First time kegger

Depends on what's leaking. Teflon tape is only effective on NPT threads, where the thread, itself, provides the seal. You're wasting tape, time, and cuss words if the leak is on a fitting with an o-ring or gasket - the CO2 tank or any flared fitting, for example.

 

Apologies if you said and I missed the post, but are you building a keezer or do you have a store bought solution for chilling your kegs? I found my foam output was reduced by insulating the wood collar around the keezer and by placing a fan inside to keep the temp consistent from top to bottom.

 

Flared fittings rarely leak (from my experience)...it usually the NPT threads that someone has wound the Teflon tape on ass-backwards.

 

When i got my tank refilled the guy took the teflon tape off the tank where the guage screws on and told me not to use it even though the guy at the hbs told me to use it. He said i only need that white plastic o ring inside the end of the guage.I didn't put it back on and it seems fine.

 

I think you must mean where the regulator screws on...most people just take the tank in for exchange/fill. If the connection uses a gasket or o-ring you don't need Teflon tape...but I would replace the tank gasket/disc.

 

I'd give whatever comes after that even odds of being correct. Sadly, this is a recurring theme. I frequent one of the rare LHBS which actually has people who know what the hell they're talking about.

 

It's almost comical how many people in the home bar forums recommend tape anywhere you see threads, using the logic that it won't hurt and it just might help. Technically, it probably won't hurt in most cases, but it's a red herring that only delays finding and fixing the real problem (which I think qualifies as 'hurt'). I was given an old, leaky Stout faucet a few years ago. The guy who gave it to me tried to fix it by wrapping tape around the faucet nut and tightening the hell out of it, which slowed it to an occasional drip. He gave up, so I took it off his hands for free. I replaced the missing washer.

 

In his defense, the gas lasted a long time with teflon taped threads and no o ring gasket in the regulator.

 

Define "a long time". I get 2+ years out of a 20# tank. That'll flush, carb, and push about 30 corney kegs plus whatever incidental uses I find for it. It may, indeed, have lasted "a long time" without a gasket, but, since any leaking gas would have escaped before it got to the threads, it definitely wasn't because of the tape. More likely, he just tightened the hell out of the coupler so the mating surfaces were tight enough to create a seal - that's sometimes doable. But that doesn't mean that taping the threads is not lousy advice.