John guest

[Stanna]

Hi all, anyone else had bad experiences with john guest fittings it seems every time i open my kegerator one or more have failed and it always in the same place, the little flimsy plastic bid that grabs the beer line, I have now taken all of them out of my kegerator and replaced them with barbed fitting, I can't believe I spent about a £100 on these crap fittings they are not fit for purpose in my opinion

[alexlark]

I've never had a problem with any JG fitting. Just make sure you got a nice square clean cut on the pipe and push all the way home. Also remember JG fittings are only designed to be pulled apart a certain amount of times.

[chris2012]

Work perfectly fine for me! And I've pulled them off/put them on quite a lot of times.

As alex said, you do need to make sure the cut of the pipe is clean.

[Wonkydonkey]

I've never had a prob, with the fittings I think they are very good, even if they are a bit expensive.

I take them part from time to time and clean them, the only real thing you have to watch is the tube ends getting scratched from the retaining clip grippy thing. If this happens then I just cut 2cm off.

[Haydnexport]

you can also buy collets / collars for the fittings that stops the pipes bending at the joint making them leak. If your interested in selling a few john guest fittings i might be interested

[Dave S]

I've never had a problem with any JG fitting. Just make sure you got a nice square clean cut on the pipe and push all the way home. Also remember JG fittings are only designed to be pulled apart a certain amount of times.

+1 If the cut isn't exactly square it WILL leak.

[JimsBrew]

Overall I love the John Guest fittings, and find them pretty reliable and versatile.

I have however had a few problems with the 3/8" Y splitter's in my setup, although I think its a problem related to my specific application rather than quality of the fittings.

I use two of the 3/8" Y Splitters inside my kegerator to split a single gas line into three to supply my three corny kegs currently on tap. Three times now, one of the Y's two dark grey output collars have failed completely.

Every keg change I check the gas line and joints for leaks, and have occasionally found that a Y splitter is leaking. Externally,they look fine, but produce visible foaming/bubbling when moistened with Starsan. At first I thought it might be the o-ring seal damaged, but I always make sure I cut the gas line square and roll the end to remove any burs, so as not to damage. Anyhow, after disconnecting the gas line from the leaking port, the dark grey collar that holds the internal O-ring seal and metal bearings has several of the internal spines snapped off.

I keep the sections of gas line with splitters secured to the fridge side-wall to minimise movement at the joints, although I suspect the failure is caused by fatigue and movement of the line in conjunction with brittleness in the plastic from the cold (line runs very close to the back cooling plane of the fridge).

Next keg change I'm planning one of two approaches to hopefully fix the problem depending on available funds:
1) [preferred] - purchase new gas management board with 1 or 2 secondary regulators to run several lines at individual pressures to the kegerator, and have external gas available also.
2) [cheap] - re-run the gas lines, putting the splitters outside the fridge and taking three lines into the fridge avoiding fatigue on the splitters.

[Stanna]

Overall I love the John Guest fittings, and find them pretty reliable and versatile.

I have however had a few problems with the 3/8" Y splitter's in my setup, although I think its a problem related to my specific application rather than quality of the fittings.

I use two of the 3/8" Y Splitters inside my kegerator to split a single gas line into three to supply my three corny kegs currently on tap. Three times now, one of the Y's two dark grey output collars have failed completely.

Every keg change I check the gas line and joints for leaks, and have occasionally found that a Y splitter is leaking. Externally,they look fine, but produce visible foaming/bubbling when moistened with Starsan. At first I thought it might be the o-ring seal damaged, but I always make sure I cut the gas line square and roll the end to remove any burs, so as not to damage. Anyhow, after disconnecting the gas line from the leaking port, the dark grey collar that holds the internal O-ring seal and metal bearings has several of the internal spines snapped off.

I keep the sections of gas line with splitters secured to the fridge side-wall to minimise movement at the joints, although I suspect the failure is caused by fatigue and movement of the line in conjunction with brittleness in the plastic from the cold (line runs very close to the back cooling plane of the fridge).

Next keg change I'm planning one of two approaches to hopefully fix the problem depending on available funds:
1) [preferred] - purchase new gas management board with 1 or 2 secondary regulators to run several lines at individual pressures to the kegerator, and have external gas available also.
2) [cheap] - re-run the gas lines, putting the splitters outside the fridge and taking three lines into the fridge avoiding fatigue on the splitters.

This is exactly the problem I have be having I'm pretty sure the cold environment is causing the fitting collars to become brittle and the spines snap, it's funny that I still have a john guest fitting on my co2 bottle that's not in the fridge and it seems ok, just wish i could get hold of replacement collars but they don't seem to sell them, but why would they they want you to buy a new part, built to fail !!

[Haydnexport]

put this item number in the search of a well known internet auction site 290733942257 , locking clips for the collets

[Mr. Dripping]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Mini-Pipe ... SwHnFV3FUH
One of those will help you get a nice square cut.

[chris2012]

That's a good idea, hadn't thought of using a pipe cutter on them, I use a stanley knife at the mo', but I might start using one of them.

[barneey]

put this item number in the search of a well known internet auction site 290733942257 , locking clips for the collets

I was / still have got a lot of these £5.00 for 50 inc postage