PTFEed Joints weeping

I don't see how it can work then. You have completely different materials and no olive, so really you have no chance of it working long term I feel. I hate plumbing as well, but sometimes needs must as they say, but these days, I think I'll leave it to the profs as I don't like trying to find my loft mounted tap with no sight and a loft full of lagging. Brian

Agreed.

Another technique with it is to roll the tape between your fingers to make "string" and then wind that helically into the threads. You can also, with care, fabricate a replacement for the fibre washer on a tap connector by winding several turns of this PTFE "string" on to the step which should take the washer. Emphatically *not* recommended as a permanent fix, but in the absence of proper washers I have done it a couple of times for friends on a Sunday evening, when miles away from my toolboxes. Most of these include a tobacco tin containing some of these washers, fuses, fuse wire, and a couple of chocolate blocks. And bits of red and green/yellow sleeve.

e ptfe to seal joints. 2 of the joints are 15mm compression tee (with one m ale end, one female end) onto an extension piece, the other is extension pi ece onto brass threaded ballcock. 1.5 turns of yellow/gas ptfe tape each, a ll neatly in place. I admit to not being clear how the nut would seal to th e tee it's on. The one joint done with fibre washer & gloop works fine of c ourse, but I don't think that approach can be used with the other joints.

xcept that one end is reversed, ie male not female. It thus has a nut on th at screws onto another fitting. I've added 2 threaded extension pieces, one on each port, to make the combined fitting long enough to reach both pipe and ballcock.

ompression elbow is screwed onto the ballcock.

bt I can. In which case I could use some sort of fairly quick setting stuff , but that still won't seal the nut to the male end of the compression fitt ing.

ve between the extension piece and the elbow.

Done & leakproof

Thank you to everyone for assisting and explaining.

NT

Anyone using PTFE tape on car wheel nuts?

Yup, I found that I can quite reliably get a seal on parallel male and female threads using the tape trick. Last time was when I wanted to test the soundness of the rads after multiple mods and changes. I needed to bodge a way of connecting my pressure gauge to a rad top connection. The gauge made a good seal on to the end of a service valve with its internal washer, then all I needed to do was get a service valve to seal on the top boss of the rad (having removed the bleed valve). Application of PTFE as previously described worked nicely. I was then able to pressurise the system, and leave it for 48 hours to check that there was no drop off in pressure.

Nice job, that ought to do it ;-)

Not difficult to drain those from a tank?

You protect it from heat - same as anything else close to where you're soldering, if needed.

Why would you? A smear of copper grease will stop them seizing.

l. It's more than thick enough to get serious torque on the nuts - but it i s the thickest stamped one I've ever seen. The slight offset makes it even more getinnable. It's designed for car fans.

Laser brand.

NT

I find many do, or use as the reason why they are using PTFE tape, often fully covering the olive as well.

In my house it has one application - on radiator tails and top bungs.

Maybe it's time for a wiki page on ptfe.

NT

Covering the olive will alter the sealing properties, and can be used to fix some categories of leak.

I do use PTFE on the olive after cleaning the pipes thoroughly, and making sure there are no inline scratches. Examine more carefully than I would for a solder fitting.

And oddly, never have a compression fitting leak. ;-)