Ball Valves Wont Seal....

JT_YYC

JT_YYC

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Hey all,

Had a frustrating start to the brew day which started out as a triple decoction Marzen for Oktoberfest, and turned into a single decoction cluster F*#$ of not being able to adequately seal my ball valves. No matter what I did, they leaked. I've got 2 Igloo 5 gallon.

The ball valves are pretty new; having used one once before, and the other, less than 5 times. No matter what I did, the seals would leak. After wasting an hour trying to fix the situation, I decided to start, and swapped one of the manual valves on my sparge water which was very annoying but at least it was sealed. Now the obvious thing to do is to replace all seals which I will do next shopping trip.

Any other recommendations?
 
The valve itself was fine,but it was on the nipple between the outer seal and the ball valve. If that makes sense....I dont have a picture of my set up handy. I've attached a very rough picture as to where the leak is occuring on my valves. Forgive my clip art writing haha
 

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    ball valve.JPG
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those orings will squish out if tightened too much and leak, I recommend flat silicone washers in front of larger flat washers then the pressure will expand the silicone to the outside of the metal washer creating a great seal
 
Ozarks Mountain Brew said:
those orings will squish out if tightened too much and leak, I recommend flat silicone washers in front of larger flat washers then the pressure will expand the silicone to the outside of the metal washer creating a great seal
Click to expand...

I'll take them apart tomorrow and re-teflon everything, then leak test them again.

Both of my ball valves have different seals on them. One has the flat seal on the inside, nothing on the outside except a threaded washer. The other has 2 o-rings, which i would only tighten down hand tight and still it would leak. I'll try finding some flat seals.
 
I don't know where you got your hardware, but like @Texas Ale Works posted above, I can vouch for the brewhardware.com set up.
Also, if you don't have one on there, you need one large fender washer to help dissipate the pressure and keep the cooler wall from sucking in too much. Make sure and tighten everything up before adding and tightening up your ball balve.
20180716_175856-1024x1365.jpg

My setup for reference.
 
thunderwagn said:
I don't know where you got your hardware, but like @Texas Ale Works posted above, I can vouch for the brewhardware.com set up.
Also, if you don't have one on there, you need one large fender washer to help dissipate the pressure and keep the cooler wall from sucking in too much. Make sure and tighten everything up before adding and tightening up your ball balve.
View attachment 3481
My setup for reference.
Click to expand...


I have the large washers on both so the pressure is even. I think if i put a longer nipple on it as well, that will help but one thing at a time. I've ordered some of the silicone gaskets, and a sparge arm (why not!!!)

Also found a massive cut in my natural gas BBQ line caused by a wind storm and my BBQ getting blown across my deck!

The fun never stops! Thanks for the help everyone!
 
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Use the gasket you took off to install the ball valve.
 
JT_YYC said:
I have the large washers on both so the pressure is even. I think if i put a longer nipple on it as well, that will help but one thing at a time. I've ordered some of the silicone gaskets, and a sparge arm (why not!!!)

Also found a massive cut in my natural gas BBQ line caused by a wind storm and my BBQ getting blown across my deck!

The fun never stops! Thanks for the help everyone!
Click to expand...

Man, I've been there. I've watched my brand new grill blown across my yard before and shed a tear.
Switch to a heavier fuel, Like wood and coals FTW!
 
thunderwagn said:
Man, I've been there. I've watched my brand new grill blown across my yard before and shed a tear.
Switch to a heavier fuel, Like wood and coals FTW!
Click to expand...

Oh man that would have been painful! After picking up the second hose, I started storing the hose inside the BBQ so as not to rip a second hose. Not the stress free brewday i was looking forward to.

I've made my own recipes, but struggle calculating the water amounts required for sparge. I can't seem to get the right amount, and after 60 min boil, I'm always below the desired volume. Love trial and error!
 
that sounds like a profile adjustment, I would go through your default profile and do some water tests and get it right
 
JT_YYC said:
I have the large washers on both so the pressure is even. I think if i put a longer nipple on it as well, that will help but one thing at a time. I've ordered some of the silicone gaskets, and a sparge arm (why not!!!)

Also found a massive cut in my natural gas BBQ line caused by a wind storm and my BBQ getting blown across my deck!

The fun never stops! Thanks for the help everyone!
Click to expand...
Maybe you need to use a shorter nipple so that you are compressing the gaskets?
 
I always had a hard time getting my cooler to seal at the valves, the cooler walls always would deform, and I lived in Belgium, so getting things quick to fix it was never an option.

Hope you get it sorted
 
I took 30 minutes today and rebuilt both of the ball valves. Luckily, I had enough teflon tape, but just ran out as i finished the last one. Best part is, it worked!

Follow up question. When cleaning up after a brew day, do you disassemble the ball valves each and every time?
 
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