump three tier system with ballvale/bulkhead fittings on all three kettles and tuns. Had to wait a whole extra day for one of the part numbers I ordered to arrive and be shipped. Him or Bargain fitting, whatever tickles your fancy, they are competitave price wise and both have great customer service.
Wheelchair Bob

Bobby_M said:

You can use brass but you'll pay $9 plus whatever sales tax.. several vendors including myself have all stainless kits for not much more. We've taken all the guesswork and trial and error out of making a weldless bulkhead.

Click to expand...

Rbeckett said:

Yup, What he said^^^.

Click to expand...

^^ me 3.

I made a ball valve assy out of some crap from home depot a long time ago. Looked great for about an hour, but soon became a rusty mess.

Hi

Even "premium" stainless steel ball valves run around $25 or so. The eBay ones I got were about $16 for the four bolt ones and maybe $10 for the simple ones. Not a lot of money....

Bob

Thanks for all the good info... cheers!

I do not think you can beat the ball valves from Stout Conicals. You can take them totally apart in about 30 seconds.

BrewHardware, Bargain Fittings
'nuff said

I have used the Home Depot Valves on my whirlpool vessel for a long time. I bought them with a gift card. I always meant to change them over to stainless like the rest of my vessels, but never did. I had no trouble with leaks or temperatures from boiling down to near freezing.

I would do the stainles one if you can, but the brass will work in a pinch if you need them sooner than shipping allows.

I've looked at going the home made HD route myself, and after building the drains/valves for my MLT+HLT... it's just as simple to purchase from quality sponsor here with pre-built assemblies. Unless you are in the plumbing industry to aquire them less than retail, it wasn't worth my time sourcing and assembling the parts. That is the route I am taking when I get ready to put drains on my Kettle. I'm buying 2 at once cause I plan on having a HLT keggle soon too.

I just literally finished sourcing all the parts on a valve for my mash tun today. And I'll tell you, without any doubt, that I regret just not buying a pre-sourced assembly from a brewing hardware site. My home depot didn't have any SS fittings, so I ended up buying them from McMaster-Carr. I bought a brass valve with SS interior components. I also ended up with 25 o-rings and 10 SS washers (nice to have extra but jeez). It was $35 for one valve assembly before shipping, and like $42 after. I realized I forgot to buy a SS hose barb so I went to my local Grainger and they wanted $20 for it (partially because it was 316 SS which isn't necessary for our purposes). I ended up just buying it from buyfittingsonline.com.

Usually I'm a proponent of DIY sourcing, but i suggest learning from our mistakes and buying a pre-assembled valve assembly.

Hi

I think McMaster Carr is a great place to get stuff from and I certainly buy stuff from them. That said - for valves and the like, go with a brew hardware outfit. Prices are *much* better and they have all the stuff in a much easier to find format.

For the weld less fittings, yes indeed - go with an assembly rather than the build it up route. The Brewer's Hardware ones are *way* better than anything you could make yourself unless you have a metal lathe in the basement.

Bob

Been using my HD brass ballvalve on my kettle for quite a while and have had zero issues with low-temp gaskets or rust.