keg lube alternative

[wild]

Vaseline can be used, but it does not have the properties of being tasteless and odorless.
KY Jelly is water soluble, and could become dissolved in the beer.
It also dries over time, and would not be a good choice.

Generic keg lube is usually one of two things, silicone compound (grease/lubricant), or petrol gel.
The differences between silicone compound and petrol gel are the price, and some of the properties.
The price of petrol gel is about 6 times less than the price of silicone compound.

It states on the Petro Gel label that it is U.S.P. Mineral Oil along with other USP ingredients.
They even offer a free sample on the site.

[DannyW]

If you are a scuba diver and have a tub of silicon grease in your dive bag, you can use that for lubing your keg o-rings.

[Crackin]

My local restaurant supply store (Wasserstrom) had a couple differnet food grade silicon lubricants. I just picked up a tube of that. If it were me, I would stay away from petroleum products for rubber.

[captain carrot]

I've seen a product in the plumbing dept at my local hardware store that looks the same as the little cup of sticky keg lube. It's for lubricating faucet and valve o-rings. Should be fine for keg o-rings.

[philbrasil]

I've seen a product in the plumbing dept at my local hardware store that looks the same as the little cup of sticky keg lube. It's for lubricating faucet and valve o-rings. Should be fine for keg o-rings.

That´s a good tip captain. I´ll check with a plumbing store to see if they have something like that.
Well, it seems that the best thing to do it to avoid this so-called alternatives. Next time I make a purchase at morebeer, I´ll order one of this keg lubes. The bad thing is that they only have the spray one, which is more expensive. Maybe that´s better, I don´t know..

[11amas]

Is a "should be" assumption on a plumbing grease a smart thing if it is not guaranteed food grade? I can think of a number of things you don't want to ingest, even in very small quantities (toxins, heavy metals, etc). Since numerous brewing and restaurant supply places on the internet sell food grade lubes why would you risk an unknown?

[Bruck]

I agree with the previous post. Find a local scuba diving shop and grab some silicone grease. It's food grade and works fantastic. I use it on my kegerator faucets so that they don't get stuck in place. Great stuff!

[AndrewD]

Another possibility would be a pond/pool supply store. Most pond/pool filters have a gigantic o-ring that needs to be siliconed every time the filter is opened and cleaned. I'm not sure about the food-grade quality of these products, but they do sell large tubes of the silicone gasket lube. I imagine it would have to be fairly neutral/inert, as pond filters rely on a delicate bacterial culture on the media inside of the filter.