Installed two kettle elements in a bucket last week....only had a chance to test them today and theres a tiny leak in one of them. Any suggestions as to how I can sort this out? No harm in a permenent solution for this so long as I can clean the elements while in place I suppose
did you use the rubber grommit from the kettle? what size and how did you cut the hole?
I used the rubber seal yeah. I used a stanley knife to cut the hole. Me other element was grand though 8)
nnooooooooooh
was there alcohol involved when these were being cut?
consider cutting out a washer using baking tray silicone or if Dempsey is not looking tec 7, but you didn't hear it from me
Quote from: Ciderhead on August 06, 2013, 07:49:15 PM
or if Dempsey is not looking tec 7, but you didn't hear it from me
where's me glasses :D
Quote from: Ciderhead on August 06, 2013, 07:49:15 PM
nnooooooooooh
was there alcohol involved when these were being cut?
consider cutting out a washer using baking tray silicone or if Dempsey is not looking tec 7, but you didn't hear it from me
so would it be boiler wall/silicone washer/original washer, boiler wall/original washer/silicone washer, or would the silicone washer simply replace the original washer?
from inside to out , kettle element, silicone washer, original o ring from kettle wall in bucket wall, back of kettle element.
Nice one, I'll give that a go tomorrow
(http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/jj605/joctcl/IMG_1746_zpsf9fd1186.jpg) (http://s1270.photobucket.com/user/joctcl/media/IMG_1746_zpsf9fd1186.jpg.html)
(http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/jj605/joctcl/IMG_1748_zps2031b4fa.jpg) (http://s1270.photobucket.com/user/joctcl/media/IMG_1748_zps2031b4fa.jpg.html)
or thermowells
(http://i1270.photobucket.com/albums/jj605/joctcl/IMG_1747_zps6f2f7d71.jpg) (http://s1270.photobucket.com/user/joctcl/media/IMG_1747_zps6f2f7d71.jpg.html)
As a general comment on the subject "food safe sealant", use silicon rubber for aquariums. All good pet shops carry tubes of the stuff. Little fishies are very prone to toxins / fungicides etc in the normal hardware store sealants so the aquarium ones in pet shops are food safe. They are used commercially to seal stills in NZ.
actually, would PTFE tape not do the job?
My guess is ptfe is going to be too thin and fiddly.
examine the hole, why is it leaking?
Quote from: johnrm on August 07, 2013, 12:46:17 AM
My guess is ptfe is going to be too thin and fiddly.
examine the hole, why is it leaking?
cos its not exactly circular ::)
If it's only a bit off you might be able to get the original seal to fit.
Have you made a complete balls of it?
Well I tested it with about 7 or 8 litres of water and it was grand. Tried it again today with 25 litres and there was a slight leak, so I'm assuming the leak was due to the weight of water causing a slight bulge and therefore a leak. The water was cold, so I dunno if hot water involved would make much of a difference (dunno the coefficent of expansion for bucket material and seal material)
A new bucket is E15 and lesson learned?
Quote from: delzep on August 07, 2013, 01:01:01 AM
Well I tested it with about 7 or 8 litres of water and it was grand. Tried it again today with 25 litres and there was a slight leak, so I'm assuming the leak was due to the weight of water causing a slight bulge and therefore a leak. The water was cold, so I dunno if hot water involved would make much of a difference (dunno the coefficent of expansion for bucket material and seal material)
It will p.ss out when you are boiling :(, in fact thats a tip for all, test your hole with boiling water at full pelt before you use your precious wort.
Edit just reading that sentence again and it sounds painful, but you know what i mean.
Quote from: johnrm on August 07, 2013, 07:27:16 AM
A new bucket is E15 and lesson learned?
what lesson learned? new bucket plus delivery is about 22 quid
I have the same problem with my HBC bought boiler. It occasionally leaks out where the element is installed but usually it only does it at the very end of the boil/during chilling. I think it's more to do with the plastic buckling inwards because of the heat though. Might try that aquarium sealant.
I had a leak in my HLT keggle at the kettle elements. Just cut some silicone sheet to make a washer, same as in CHs pics. No more leaks.
Quote from: irish_goat on August 07, 2013, 11:21:32 AM
I have the same problem with my HBC bought boiler. It occasionally leaks out where the element is installed but usually it only does it at the very end of the boil/during chilling. I think it's more to do with the plastic buckling inwards because of the heat though. Might try that aquarium sealant.
I have had the same issue a couple of times with the HBC boiler, I found that I was dropping the wort chiller directly onto one of the elements which dislodged it slightly causing a leak!
Quote from: delzep on August 07, 2013, 11:17:31 AM
what lesson learned? new bucket plus delivery is about 22 quid
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you use a stanley knife on a bucket a made an arse of it?
too cruel :D
Quote from: johnrm on August 07, 2013, 02:02:12 PM
Quote from: delzep on August 07, 2013, 11:17:31 AM
what lesson learned? new bucket plus delivery is about 22 quid
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you use a stanley knife on a bucket a made an arse of it?
what else was I supposed to use?
You could use a hole saw to size or a disposable Craft knife...
http://www.stanleytools.co.uk/product/147146
They are much easier to use than a regular Stanley.
I don't recall which I used, but I think a holesaw followed by either Stanley or a craft knife.
use a compass before drilling to mark out the final hole, score this with knife.
Keep the hole smaller than necessary, then trial fit, you can always file it out to size.
You could also have used a pipe and heated it on the cooker until it was red hot and just pushed it through. :)
Could've used a soldering iron too.
I reduced the bore of a 2" pvc waste pipe to fit a half inch nipple in the oven.
Hi Shiny
I bought the following high temp silicon as backup in case my boilers leaked. Don't think I ever used it. Got it from the states via the following crowd (they have everything you would need but they don't export :(
http://www.mcmaster.com/#7545a471/
If you still have a leak let me know and I can dig it out for you.
Shanna
Quote from: shiny on August 07, 2013, 01:33:22 PM
Quote from: irish_goat on August 07, 2013, 11:21:32 AM
I have the same problem with my HBC bought boiler. It occasionally leaks out where the element is installed but usually it only does it at the very end of the boil/during chilling. I think it's more to do with the plastic buckling inwards because of the heat though. Might try that aquarium sealant.
I have had the same issue a couple of times with the HBC boiler, I found that I was dropping the wort chiller directly onto one of the elements which dislodged it slightly causing a leak!
Will has me reading detail these days
"Not for underwater"
Maybe thats the initial application?
Thanks Shanna, it only leaks if I'm not careful when putting in the wort chiller. I like that I can still take out the elements if I need to, the sealer would make it permanent unfortunately.
Quote from: Shanna on August 08, 2013, 12:35:28 AM
Hi Shiny
I bought the following high temp silicon as backup in case my boilers leaked. Don't think I ever used it. Got it from the states via the following crowd (they have everything you would need but they don't export :(
http://www.mcmaster.com/#7545a471/
If you still have a leak let me know and I can dig it out for you.
Shanna
Quote from: shiny on August 07, 2013, 01:33:22 PM
Quote from: irish_goat on August 07, 2013, 11:21:32 AM
I have the same problem with my HBC bought boiler. It occasionally leaks out where the element is installed but usually it only does it at the very end of the boil/during chilling. I think it's more to do with the plastic buckling inwards because of the heat though. Might try that aquarium sealant.
I have had the same issue a couple of times with the HBC boiler, I found that I was dropping the wort chiller directly onto one of the elements which dislodged it slightly causing a leak!
Ciderheads suggestion of the silicone sheet washer has worked. I successfully boiled 25 litres of water using two elements no problem ;D
I might just leave the boiler as it is and not install a tap and use my autosiphon to transfer to cooled wort to my fermentation bucket
Just one more thing (Columbo 8)), on the Charlie Shiels elements, is there something that needs to be removed to stop it cutting out at 100C? Pretty sure mine didn't, but I remember reading something about hacked kettles needing something removed from them
no not required of charlies, some remove metallic disc visable on pic one, dont bother in any case.
Nice one...can finally get back brewing again :)
Result!