Help! Leaking barrel!

[WalesAles]

inspect thee rubber washer.

Norm

I just love the Northern dialect coming into these posts!
Sound`s like my old grandad talking!
No offence Norm, but I say it as I read it and it sounds great!

WA

[Onthebrew]

ok seems to have stopped. i put it on its side and removed tap added vaseline to the seal and put back on - no drips since. i dont know if it was vaslaline on the seal or just releasing a bit of pressure that did the trick, not sure what losing that pressure will do to carbination levels though.

[Normski]

inspect thee rubber washer.

Norm

I just love the Northern dialect coming into these posts!
Sound`s like my old grandad talking!
No offence Norm, but I say it as I read it and it sounds great!

WA

None Taken

[suttonbrewer]

I've had no end of problems with these types of taps leaking. A solution that I've found that works is wrapping P.T.F.E. tape around the threads on the tap.

[Onthebrew]

Ok thanks Sutton, but can I ask..What's Ptfe? How does that work and where do you get it?

[Nitro Jim]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene
Basically Teflon... The tape can be picked up from builders merchants or Wilko, look in the plumbing section.

[tickle]

I also had the same problem and I also used the Ptfe tape good stuff
but don't over tighten the tap or you will still have a leak

[Onthebrew]

Cool, Ok, think I know where to get some will give it a go. Cheers.

[Eric]

I'd be a bit cautious about using ptfe tape to solve this problem. The seal is not meant to be on the threads, their purpose is for applying the correct pressure to the washer to make a seal with the flange on the tap and the face of the barrel. Not a lot of pressure is necessary to make this seal if all the faces are smooth and clean, but even if all is well it will leak with either too little or too much pressure.
Between brews I take out the taps to clean and sanitise the threads of the barrel as well as all of the tap. At this stage with the barrel full with water it can be found how tight the tap should be to seal the joint under a static head and, if you have a cap with CO2 fitting, under pressure.
Spare washers and seals are available cheaply.

[pint of heavy]

The first thing is dont buy pressure barrels. i have one which i only use for porters and stouts because the gas gets knocked out at the tap. But put plumbers ptfe tape around the thread (wrap it in the oposite way from the direction of thread) until it is quite hard to put the nut round the thread should seal it up. I have went to bottles because of this