Last winter I rehabbed my 8 year old keezer which had developed worrisome rusting on the bottom, the result of years of summer-time humidity outrunning my attempts to capture the moisture with a pair of EVA Dry 500s. They worked fine for 9 months of the year, but from June through the end of August they couldn't really keep up. Over the years I had done all the obvious stuff to cut down on moisture ingress but barely made a dent.
In the course of the rehab I realized the plastic cap on the top of the base cabinet had a suspicious lack of any evident sealant - outside or inside. I tried shooting high-pressure air under the outside edge - and could feel it exiting under the inside edge - an "Ah HAH!" moment. So I applied silicone sealant under the inside edge of the cap, forcing it in as best as the gun allowed, running all the way 'round the cabinet. I also pried up the four seams and shot sealant in.
That was last winter. Today as I was re-filling my rinser water keg I noticed there wasn't any puddling all. Then I realized I hadn't swapped the pair of the EVA Dry units for a dried pair in at least a couple of months. And this was hardly an exceptionally dry summer - quite the opposite, actually, according to my A/C bill
This is the type of plastic top cap I'm referring to. This is on my next keezer, but the old one is similar.
There are four of these seams. Each one provides an ingress path, and causes a gap under the lid gasket...
...like this one.
This is a pic of a similar gap on my current ("K2") keezer. The sealant cut the gap down by at least half and could have been done even better.
But those four small gaps are nothing compared to the entire perimeter of the cap leaking like a sieve.
Aaanyway...preferentially, use something other than typical 100% silicone sealant, because that stuff doesn't really stick to anything well. As I build "K3" I'll be using the same marine grade sealant I use on through-hull bolts and fittings on my boat. That stuff sticks to pretty much anything...
Cheers!
In the course of the rehab I realized the plastic cap on the top of the base cabinet had a suspicious lack of any evident sealant - outside or inside. I tried shooting high-pressure air under the outside edge - and could feel it exiting under the inside edge - an "Ah HAH!" moment. So I applied silicone sealant under the inside edge of the cap, forcing it in as best as the gun allowed, running all the way 'round the cabinet. I also pried up the four seams and shot sealant in.
That was last winter. Today as I was re-filling my rinser water keg I noticed there wasn't any puddling all. Then I realized I hadn't swapped the pair of the EVA Dry units for a dried pair in at least a couple of months. And this was hardly an exceptionally dry summer - quite the opposite, actually, according to my A/C bill
This is the type of plastic top cap I'm referring to. This is on my next keezer, but the old one is similar.
There are four of these seams. Each one provides an ingress path, and causes a gap under the lid gasket...
...like this one.
This is a pic of a similar gap on my current ("K2") keezer. The sealant cut the gap down by at least half and could have been done even better.
But those four small gaps are nothing compared to the entire perimeter of the cap leaking like a sieve.
Aaanyway...preferentially, use something other than typical 100% silicone sealant, because that stuff doesn't really stick to anything well. As I build "K3" I'll be using the same marine grade sealant I use on through-hull bolts and fittings on my boat. That stuff sticks to pretty much anything...
Cheers!
