teflon tape vs pipe tape ???

[scale]

what is the difference between teflon tape and pipe tape?

I was at the hardware store and they had teflon (in a blue spool) and pipe tape in a red spool.

Also yellow for gas but i know what that is for :)

my question is if im joining pipes what do i want to use?

Copper and brass fittings i have been using teflon

WHat is pipe tape for? Is that better for galvanized or whats the deal?

IM getting read to get the sawsall out and rip out all my galvanzied but there will be a few spots were i go from ABS to galvanized and need to know what type of pipe tape to use to make these connections.

I will also be putting in water shutoffs and water supply lines (for water in door fridge).

I just want to know what everyone uses or recommends.

Thanks!

[Toller]

Pink is heavier than white. You can use whichever you happen to like. I use yellow; it handles much better than white and means I only have to have one kind.

[scale]

strange but the yellow was labeled for gas at my home depot.

im sure they make all different colors for different applications.

Toller wrote:

[Duane Bozarth]

[mm]

So you're not using polypropylene. That's good.

Copper, installed right, is 1000 times less likely to spring a leak.

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let me know if you have posted also.

[maradcliff]

Same stuff - different name. (Unless they came out with something new recently)

The yellow works great on pipes too, same stuff but thicker. When putting threaded nylon fittings into steel pipe (like well pipe ends), they always seem to leak with the white teflon tape no matter how thick I make it. The yellow solves that problem. Yes, it is for gas too, but also great for water pipes. Pink is thicker yet, I have only used that once when threading some 4" pipes together.

Use the plain white tape, or the yellow. Both will work. You dont have to wrap the yellow as many turns. Personally, for the ABS, I'd use the yellow. For some reason plastic to steel seems to need the extra thickness.

Mark

[jtnospam]

Teflon is a trademark of DuPont, the generic term is PTFE, shorthand for polytetrafluoroethylene. The only thing against it is that aluminum will react with it and it will decay, so use pipe dope for aluminum.-Jitney

[maradcliff]

Just curious, where did you get that info from? I never heard it, and find it hard to imagine how that could be. For example, teflon coating is often on aluminum frying pans.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but I'd like to verify it.

Mark

[HeatMan]

If you use any kind of Teflon tape on a gas line and there is a warranty claim on anything downstream of that taped fitting, there may be a problem.

Manufacturers will occasionally inspect gas valves, etc to see what caused the failure. If any bits of Teflon tape is found in the valve, that warranty will be voided. Teflon tape does break up fairly easily and gets into the inner workings of the valves. That tiny piece of tape can cause a problem.

[jtnospam]

I picked it up off the sci.chem group about a year or two ago. He said that the aluminum metal had a high affinity for the flourine atoms on the PTFE polymer chain and that there was a transfer of some sort (I am paraphrasing). That is not my specialty but it makes sense with what I know, aluminum is a chemically active metal with some alkalinity, the only thing that makes it stable is the formation of a thin oxide surface. Flourine is active at the extreme other end of the spectrum and I think would form these compounds, its bond with the polymer chain PTFE is normally strong and stable but aluminum would be a strong attractant. I don't know if this is good enough evidence for you, a good search through the usenet archive would turn up the original post. The teflon coating on aluminum pans is admittedly a strong counterindicator, though. I could research it further, but it is easier for me to just use pipe dope on aluminum.-Jitney

[maradcliff]

Thanks for the followup. I am no scientist either, but what you said makes sense. I guess if I saw a purpose, I'd continue to research this further, but I can not think of one bit of aluminum pipe I have ever used, except for the old aluminum gas pipes they used on kitchen ranges, dryers, etc. years ago, and those still had brass fittings. They were banned years ago, and for good reason. So, for all practical purposes, I do not see ever using aluminum pipes, but if I did, I will use pipe dope.

Just curious, can you think of any time you ever dealt with aluminum pipe (besides gas lines)? I sure cant...

PS. Of this topic a bit, but when I was a kid, (actually a teenager in the early 1960's), my dad had that alum tubing going to our clothes dryer for the gas supply. From the vibrations of the dryer, the tubing would spring leaks. Dad would shut off the gas, put some glue on it, and turn the gas back on when the glue dried. At one point, I think there were at least 5 blobs of glue on that 8 foot piece of pipe. When I think of that now, I shudder !!!! Even as a teenager, I was sort of a handyman and was always working with tools. One day mom was hollaring about gas odor in the basement and that pipe sprung a leak again. This time the leak was large and I told dad that we need to get rid of that tubing and change it to solid steel black pipe with a proper flex tube. Dad would never touch plumbing, but he agreed with me and said he would call someone. I told him I could do it, and he took me to the hardware store to get the parts and I replaced it. Never another gas leak after that....

Mark

[raven]

Don't bother. Aluminum isn't sufficiently electro-postive enough to attack Teflon. The company I work for uses Teflon tape on aluminum fittings, and the only real concern is getting enough tape on to prevent the usually crudely cut threads from just slicing through the tape rather than deforming it. That's the major reason why you might want to use dope, but if tapes what you've got to hand, then go right ahead.

John

[jtnospam]

I see it some on car and motorcycle engines, and some heat exchangers. Not much else, but Gore-Tex offers its PTFE product for wire insulation, and there is some aluminum wire here and there. I hope some electrical engineers are reading this...-Jitney

[Glenn]

There is no such thing as teflon tape:

from DuPont: "? 1938 ? Dr. Roy Plunkett, a DuPont scientist, discovered polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).

? 1946 ? DuPont registers the trademark, Teflon® for PTFE.Dr. Roy Plunkett | DuPont? Teflon® PTFE

? Late 1940s ? DuPont began marketing PTFE on a small scale for certain industrial applications, including valves, o-rings, and pipe linings.

? 1969 ? DuPont PTFE fine powder is used for plumber tape for sealing joints in piping and central heating systems. However, DuPont never manufactured the tape. The manufacturers purchased and used DuPont PTFE fine powder as consumers started favouring easy to apply PTFE tape over existing solutions. Plumber tape using DuPont? Teflon® PTFE fine powder was the first such product to reach consumers.

? Times changed, other companies started making PTFE fine powder that was of a lower quality and at a lower cost. The companies that made the plumber tape switched to the lower quality powder. They didn?t have permission from DuPont to use the Teflon® brand because they no longer were using DuPont product.

? Separately, in the 1990?s, DuPont stopped selling its PTFE product lines labeled as Teflon®, including fine powder. The reason for the change was to ensure products bearing the Teflon® brand met the highest quality standards expected by consumers. Any use of the Teflon® brand now needs written authorization from DuPont.

Teflon® is a registered trademark of DuPont."