Weldless: Oring or Silicone washer

[parratt1]

Hey there,
I am getting ready to make a keggle and want to put together the parts for a weldless ball valve install. I see that most all of the people selling the kits are using silicone o rings. Is there any reason not to use a silicone washer instead? Sure seems like it would seal better with more surface area.

 

[sjlammer]

I had leaks using an oring.... The washers work great!

 

[Mike_A]

I think the main reason I would opt for o-ring over washer/gasket is cost. If you can find me a 10 pack that slip over a 1/2" MPT thread for about $5 I think I'd be all over that.

 

[Bachhus]

Anyone found a source for silicone washers like the o-ring supply place frequently linked to? I already called the o-ring place and they don't have silicone washers. I don't think 2.50 each is much of a deal but thats all I can find so far. This would be for 1/2" NPT weldless fittings.

 

[itsme6582]

Have you checked out Bargain Fittings? They have weldless kits that come with an extra silicone o-ring. You can buy addition o-rings for 25 cents a piece. $5 flat rate shipping.

 

[parratt1]

Does it have to be a particular kind or grade of silicone for the washers? I may have some ideas but not sure. Is silicone all the same?

 

[chromados]

I use silicone o-rings for around 10 weldless fittings but have never tried the washers. I got a 25 pack from http://www.oringsandmore.com/servlet/the-1355/Silicone-o-dsh-rings-Size-210/Detail for around 5 bucks shipped. Its always nice having more around incase something comes up, and for that price you cannot beat it.

Chromados

 

[BadWolfBrewing]

posting on a dead thread, in case others look this way for info.

I had a leaky cooler fitting, from repeated opening closing of the valve bending the plastic around the outlet hole. Essentially, the o-ring had so little surface area pressing against the inner cooler wall, I didn't have a structurally sound connection and the plastic around the hole got compressed from frequent re-tightenings to stop leaks.

As a last ditch effort before having to buy another cooler, I tried a silicone washer from adventures in homebrew (my local store), and the leaks stopped and I had a much stronger structural connection. I would assume doing the same on a kettle would yield positive results, so as long as the wall wasn't too curved. If it is, you might need to silver-solder a shim washer in place to have a flat spot to seal to. Of course, if you are silver soldering a washer, might as well solder a bulkhead in place.

 

[headfullahops]

As a last ditch effort before having to buy another cooler, I tried a silicone washer from adventures in homebrew (my local store), and the leaks stopped and I had a much stronger structural connection. I would assume doing the same on a kettle would yield positive results, so as long as the wall wasn't too curved. If it is, you might need to silver-solder a shim washer in place to have a flat spot to seal to. Of course, if you are silver soldering a washer, might as well solder a bulkhead in place.

+1 I have replaced all o-rings in my brewery (with the exception of silicone o-rings inside of compression fittings) with flat silicone washers. Much more reliable seal from the washers.

 

[daphatgrant]

Sorry for the necro but I'm in the process of building a brew setup and ran across this thread. I haven't actually done this yet but I think I'll try grabbing a silicone cake pan, 5/8" hollow punch and 1" hollow punch and make my own gaskets/washers. I saw it done here on YouTube. After the initial expense of the punches the per gasket cost should be super cheap, and food/temp safe.