Duotight/John Guest vs. Oetiker Clamps vs. SS Hose Clamps

[pvpeacock]

In my endless quest to upgrade all of my brewing equipment (and tinker) I have been thinking of buying Duotight fittings for my 4 tap keezer, rolling cooler and jockey box. While they are relatively cheap, it dawned on me that I would replacing my existing stainless steel/metal barbs, shank nipples and ball lock swivel nuts and hose clamps with plastic. Is this really a good idea? That led me to ask whether I would better off investing in an Oetiker clamp tool and clamps to simply replace my SS hose clamps. That let me to ask, why replace perfectly good ss hose clamps? I understand that the advantage to Duotight fittings is that you can easily insert and remove the hose from the fittings (no screwdriver needed and no need to cut the hose or pry the Oetiker clamp), but I don't remove or swap out my beer hoses (let alone my gas lines) very often. So what are the pro's and con's of Duotight/John Guest vs. Oetiker clamps vs. hose clamps? Thanks in advance for your thoughts and input.

 

[day_trippr]

You may be putting the cart in front of the horse: I wanted to switch all of the beer and gas lines in my brewery to EVAbarrier tubing, and going with PTC fittings (from John Guest, Duotight and DMfit) was more an enabler than a goal.

I would not recommend tearing up a perfectly functional dispensing system just to switch connector (or clamp) technology. But, if you're going to upgrade your lines, that would be a good time to consider changing out all the connectors as well...

Cheers!

 

[eric19312]

+1 to what @day_trippr said. The reason to consider using duo tight fittings is they are a good way to use EVA Barrier tubing. Not the only way to use EVA Barrier...EVA Barrier also can be made to work with barbs and clamps. But I understand getting the tubing onto the barbs is not fun and getting it connected with duo tight is just super easy.

Also those that have gotting it on to their barbs (hot swagging tools I think) I've not heard reports about long term effectiveness of these connections. Do they leak if you bump them? I can say the duo tights are solid and leak free in my keezer. Before switching I had issues with the Bevlex tubing and barbs I was using leaking from time to time. Leaked a 20# CO2 tank overnight once. That might have been issue with my cheapo hose clamps and I can see how I might have improved with Oetiker. But nah.. if you are switching to EVA Barrier just switch to PTC/FFL fittings at same time even if it means a new manifold.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I do have a total of 12 barbs with EVAbarrier tubing on them - the 5mm ID/8mm OD line, as opposed to the 4/8 I use for beer lines - and while it really wasn't difficult for 11 of them - 1/4" barbs - the Micromatic nitro reg with its 3/8" barb was a pita and required serious work with a heat gun and swaging tool like this one:

Afaik none of those are leaking (did the conversion last Nov/Dec), and 9 of them are inside my keezer where the lines get jostled with some regularity.
Still, my next keezer will have a new 8-way manifold sporting 1/4" MFL shutoffs, so I'll be down to just the three primary regulator outputs with barbs...

Cheers!

 

[pvpeacock]

Thanks to everyone who replied. For now, I think I will just leave well enough alone and will revisit this issue when I need to replace my keezer beer lines. Thanks again.

 

[duncan.brown]

I have failed to get BevSeal Ultra 235 to make a good connection on a barb. I think EVABarrier may be a bit more forgiving, based on what @day_trippr and others have posted.

 

[day_trippr]

I've never handled Ultra 235, but from what I've read it isn't particularly flexible, while EVAbarrier is very flexible - I've had it easily do close to a 1" radius.
So I'm betting the latter is much softer material than Ultra 235 and likely easier to jamb on barbs without leaking...

Cheers!

 

[Bobby_M]

EVA is considerably softer than 235. You CAN put EVA over barbs but you cant use worm drive clamps on it. They dont apply even pressure on such a small diameter.

 

[JAReeves]

If I may ask for clarity in this thread. I am using worm drive hose clamps on the hoses where I have assembled the connectors (except for the picnic taps that came pre-assembled from the LHBS). I have had occasional leaks, though not always from the clamp area, sometimes it's where the quick disconnect connects to the hose (apparently a fine line between too tight and not tight enough). Also, I have started using keg lube on every threaded/QD connection just as a precaution (including the ball-lock posts on the keg).

Is there a universally better clamping system than the worm-drive SS hose clamp? I am using EVABarrier hose through the entire keezer.

Reevesie

 

[eric19312]

I think @Bobby_M explained in post #8 that you can't use worm drive clamps with EVA Barrier tubing. I believe the people that insist on using barbs with EVA Barrier just jam it on really well and call it good enough. I think the better way is to get rid of all the barb connections in favor for flare connections and go with the duo tights.

 

[Bobby_M]

Specifically if you need to use clamps, you want the one-use Oetiker style clamps that get crimped on.

 

[JAReeves]

Thank you!