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Posted by Tony Conner on March 06, 2005 at 16:13:00:
In Reply to: metal gaskets or paper posted by Kraig on March 05, 2005 at 21:37:33:
I wouldn't necessarily say that they're more reliable, but they sure are nice to work with if you're changing out flanged components or fixing leaks. No scraping off pieces of gasket the size of your thumbnail with an old wood chisel because somebody forgot (or was too lazy) to anti-seize it. (It's always in a really nice spot to work too - where you're bent in three different directions at once over something hot, and you can only get the flanges an 1" apart.) The metal ones don't need anything. Just drop them in dry, and if you need to break the flange, they'll often just drop out - in one piece - all by themselves, or at most pop them out with a flat screwdriver. Nothing sticks to the flange faces.
The steel gaskets are quite a bit thicker than the cut ones. (About an 1/8" when crushed.) That can make a difference where you're replacing a cut gasket or especially two at once - like either side of a valve. In places where you're dealing with 125 cast iron flanges (they have a flat face), you still should use the full face cut gaskets - I've never seen the steel ones in anything but the ring style.