"O" no, rings is rings?

[Zymurgrafi]

So, help me understand here. I just bought some replacement o-ring sets for my corny kegs. The rings for the posts and diptubes appear to be just your average ordinary hardwarestore o-rings. Did I just pay shipping on o-rings for no reason? I thought the orings for the dip tubes at least were a special shape. All of mine are sort of flat with grooves on the top and bottom. I suppose they just get compressed into that shape? In which case, I probably should have replaced all of them.

Can I just get those rings at the hardwarestore in the future? Obviously the large ring for the lid is not a standard size but at least the posts and diptubes?

 

[Cheesefood]

So, help me understand here. I just bought some replacement o-ring sets for my corny kegs. The rings for the posts and diptubes appear to be just your average ordinary hardwarestore o-rings. Did I just pay shipping on o-rings for no reason? I thought the orings for the dip tubes at least were a special shape. All of mine are sort of flat with grooves on the top and bottom. I suppose they just get compressed into that shape? In which case, I probably should have replaced all of them.

Can I just get those rings at the hardwarestore in the future? Obviously the large ring for the lid is not a standard size but at least the posts and diptubes?

Rings is rings, if they're food grade.

 

[Fingers]

I replaced my cupped rings with standard o-rings and I've had no problems. As Cheesy-boy says, rings is rings. They just have to seal.

 

[Zymurgrafi]

so the cupped rings were that shape to begin with? I was beginning to think maybe they were really just smashed and old.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

Sometimes the dip tube orings are flat because they got squashed, but I believe technically the "proper" replacement orings for the dip tubes are in fact a special shape - sort of an X-shaped cross-section. They're supposed to seal better. In addition, the post o-rings are supposed to be silicone, I guess they seal a little better and are a little more durable or something. Here's a link to part numbers and such - be forewarned, they do cost a lot more, and it's arguable whether the benefits are worth the extra price for the relatively low-volume use of homebrewers:
http://lists.bendtel.net/pipermail/coho/2006-June/000077.html

A LOT of people have used regular, round, buna-N orings on their cornys (myself included) and never had issues. I wouldn't mind using the "right" orings if I wasn't forced to buy 100 at a time. The dip tube ones aren't that bad (still under 5 bucks a bag) so I'll probably get those next time I need some instead of plain ones, but so far I haven't been interested in dropping $12 on silicone post Orings.

 

[Zymurgrafi]

Well, the set of rings i just got were from Northern Brewer so I figured they were the correct rings since they sold them as replacements for corny kegs. I just wondered when I got them because they seemed like ordinary rings.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

Well, the set of rings i just got were from Northern Brewer so I figured they were the correct rings since they sold them as replacements for corny kegs. I just wondered when I got them because they seemed like ordinary rings.

Yep, well, the ones that MOST of us use (and the ones most often sold as replacements) are in fact just plain old run-of-the-mill O-rings. Every used corny keg I've gotten, though they were all previously in use by the soda companies, had the same type of plain old O-rings on them - suggesting that even though some people claim that you should be using the fancier O-rings, even the soda companies who used corny kegs the most don't really think it's necessary.

 

[SPLASTiK]

I just bought a bunch from McMaster Carr:

Dip Tube O-Rings
5/16" ID x 1/2"OD x 3/32" width
9452K172 BunaN #109
Pkg 100/$1.89

Post O-Rings
7/16" ID x 5/8" OD x 3/32" width
9452K23 BunaN #111
Pkg 100/$2.15

Lid O-Rings
3 1/2" ID x 4" OD x 1/4" width
9452K218 BunaN #417
Pkg 10/$12.50

$16.54