Deck drain sealing woes

[charliefarley]

Having a nightmare trying to seal my skin fittings in a thermopot...

Is there a definitive method for getting a good seal?

I've tried 1,2 and 3mm homemade silicone washers underneath and above, fibre washers, PTFE tape, LSX, all of the above, etc.
It's driving me nuts!

[GrowlingDogBeer]

I have no washers in my deck fitting, just LSX.

[aamcle]

Food grade silicone has never failed me.

Aamcle

[Kev888]

I've never had any problems either, especially with LS-X. There are a couple of things that come to mind though: Sometimes the thread doesn't go right to the end, mine have always arrived with a thick washer so all is well, but if I were to discard that I wouldn't be able to clamp the nut up tight against a thin wall. Secondly one of mine was defective in that the nut didn't meet the top flange parallel, so I would have needed a wedge shaped seal. I guess there could be other things to look for too, like lumps or cuts in the flange.

Just another thought, if you're trying to clamp through both skins the flexibility of the insulation may defeat you - normally people use a bigger hole in the outer skin and insulation so the nut can pass through to clamp against the inner skin only.

Cheers
Kev

[Fil]

The problem may be the skin fitting isnt screwing all the way in, Or If using a tapered Female fitting to screw into the depth of thread isnt penetrating deep enough into the taper to seal??

In my very limited experience fitting a bottom drain into 1 thermopot, (thanks again for the support there lads..) I had to work the threads of both the cut down skin fitting And the receiving elbow quite hard to ensure the fitting would screw in all the way, and had to file the top neck of the skin fitting a wee bit too.

to work the threads I used spare fittings to extend a T piece with leverable handles and held the fittings in the vice lubricated with oil, while i worked the tool in and out easing the threads eventually.



after working you couldnt fit a sheet of paper between the skin fitting and elbow when tightend with fingers..

i then wrapped the stub of thread on the skin fitting well with ptfe (so thick the threads start to loose prominence) and applied a finger tip smear of lsx to the pot base around the hole and fitted, No leaks..
the surplus lsx from my smear i rubbed off with my finger tip again once it had cured.

[charliefarley]

thanks guys, I think you are right about them screwing in all the way and that's a good tip Fil to work the threads.
Somehow, I managed to get them all sealed today.

All set up and timer on the HLT for a 6am brew in the morning...