Perl 525SS Leaks at bonnet

[wbeeson23]

I just bought 2 of these faucets at farmhousebrewingsupply.com and have been having a reoccuring problem that I cannot seem to resolve. If a beer is not drawn from the facuet for several days, it will leak out of the bonnet immediately after I finish pouring a beer. The only way to get it to stop is to disassemble/reassemble the ball shaft (insert joke here). Both of them do this.

I have tried tightening the bonnet with pliers upon reassembling but this doesn't work either. I have also made sure I was assembling it per the instructions included with the faucet. All the gaskets appear to be in the proper place.

Anyone else have problems such as this? I need to order more faucets but am reluctant to order Perls at this point.

Thanks for the help.

 

[starrfish]

hmmm does the perlick have a white cupped gasket & a black regular gasket? are they put together right? white cuped down black rubber on top? new gaskets needed?

 

[wbeeson23]

No white gaskets anywhere. The product is only 3 months old so gaskets should be fine. The sealing gaskets for this area are both the same size. One sits in a seat inside the faucet housing and the other rests on top of the bearing cup.

reference #2 on this website Faucet Replacement Parts - 525 & 575 Series

 

[starrfish]

thanks for the diagram. i don't use perlicks . have had similar problem if bottom white gasket wasn't seated properly...

 

[starrfish]

is #2 gasket seated right? that's where I ran into trouble with standard tap

 

[wbeeson23]

I think it is. I inspect it everytime I have to disassemble it and make sure it's not out of seat. When I do reassemble it, it works fine until I have a span of no pulls from the tap and then go back to it.

 

[day_trippr]

Very strange. The fact that the leak only happens when you pour after having the faucets sit idle for a time is particularly weird.

About the only thing I could suggest is to pull the bonnets and faucet levers, remove the O-rings above and below the pivot ball, hit them with some Keg Lube, reinstall O-rings, levers and bonnets, and see if that makes any difference.

fwiw, I have six 525ss faucets I bought back in June of this year, which I assume are the current design, and have never had them leak - from anywhere...

Cheers!

 

[cfonnes]

If I over tighten the bonnet I get a leak, mine work best with a loose bonnet.

 

[wbeeson23]

Great info to try, thx. I thought about using keg lube and was going to try that tonight. I was thinking about the design and if the upper ball is dry enough, it could potentially pull the oring out of the seat when moving.

I also thought that tightening the bonnet the way I was doing it was probably not going to help. Doesn't seem designed to tighten with a wrench. Cfronnes did your leak occur at the bonnet or spout? Do you use keg lube when reassembling?

 

[Stand]

I think the solution here is to drink more.

 

[cfonnes]

Great info to try, thx. I thought about using keg lube and was going to try that tonight. I was thinking about the design and if the upper ball is dry enough, it could potentially pull the oring out of the seat when moving.

I also thought that tightening the bonnet the way I was doing it was probably not going to help. Doesn't seem designed to tighten with a wrench. Cfronnes did your leak occur at the bonnet or spout? Do you use keg lube when reassembling?

At the spout, after cleaning and reassemble. I did not use keg lube, but I like the idea.

 

[wbeeson23]

So I disassembled both taps, sprayed the keg lube and reasembled. It is amazing the difference. It slides open and closes really easily. I can now see why people have noted that their Perl taps sometimes open up on their own if you have a heavy tap handle. The wind could literally blow the valve open at this point.

I will have to wait and see if this solves the problem but I am hoping it will.