SS couplings

Steve, I don't know what pressure you will have in the tubing but brass fittings (olives) will not bite into the stainless tube. You can use stainless fittings on copper tube but not the other way around. If your pressure / safety issues are low then brass on stainless will probably be ok.

It will be very low pressure, just enough to pump beer and water. I was wanting to use the SS lines for sanitary reasons.

Steve

I don't know for sure, but I would worry that electrolytic corrosion, even if too slow to matter for mechanical reasons, would cause a bad taste in the beer.

Joe Gwinn

--Swageloc fittings are hella expensive; if you can, weld the joints and you'll save a bundle. Weld-on couplings are relatively cheap.

For what I want to do, a good tubing bender, and short lengths of food grade hose with hose clamps would do it. Probably the best for sterilizing, anyway.

Steve

Swagelok isn't tolerant of tubing size variation; it has to be the AISI standard 1/2" O.D. tube to work. Any dissimilar metal (and brass/stainless qualifies) is a no-no for contact with brewed products for human consumption. It's likely that the required ferrule force won't happen with brass parts anyhow.

There are quick-clamp flanges that can be welded to SS tubing, and lots of support (valves already flanged) so you could make up your systems to be easily cleanable. An O-ring seal is reliable at low pressures.

I was also thinking of O-ring sealing couplers, not necessarily Swagelock fittings, but SS fittings that utilize o-rings.

I've used fittings that adapt to sections of line/tubing which use synthetic inserts that lock onto the tubing as the fitting nut is tightened, in fairly low pressure applications. The fittings were fairly commonly used on some production equipment from European countries.

Contacting Swagelock, or some research may lead to the discovery that there are existing synthetic inserts for S-L fittings.. so no dissimilar metals or corrosion problems.