King keg tap problem

[ACEKOS]

Hi all, kegged my beer two days ago, primed and set the temperature, went into the garage today and found I’d lost a few pints through the tap on off, not from the nut, just bought a poor quality tap, looked pretty sturdy but obviously not up to it, luckily I had a spare keg to transfer it to, can anyone recommend a good quality replacement tap.

Thanks in Advance

 

[Yellow Car]

If you don't want anything fancy then these seem to last.

https://www.lovebrewing.co.uk/barrel-tap-king-keg-with-backing-nut/

 

[ACEKOS]

If you don't want anything fancy then these seem to last.

https://www.lovebrewing.co.uk/barrel-tap-king-keg-with-backing-nut/

Cheers Yellow Car , I use love brewing for bits and bobs mainly ingredients, great company

 

[Yellow Car]

It's a pretty common tap, so you'll probably find it wherever you order. I'm sure I paid a lot less in my local shop (when I had one), but that was probably about 15 years ago. Still not leaking though:)

 

[Heveilius]

After years of barreling with no leaky tap problems, I recently bought a King Keg. I used PTFE on the tap thread to get a nice tight seal and greased the washer with vaseline. About half way through my first batch, beer started leaking around the tap, so I transferred the beer to another barrel. For the next batch, I reinstalled the tap with an additional washer on the inside of the barrel, but had the same problem. I'm wondering if there is a fault with the KK. in particular, the flange where the tap goes does not looks as smooth as on my old Boots barrel (see attached pics, the Boots is the brown one). The flange is also narrower on the KK (3mm) compared with the Boots (5mm).
Is it possible I have a faulty KK? Or should I just tighten the tap nut even more? I typically tighten the nut as far as I can by hand with the tap roughly horizontal, then rotate the tap to vertical while holding the inner nut fixed. Any advice appreciated.

 

[Buffers brewery]

When you say “additional washer” do you mean metal washer or rubber seal. If the latter, you don’t need it as it won’t improve the seal. The sealing face on the moulding does look a bit rough and needs a close inspection to make sure there isn’t a hairline path that won’t be sealed by the rubber washer (as it’s quite hard) or slight bumps. Check the tap flange face as well to make sure there’s no flaws on the sealing face. If all else fails, I’d suggest getting a replacement.

 

[Heveilius]

When you say “additional washer” do you mean metal washer or rubber seal. If the latter, you don’t need it as it won’t improve the seal. The sealing face on the moulding does look a bit rough and needs a close inspection to make sure there isn’t a hairline path that won’t be sealed by the rubber washer (as it’s quite hard) or slight bumps. Check the tap flange face as well to make sure there’s no flaws on the sealing face. If all else fails, I’d suggest getting a replacement.

Thanks. I used an identical rubber seal on the inside, but I guess that will only help if the inside of the barrel is sufficiently smooth at the contact point.

 

[peterpiper]

I'd avoid the vaseline.
It'll make the washer so slippy, that it'll stretch and slide out, before there's enough pressure to make a good seal (done that).

Washer, which is on outside of keg, doesn't have anything turning against it, so doesn't need lubrication anyway.
Clean off all the vaseline, with soap & hot water / meths / IPA.
Then tighten nut to (strong) finger tight. I (weak hands) usually tighten nut, with tap pointing to 4 o-clock, then holding nut still, turn tap to 6 o-clock.

With a new barrel, or when changing any seals, I now pressure test for leaks. Fill to neck with water, and inject some CO2 (I use S30 cylinders). Much nicer loosing water, than beer.

On my last barrel tap upgrade, to deluxe sparkler tap, I discovered the tap leaked (a slow drip) due to rough plastic moulding below the tap valve washer.
Replacement didn't arrive for a few days, so I had to reinstate the old tap for a last batch. It's washer, 35 year old, had quite a few splits.

PTFE between nut and spigot thread is a waste, sealing there alone wouldn't stop liquid going out under nut. Just leaves somewhere for any bugs to lurk.
Seal really needs to be the outside washer. The rubber should deform enough to seal against a fairly rough flange, but if too rough, could try a smear of (sanitary) silicone rubber under washer & barely tighten. Then tighten properly when set (after 24 hours).

Whenever lubricating rubber, or plastic, Silicone grease (lubricant) should be used (small tub available from screwfix, now also
available as a spray). Not vaseline, which rots rubber in long term.

It's worth putting some silicone grease on the cap/neck threads and o-ring, to make it easier to turn.