Slow leak to taps

[Dragon Tales]

Hello all, Dragon Tales here from the village of Loughor in S Wales. New to the forum but been brewing a while. One problem I keep getting is leaking taps when resting or maturing ales. I use a barrel to rest ale before rebarreling to mature. In either case, I sometimes get a slow drip from the tap which is a standard King keg type tap. I have several and swap over when this happens but can't seem to stop it.
Just done my first mashed brew for 6 mths and guesse what... I've swapped tap for one I used during boiling on the assumption that it was secure. Nope. I do take taps apart for cleaning/sterilisation but am pretty sure they go back together alright. Oh yes.. The leaks are from the outlet of the tap although I have had a couple from the washer end (I do put vaseline round the thread of the tap). Any ideas?

 

[Samarith]

LINK REMOVED BY MODERATOR might be of use to you.

You can vaseline the washer, don't over tighten when fitting tap to the keg and the inside of the tap body.

Oh and welcome to the forums.

 

[Dragon Tales]

Thanks for that. I do vas' the washer though. I'm just sterilising a second barrel to rack off from and rest from a finished fermentation. I see the closed tap is has a drip from the outlet again. The barrel is open (no lid) so there's not even any pressure! There's no leakage from the seal (washer area) just the tap itself. I'm going to leave the sterilised water in and seal and give a squirt of Co2 to simulate the beer pressure during maturation. Otherwise it's more new taps. very frustrating.

 

[Samarith]

The tap can be taken apart, sometimes bits get stuck in it so it doesn't seal properly. You can clean and vaseline the inside of the tap lightly, which sometimes plugs scratches. Also if the tab inside the top of the tap is misaligned the tap doesn't screw down fully (or so I'm given to understand).

Unfortunately the link to that process must be on a site that's not allowed here.

Hope this helps but I'm going from interwebz info as I don't have a king keg myself.

 

[Dragon Tales]

Thanks again Samarith. I've now got one brew maturing and one resting in two King Kegs. Taps not overtightened and washers lightly vazzed. I'll keep a weather eye out for problems.The tap I had most trouble with is now "quarantined"! I think I'll take it apart as you suggest and see if I can spot a problem. I'll have to replace it if I can't anyway.
Cheers.

 

Didn't know you could take "Drum taps" apart, thanks for that info, sorry it doesn't help your problem.

 

[Tony]

NIce to meet you DT!
:

 

[Aleman]

Unfortunately the link to that process must be on a site that's not allowed here.

The site in question has actually threatened legal action against the Admin team if they allow any negative posts about their business to be posted here. If they are not prepared to allow free speech and 'fair reviews' of service, then why should the admin team allow links to their site . . . unfortunately I actually thought that the link that was removed was very useful . . . but we won't discriminate.

The forum sponsors provide great service, and if there are any issues are more than happy to hear about them and deal with them quickly.

Might try and write an article on teh process fo taking a drum tap apart . . . although every time I have done so I've made the leak worse. . . .or even made a sound tap leak

 

[Samarith]

Unfortunately the link to that process must be on a site that's not allowed here.

The site in question has actually threatened legal action against the Admin team if they allow any negative posts about their business to be posted here. If they are not prepared to allow free speech and 'fair reviews' of service, then why should the admin team allow links to their site . . . unfortunately I actually thought that the link that was removed was very useful . . . but we won't discriminate.

That seems an entirely sensible solution.

The quality of the moderation and the general restraint of the members are what make this forum such a great resource.

I'm suprised that a company can even threaten such action. If it was a one off problem that they could have explained or fixed, surely they would have been better to respond to whatever the issue was with a remedy. I accept that things go wrong buying online, its how a company responds to the problem that determines whether I use them again.

 

[Dragon Tales]

hi there yourself O.A.D.
My first post here and I seem to have stepped into something!
As it happens, I frequently take King keg taps apart to clean & sterilise. The top cap (with the on/off info & arrows) pops out if you use mild pressure at the seam with say a blunt butter knife (other knife types are available!). The screw tap the unscrews and comes out. There's a plastic 'thimble like' attachment at the bottom of this which is the part that screws down into the tap body to close/open the tap. Here's the thing ..... mine had a 0.5cm verticle split in it which is probably why that one leaked. It may be due to high temperatures during boiling as sugar boiling gets to pretty high temperatures as you'll know if you've ever brewed wearing sandals( joking!). The other tap leaked, I think because of small debris in the thread of the tap which is easily removed.

The DIFFICULT PART is getting the tap back together as it doesn't really want to re-thread. Ultimately, I tried placing in boiled water for 5 mins then did it using pliers, not to force it but due to it being so bl**dy hot! The cap lastly, goes back on with the vertical slat slotting back into the appropriate hole WITH THE TAP IN THE CLOSED POSITION. Well it worked and that's what happened to me. hope of some interest.
Cheers.

 

[corby_brewer]

Think i must just be lucky. I picked up a chepo youngs pressure barrel off free cycle last year. And have used it on about 7 or 8 brews now, and have never had any problems with leaking taps.
After every brew i take it apart to clean / sanitise it and it goes back together like new.