New Bottling Bucket ... Tap Leaking?

[Victor Churchill]

Hi. I've just bought a new 25L bucket, tap and bottling wand (from Wilko), fitted the tap/wand, and used it for the first time. Previously I always just bottled direct from the FV, (until I read about a bottling bucket here! ) - initially just with a long siphon tube (messy) then with a bottom-fitted tap/siphon tube/bottling wand (much better).

With the bottling wand fitted direct to the tap on the bucket, I am seeing a small leak from the hinge area of the tap. This drips a drop or two a second when the tap is open. Looking at the tap close-up I see a couple of tiny holes maybe 1/16th inch diameter, in the tap body and in the tap spindle, and there's some leakage from the outer one of those as well as from the joint between the spindle and the body. See picture

...

I've never noticed leakage from the other tap on my FV, but then I've not been looking at it while bottling, as I've always use a tube attached to the tap with a wand at the other end.

Does this look familiar to anybody? Is it 'normal'? Have I got a bad tap?

 

[LeeH]

They can weep a little but not normally like that.

You can strip them apart, clean and wipe a thin layer of Vaseline over the rotating stem.

 

[LeeH]

....just noticed yours on in the ON position.

 

[Victor Churchill]

Yep. It's when the tap is ON and I'm bottling that the drip happens. Continues when the wand shut-off kicks in as I lift the wand from the bottle bottom. So I have to have the next bottle open and ready to whoosh into place or I get stray drips on the floor. If I turn the tap to OFF I do not get the dripping. I'll try cleaning the barrel and greasing it with some Vaseline, cheers.