Drilled Hole in Kettle Too Big

[srqbrew]

Hey y'all,

Today I attempted to add a ball valve to my kettle. The ball valve is 1/2 inch, and when I was drilling, I accidentally pushed the step bit down to far and drilled a larger hole (I'd ball park it at 5/8).

When I assemble my ball valve with the silicone gasket, there is a slow drip of approximately 1 drop per 45 seconds. This isn't enough to make it unusable, but it's also a bit inconvenient when I move the kettle around the kitchen.

Has anyone dealt with a similar problem? Any ideas for viable solutions? I was thinking about maybe trying high temp silicone caulk.

 

[Kharnynb]

get an O ring on both sides big enough to cover and a few rubber washers to prevent leaks?

too big hole might get really dangerous if it can push the whole valve out and suddenly you have hot liquid gushing out of a big hole.

 

[calgary222]

Speculating, but what if you went to a 3/4" valve (or larger)?

 

[Moose_MI]

Have you tried using it? I mean boiling in it. I had 1 drip that slow after install and cold water test. It never leaked after I heated it up for the first time. Maybe you will get lucky too.

 

[stz]

Get bigger, fatter o rings or wider OD same ID flat silicone or buna-n washer type rings, maybe a couple of steel flat washers either side of those to compress them down or go up to a larger size ball valve. Or use it and wait for it to seal up, plenty of slow drips will seal up with sticky wort. Used to cut my own from silicone sheet, had a few different thicknesses off ebay as samples, cut a square, horse a hole through the centre, tighten it all down, wasn't pretty, but she did the job. Now I've got a box with all different types of o rings etc in it for most purposes when I need them.

 

[srqbrew]

Thanks for all the advice guys! I did brew with it, and the drip seemed to slow but not stop. Also picked up a second, larger silicone grommet (same ID, larger OD). It's got steel washers on each side to compress.

Brewing again this weekend, will update.

 

[GreenMonti]

Isn't 1/2" pipe 7/8" hole?

Did you deburr the hole after drilling?

 

[srqbrew]

Finally got to brew again today. Added a large OD, same ID silicone grommet to the inside. That makes the setup: internal bulkhead, washer, grommet, kettle wall, grommet, washer, valve.

Still dripped more or less the same (1 drop/min) when heating water. Stopped dripping after boiling wort for about 15 min. This is an improvement. Might try tightening down even harder and seeing if that helps.

Also, @greenmonti, the hole was deburred and filed. First time doing metal work in years, so I can't say it's perfect, but I think it's passable on that front.

 

[Bobby_M]

Without pictures of the parts you have, it's really hard to help. It's not always about gasket selection. Backing up the gasket with a washer is almost always a mistake.

 

[processhead]

Weldless kits using a threaded nipple, o-rings, washers and nuts are problematic. Many leaks follow the threads of the nipple, which O-rings can't really address. Teflon tape on the threads doesn't really have enough surface areas to provide a reliable seal between the nipple and the shallow nuts that are often used it these kits

The only fool proof weldless kits I have found are a true bulkhead fitting that are correctly sized for the hole. The key is a one-piece nipple with an integrate flange/gasket. I have used this bulkhead and valve combination with several of my kettle builds. They have proven to be very reliable. A nylon gasket work well on the outside of an electric kettle. If it is a gas fired kettle I switch to a PTFE gasket on the outside.

 

[Morrey]

Man, if my kettle was leaking around the valve I'd have a big issue with that. Bobby M at BrewHardware (post #9) is really good at figuring out solutions to many of the problems he is presented with. I'd call him for advice.