Teflon tape on gas pipe??

[clare]

But it is a LOT easier to do it right with pipe dope, and a lot easier to do it wrong with tape - (especially if you are smoking the dope in the pipe)

[Vic Smith]

Nothing is easier than wrapping pipe threads with teflon tape, and if gas, starting the tape on the second or third thread. Besides, they make yellow tape for gas applications. I've only used pipe dope a couple times in the last 40 years. It's easier/cleaner to use tape and tape provides a better seal. BTW, were you "making" a joke there?

[trader_4]

Yes there is and that's pipe dope. Faster and easier. I can do six threads with pipe dope in the time it takes to do one with tape.

If tape is so superior for leaks, odd that code still allows for pipe dope, draws no such distinction and plumbers widely use both.

[Vic Smith]

That's funny.

So what? There's dope and there's dopes.

[notbob]

What no one seems to be addressing is removal. Ever tried to remove tape. Tedious, but entirely possible. Try removing teflon paste? Almost impossible and at best, a PIA!!

nb

[Robert Green]

+1

[Robert Green]

Good point. There have been any number of times I've had to removed a taped joint. I bought a PTZ dome camera from China and they sent along the biggest roll of teflon tape I've ever seen. When I ordered a second one, it came with an O ring to provide the same waterproofing. I spent quite some time (as Tony warned I might) trying to find out more from the Chinese vendors to no avail. Oh well, the camera was 1/4 what US vendors wanted for the same thing that probably came with the same obtuse directions.

Going to deploy one this weekend - not sure I should water test it with the garden hose before bothering to climb the ladder. Apparently water can get in through the wire entrance to the threaded dome cap. But I'd rather do it with tape because it might have to be taken down to dry out if the tape/gasketing doesn't work.

I bought some (wildly overpriced) stuff called Sugru that is a hardening putty that I might use to seal the wire entry because it's fairly easy to remove.

(No affiliation and we'll find out tomorrow if it does what it says.)

[trader_4]

Removing a taped joint is the same as removing a dope joint, you just unscrew it. It doesn't require removing pipe dope. And if you're putting it back together and want to clean it up, either a rag or a wire brush works for me. Funny, if pipe dope is so hard to use, why do so many pros still use it?

[notbob]

Perhaps they know they will never have to remove it. ;)

nb

[Robert Green]

How many pros still use it or is it just a WAG on your part? I couldn't find any estimates of usage but a lot of disagreement over which one's better, just like we have here.

[Vic Smith]

Who said pipe dope was "hard to use?" Must have missed that.

[Virgil]

replying to Steven L Umbach, Virgil wrote: I use white for water and Yellow for Gas in some places this is code you have to check your local Inspectors the yellow is thicker with a higher density working with Gas I just feel better leaving a job knowing I did all I could to prevent any leaks from popping up down the road

[bob haller]

a plmber i know uses both, teflon tape and then pipe dope

he has been a plumber forever and said it guarantees no leaks

[dpb]

Thickness yes, not any different otherwise (barring the color, of course). White PTFE is single thickness, yellow is double and pink is triple.

I know of nowhere it is in any Code requirement and unless it's been changed which I think it hasn't, the National Fuel Gas Code handbook

2.6.7(d) refers to using pipe dope suitable for use with gas and says: "This requirements does not prohibit the use of teflon tape as a pipe dope. [Further comments regarding workmanship elided for brevity]"

The requirement for the thicker tape (hence yellow as common identifier) is the only one I'm aware of.

[Ralph Mowery]

It is just dumb to put both on a pipe. Use one or the other. I saw a Youtube of putting pipe dope on a flaired fitting threads. Another dumb move as there should be nothing to leak at the threaded part. If it does leak, something was not done correctly.

[Paintedcow]

Teflon tape is not supposed to be used on natural gas lines. Something about the gas dissolving the tape. It's ok on propane though. There is a special tape made for nat. gas, but I have never used it. so I dont know the name of it, or if it's readily available. Years ago, I did some work on nat. gas pipes, for my parents. I just used pipe dope. Where I live now, I only have propane, but I still use pipe dope. Normally people use copper tubing for propane, so no sealer is needed since the fittings are flared copper or compression rings. But my house had black iron pipe for the furnace. When I ran a line to the kitchen for a stove, I decided it was best to keep the same pipe to prevent dialectric corrosion, so I used black iron pipe with dope in the fittings.

[rbowman]

I'll confess to using teflon tape on the face of a POL fitting. sometimes you do what you gotta do to make the connection stop blowing bubbles.

[Ralph Mowery]

It is still teflon tape that is used on the gas lines. It is most often yellow to signify that it is double density (thicker) than the white tape.

[clare]

More polichromatic bovine excrement.. Natural gas and propane have the exact same effect on teflon tape - none at all.

However, pipe dope mis recommended over tape because the tape can cut and turn into "threads" of teflon and block orifices or stick in valves. There are 3 basic teflon tapes - white(single thickness) , yellow (double thickness) and pionk (triple thickness. White is forbidden in all gas connections. Some places allow yellow - some allow pink, and some do not allow tape at all.

[clare]

Correct.