Brewzilla Gen4 Discussion/Tips Talk

Yooper · Monday at 7:39 PM

Zadkiel said:
Can I ask, is the ball valve tap on the bottom loose for anyone else? Mine 'works' fine, there's no leak or anything, but it isn't bolted tight to the body and is loose and rattley. I can't see any other way to interpret the installation instructions, but the nut that goes on the inside just doesn't tighten all the way to the body of the kettle, the thread stops short, so the tap ends up having a lot of play - I just want to know if that's 'normal' or if mine has a fault that that nut can't be tightened more.

Mine is super loose. Doesn't leak. It's a Gen 4, purchased in May 2025.

DuncB · Monday at 9:55 PM

Yooper said:
Mine is super loose. Doesn't leak. It's a Gen 4, purchased in May 2025.

That's not surprising given that the leak point would be where the hose attaches to the tailpiece of the tap. The kettle attachment of the tap doesn't have to seal anything. But must be irritating with that wobbliness.

BandonBrewingCo · Tuesday at 3:07 AM

Yooper said:
Mine is super loose. Doesn't leak. It's a Gen 4, purchased in May 2025.

Mine too. Doesn't bother me as much as it should. Probably because I use it exclusively for draining during washing and I'm very zen after pitching and closing up the fermenter.

Zadkiel · Tuesday at 5:15 AM

Update: So I was kinda wrong about the raised part being missing. it is there, just a lot less pronounced than it was in the picture - the issue was just that the bolt was really hard to tighten to the body, and I guess when I was putting it together I gave up on it. The bolt is huge, I didn't have any spanner that would fit it, even my mulgrips and my adjustable spanner were too small, and for some reason you can't tighten it beyond a certain point by hand. Also one of the 'feet' of the unit gets in the way. Eventually after quite a bit of struggle I was able to use a pair of pliers to get it mostly tight, it no longer wobbles/rattles but it does still spin round (I mean the tap rotates against the body, like a plastic tap on a plastic bucket fermenter does), I'd need more tightening than a pair of pliers can do on a huge nut like that in order to stop the spin.

razzman · Tuesday at 5:24 AM

You maybe able to put a tube socket over it.

Yooper · Tuesday at 10:46 AM

DuncB said:
That's not surprising given that the leak point would be where the hose attaches to the tailpiece of the tap. The kettle attachment of the tap doesn't have to seal anything. But must be irritating with that wobbliness.

It is- but I only drain it at the very end and it fills a small cup so I'm not really that annoyed by it!