Help with leaking bulkhead fittings on coolers

[kim]

We have two sets of coolers -- one that we built, one that we bought from B3 - and both have pretty consistently leaked from the bulkhead fitting from the start. It's driving me nuts. We tried adding in extra rubber washer-gasket-things, and that didn't seem to help. We've also tightened the hell out of them, but no luck. They probably leak about a pint an hour, maybe a little more.

Any suggestions? Thanks-

Kim

[Grist Licker]

I fixed my leaky no-weld fittings with silicone. Works perfectly. Silicone is high temp too, I use it on my HLT without problems.

[barleybreath]

Hey Kim

If it is leaking around the threads of the bulkhead fitting, you might try teflon tape.

That is the only thing I can think of right now. Coffee hasent kicked in yet I guess.


Dell

[Mylo]

I built mine with regular fittings from Home Depot. I had to put a garden hose washer on the inside and the outside to make up the space on the threaded fitting. You need compression on those washers from whatever you are tightening to hold in on there. You can try adding some stainless washers if you need even more compression.
Note: the garden hose washers are really not the correct size or material - but they did work for some time. What you really need are the high temp ones (of correct size) that come with the weldless sets.


Mylo

[Stewbacca]

Mine use a sched 80 bulkhead fitting.. They are safe for aquariums so i figured they would be okay for beer... they come with nice big gaskets that help seal around the hole and they are 1/2 in pipe thread on the inside...

[straight cash homey]

i lucked out. i was going to remove the spigot from the cooler i bought at walmart but i realized that if i just cut the end of the tubing, parallel to the tubing, and rolled it into cone i could pull it through the spigot. so basically, i just pulled some tube through the spigot, no headache about a leaky bulkhead. its a perfect fit.