3/4 and 1" bulkheads

[mylittleocean]

I will try to keep this polite at first.....

I am highly disappointed and HIGHLY irritated at the bulkheads ya'll sell. I have a 180g SPS tank that I did some modifications on tonight. I purchased some bulkheads from you but they will not hold a water tight seal !!! When you tighten them to get it water tight they skip a thread back. I have f&^%$# with it for several hours now. What is up with these cheap bulkheads you sell? What are they supposed to be used for as I am sure it is not aquariums. I have temp. sealed off the left overflow with a piece of glass and silicone until I can find some quality bulkheads. The 1" completely broke off the lip and the 3/4" just will not tighten.

It is very frustrating to have thousands of $$ in rock and SPS and not be able to get a simple bulkead to tighten.

Is this the normal quality of products you sell?

I am glad that you do not have a local store here in my area as I am sure I would be sitting behind bars right now.

:mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2: :mad2:

sincerely,
x-MD shopper

pics of these products can be posted upon request.

 

[mylittleocean]

well skip the request, here it is....

 

[gavin123]

same with me, i was very disapointed with these bulkheads. they jumped a thread everytime i tried to get a water tight seal. they also craked down the seams, but i used it anyway.

gavin

 

[MarineDepot]

Hi,

We are sorry to hear that you are having trouble with your bulkheads. These bulkheads are made by Pentair Aquatics (Rainbow Lifegard): which is a very reputable company. We actually sell lots of these bulkheads and very rarely have complaints. It is possible that the bulkheads you received may be defective. We would recommend giving Pentair a call at 800-628-8771 and they should be able to swap them out for you.

These bulkheads are not designed to be used with Teflon tape: which I suspect to be part of the problem.

When installing bulkheads, hand-tighten as much as you can then just tighten (gently) with a wrench by about 1/8 or 1/4 of a turn.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.


Sincerely,
Joseph
Marine Depot Customer Service
www.marinedepot.com
714-385-0080

 

[benonmsn]

the teflon will keep it out of the groove and from sitting right. also, it look like you have way to much.

 

[springerhd]

For what its worth, I have 2 of these bulkheads on my sump and have not had any problems, not even any salt creep coming from them. I am not using any teflon for the bulkheads but am using some for the fitting and valves I've attached to them.

 

[GW Shark]

Don't use teflon tape on the outside threads of bulkheads. The rubber gasket makes the seal on the inside of the tank and keeps the water from leaking. Only use teflon tape to hook other threaded plumbing pieces to the inside threads.

 

[mylittleocean]

WHAT?

If anything the tape should help it fit tighter. I had used it w/o tape and had the same effect. The tape was added as a last ditch effort to get the tank running again as they are in the overflow, so its not even under that much water pressure.

I have a total of 10 bulkheads on the tank. The only problems I had were the two new ones which I purchased from MD.

I have used bulkheads on my other tank, sump, refugium and various skimmers. Never had any problems w/ them. Only these.

Last, I have never had the top lip crack off as I did with the 1" BH pictured. That is not the nut next to it, it's the lip.

I will give them a call. But I did think I will ever buy them again.

 

[Whaledriver]

Just to toss some ideas out there...

They do sometimes crack at the mold seam and at the plastic waves in the material as it flows into the mold.

Tips for bulkheads
1) Coat the gasket in vegitable oil before you put it on.

2) Coat the threads with aquarium silicone before you thread things together. This seals VERY well and is still easy to take apart later on.

 

[GW Shark]

I took a look at your picture again...if that lip just "broke off" when you were doing the install, they must be absolute crap. If you need a source for replacements with a good selection try www.aquaticeco.com. They have bulkheads in all price ranges and I have had very good luck with about 30 - 1", 1.5", 2", and 4" models I have purchased from them. Never had a problem. (Always in stock, and same day shipping.) Good Luck!

 

[Whaledriver]

I'll bet you had a lot of torqe and stress on the bulkhead. If you do the vegitable oil on the seal you dont have to over tighten ths bulkhead. Thats not to say bad ones dont happen.

 

[dean1977]

I put tanks together for people pretty often and I have seen bad bulkheads before. Teflon tape is usually good, but not always.
I would say silicone is the best, or pvc glue. It's better to just glue it first just in case.
Bad threads is usually the problem, I try to run my finger around the inside to feel them first.
Bad ones come in batches.

 

[H20ENG]

IMO/IME(LOTS!), NEVER lube the gaskets- they squish out when the nut is tightened. If they are dry, you can tighten them much tighter.
And a bit of silicone around the whole thing (the flange side, not the nut side) for good measure, AFTER its tight.

 

[Whaledriver]

A dry gasket will leak unless it is tightened to seal it offf. If you are haveing trouble and being forced to over tighten you will have other problems. A light coating of vegitable oil lets the gasket get a seal with the glass. If you need to add silicone around the gasket you have done something wrong and should start over.

 

[H20ENG]

IME,
A Wet (lubricated) gasket, will not let you tighten it enough, and will eventually leak.
I only use sch. 80 BHs, and, yes, you can tighten them nice and tight. You dont NEED to silicone them, but on a tank that is for public display with huge artificial rockwork covering the bulkheads, yes, I'd throw in that extra security for pennies. My job and tens of thousands of dollars in livestock depended on it.
So I guess we'll agree to disagree on this subject. I've installed probably a couple hundred bulkheads, and never had a problem.
Chris

 

[chet]

Do not use teflon on the threads of the bulhead it will leak. Make sure the rubber gasket is in the inside and not on the nut side it will not seal. Maybe the hole ur putting it in is a little big and won't let it seal either. You can use some marine silicone under the gasket and around the the hole give that a try.:bum:

 

[Reefpuck]

Yep...should never use teflon tape on these bulkheads...user error.

 

[Ixthys]

Why are you being directed to call Pentair when Marine Depot sold it to you? I realize who made them, but if you're going to sell a product and charge a mark-up, then stand behind them, at least for a little while.

And for those of you who keep commenting that teflon shouldn't be used, please see the sentence where he says it was added "as a last ditch effort".

 

[mylittleocean]

Why are you being directed to call Pentair when Marine Depot sold it to you? I realize who made them, but if you're going to sell a product and charge a mark-up, then stand behind them, at least for a little while.

And for those of you who keep commenting that teflon shouldn't be used, please see the sentence where he says it was added "as a last ditch effort".

THANK YOU for reading the whole thread ! The teflon tape was a last ditch effort. Previously I had not used the tape and it was skipping threads.
None of the comments ever explained why the lip broke off of the 1" bulkhead.

I would like someone to explain why teflon tape would cause it to leak though. The gasket was on the water side of the bulkhead.

I highly doubt it was user error as stated above. The other 10 bulkheads on my tank that I bought from another place never had problems. Yet another 10+ bulkheads that I used on previous projects never leaked. They are NOT that difficult to use. Maybe I just forgot how to tighten a nut. I am sorry for my ignorance. I can make my own skimmer, ca reactor, acrylic sump and refugium, MH light hood, and a steel stand w/ a pratt truss but cant tighten a nut on a bulkhead???

I have ignore previous comments but dicided to post now that someone has some logic.
Thanks Ixthys :beer:

I never called Pentair and have given up on MD. I will spend my $$ elsewhere for better products that sellers stand behind.

 

[mjstech]

I work at a Petco in Arizona, Marineland made all our fish display tanks. They use the Pentair Bulkheads. The store is only like 6months old, I have had 5 or 6 loose/leak, and 1 that split.