Ye Olde Butterfly Valve

[Randy.Cockerell]

As I'm sure almost all of you know, butterfly valves come in all ranges of shapes and sizes. We have a few in the brewery that we can't identify. I'm looking for some tips that you have come across in finding the correct replacement seals for your tired butterfly valves. Also, follow up, if any of you have butterfly valves welded to your tanks, do you have any sage advice on dealing with those?

[BrewinLou]

http://www.brewerygaskets.com/butterfly-valve-seats.html

Measure the dimensions on the ones your looking for and compare to all of the ones on that website. I have found all but one of mine on there. The one was a Kieselmann made after 2010. Apparently Kieselmanns changed from metric or standard (I can't remember at the moment) on their seats to the other for 1.5" valves that year. Brewery Gaskets carries the old seat size, the new size have to come from K from what I have found.

[TGTimm]

We started out with a mish-mash of various butterfly valves, purchased used. Over the years, it became obvious that Tassalini valves (sometimes the brand is visible somewhere on the valve, but it's cast into the seat) were the easiest to get parts for. They're also well made. We eventually eliminated all the non-Tassalini valves in our inventory, making maintenance much easier.

If you can narrow your valves down to one brand that you can easily source the parts for, your New Year will be happier!

If anyone's interested in a collection of non-Tasselini butterfly valves, most brands unknown, drop me a line....

[Randy.Cockerell]

Thanks for the help

I appreciate your input, I ended up calling the tank manufacturer since it turns out the valves in question came standard on all JV NW tanks when we got them. They ended up being Tassilini DN-32 size valve seats and we opted for the ones molded in EPDM.

[TGTimm]

Randy--congrats on getting that figured out. It's really frustrating that many manufacturers of butterfly valves don't brand them. If the gasket/seat is missing, you're up in the air. Fortunately, JVNW are great guys to deal with.

The best source and best deal I've found for gasket/seats for the Tasselini valves is http://www.brewerygaskets.com/ .

We've experimented with various compounds for the seats, and found the orange silicone lasted the longest for us. Buy spares--the seats don't last all that long, anyhow.

A #2 standard slotted screwdriver with the tip hammered over about 5 degrees about 1/4" from the end helps a lot with replacing the valve seats--especially if it's lubed with some dish soap or CIP lube.