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Plugs & Adapters
How to Pick the Right Drum Plug.
Round-Head Steel Plugs: Have a very thin gasket and a stamped metal clip welded into the center for the wrench to go
Hex-head Steel Plugs: Have a six-sided shape and often a center, heavy stamped bar welded in the center for the wrench
Ready for some confusion? All plastic plugs have a round shape, regardless of the bung opening they're intended to fit.
So look at the bung opening in your steel drum.
Base has eight sides? Takes a round-head type plug
Mostly round, but has many little points around it? Takes a hex-head type plug
Plastic drums usually have two openings:
- A 2" NPS opening that takes something like a PPA57GK plug or a G2CPP plug
- An opening with some very heavy coarse, weird thread in it known as the dreaded "buttress" thread: Doesn't fit any standard faucets or pumps. Buttress threads are a holdover from the early days of plastic drums. Back then, it was difficult to precisely mold pipe threads directly into the drum. NPS plugs would leak, cross thread, or strip out when you tightened them. The heavy, strong buttress thread solved the problem. Today, plastic drum technology is vastly improved, and NPS plugs now perform just as well as buttress plugs.
There are three or four different types of buttress drum threads, depending on who made your drum. We have adapters to convert almost any buttress opening to accept an NPS-threaded accessory.