Tape or Dope

I had to do some surgery on my copper pipes last night after 2-supply lines started leaking to the basement shower. I never use this shower and planned on ripping it out anyway, so I decided to drop the fixtures and thread on some shut off valves to the inline tee.

The access was pretty tight, so I was a little irritated (plumbing has that affect) and when I turned on the water main....leak city!

I used teflon tape the first time and decided it was time to use the pipe dope. Same result, leaks. I just wasn't winning the fight when I remembered my early days in the Marines as a field plumber where we use to apply both the teflon and dope on the same fittings for irrigation pipe.

It may not be the pro's way to tackle the job, but guess what? No leaks!

It also got me thinking...which are you using on your machines? To help feed the fire, consider a couple of notes from my old Engineering manual that I pulled out.

"Teflon tape will swell when exposed to chlorine which can cause the threads to leak or break away downstream"

"Dupont (the makers of Teflon tape) will not allow its usage on their fittings at the production facility...dope only"

Does it make you wonder a little??

On home plumbing stuff I've always used pipe dope, I did a complete copper re-pipe in my house 15 or so yrs ago with all new fixtures, and all the threaded connections are leak free with the dope. lol

But when it comes to my TM/CC stuff I've always used tape with leaks very rarely unless it's a cracked brass fitting...........I've never had to use both or really never thought about doing so honestly.........good to keep in mind tho.    Which makes me think, as hard as it was for you to seal your connection, needing tape and dope to do so, I'd suspect you have a cracked fitting.........not something you want in your home when it's likely to leak at the worst time causing a flood at you house.  If it were me, even though you now have it leak free, I'd take a good look at it to see if you do have a cracked fitting, just to prevent a nightmare down the road.  

Sound advice...didn't see any cracks, but the water is hard enough to pit copper pretty quickly so that might be the issue. I have to open up the shower walls to get better access in the near future.

I really don't want to re-copper my house this fall, but I will if there is any bad pitting....did I mention that I really don't want to?

Pipe and dope is how the guys at the propane place replaced the fittings of my propane tank

I understand. Sounds like in your situation, with the bad pitting an all, it may be best to not touch it at this point..........but I'd keep a close eye on it to be safe.

From what I've seen the leaks caused by cracked threaded copper/brass fittings, are just hairline and not always easy to  see/find..........most of the time it seems to me they're easiest to spot when looking at the inside or threaded part of the female connector........since the female seems to be the one that usually fails from expansion, or from over tightening.

Sound like a good time to get into water damage Rob you got the big truck the two TMs yeah baby.

Wow, I always thought this board is kids friendly, and now I read female, crack and dope were all mentioned in one thread ?!?!

Just a quick re-visit on this topic.

I was introduced to "Sharkbite" fittings today (I guess I've been living under a rock) and decided to try it out by installing another ball valve leading to the kitchen. These things are the handyman's dream!!

They are not cheap, but all you have to do is cut the pipe with your pipe cutter, de-burr it, and push the fitting on.....that's it. Water tight seal and best part...you can rotate the fitting after-wards to aim it in the direction that you want.

Freaking impressive....those crazy Aussies nailed this one.

http://www.sharkbite.com/

Thanks for that info Rob. I needed something like that.

I just used Sharkbites on my shower supply lines as well. They're great! My neighbor is also a pro plumber, he recommended them. Seems that the pros are slowly converting over to them as well, at least for valves.

shark bites rule...probably one of the best home plumbing inventions out there......

using pipe dope and Teflon tape has been an old plumbing trick for years.....a lot of guys that install sprinkler systems in commercial building use this method all the time.....

as for my machines or tools...I like the high density Teflon tape...stands up to heat much better...

I have used shark bites several times and they make it so easy a Carpet Cleaner can do it.