wort pot ball valves

[Merleti]

On the pot that I boil my wort the ball valve get encrusted with burn wort. My guess is the gasket on the ball valve is getting worn out and leaking during the boil. Does anyone know of a good place to get replacement gaskets for a 3 piece 1/2" ball valve? Or is this normal?

 

[reelmower]

Merteli .. I was researching where to buy replacement gaskets a few years ago .. when I was about to purchase my 3 piece ball valves. All the info I gathered .. indicated that you can't buy replacement gaskets. The 3 piece ball valves are basically .. disposable. I found that my best approach .. is to take the valves apart after each use ... clean them .. and maybe put a little keg lube on the gasket. Also, make sure to use heat shields .. to keep intense heat away from the ball valve when you're brewing. You can get some spare parts .. by buying more ball valves .. and keeping your old pieces. I made some heat shields out of flattened out large tomato cans ... with a hole drilled large enough for the pipe nipple to fit through .. then thread on the ball valve. The flattened out can is a great heat shield .. and insurance that I'm not melting the insides of my ball valves.

 

[Merleti]

reelmower Thanks. I'll be wipping up a heat shield this week.