>Hi, I'm in the middle of building an electric sanke kettle inspired by
>yours. I'm having trouble keeping the element from leaking. I was
>wondering if you could give me more info about the gasket you used. Do you
>use the supplied gasket on the outside? I tried a 1" O-ring on the inside,
>but I'm still getting leakage.I found early on that the gaskets on the inboard side tend to get chewed up
by the nut, so I always put them on the outside.
(They also leak more often than gaskets on the outside of the boiler.)The basic problem is that the gasket is between a flat surface (the face of the
element) and a curved surface (the keg). The solution is a thicker gasket-
or gaskets. FWIW, I currently have two- one cut from 1/8" thick red rubber
gasket material (Ace Hardware stores sell 6"x6" pieces of 1/16" and 1/8"
material for a buck or so) and a rather thinish heater element gasket (they
come in differing thickness not much tho- maybe +- 1/16"). I've never
tried an o-ring, but *in theory*, it *should* provide a better seal than a
flat gasket (or flat gaskets). The problem is that it would tend to
squeeze out of the joint as you compressed it.An added complication is that the "nut" you have on the inboard side of the
element is likely taper threaded like mine and perhaps can't be run up on
the element's straight thread to compress the gasket enough for a tight
seal. Use teflon tape on the heater element threads (it acts as a
lubricatant- not sealant!) and a $3-4 heater element wrench so you can
torque down the nut enough to compress the gastket(s).
I used a rubber mallet to pound the keg flat where the hole hadMy felllow homebrewers/DIYers never cease to amaze me. One has got to really admire the tennacity and patience of anyone who converts a 1" straight threaded heating element base to tapered threads using a file.
been drilled, which helped quite a bit. The biggest difference was the 2+
hours I spent with a little triangle file turning the element's straight
threads into tapered threads. The supplied gasket (on the outside) was all
I needed once the coupler threaded easily all the way up the element. I
also gave up on the O-ring really early, they just kept squirting out.
If anyone has a source for reasonably priced straight threaded stainless steel "nuts" which can be used with heating elements, please let me know!
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