Shower head arm is straight, but leaks

[rebaths]

Hey, I am remodeling my bathroom and have a question on sealing the threads on the shower head arm.

What I have coming up from the shower control valve is PEX, up to a Shark Bite fitting/female adapter, and into this I have screwed in the shower head arm.

Now, I used standard white Teflon tape and wrapped it around 3 turns. Once I screwed it in, I got it fairly tight...could have been a bit tighter, but the concern was that I would have turned it past being straight, and it would no longer look straight--it would be cockeyed. So I got it fairly tight but not quite as tight as I would think it needs to be.

I turned on the water and sure enough, had a very very slow drip out of that fitting.

So what do I do:
Wrap the tape 4-5 times?
Use yellow or pink tape, because it's thicker?
Use dope instead of tape?
Continue to tighten the shower head arm an additional 15-20 degrees clockwise or so to get it really tight, causing the arm to not be straight?


Thanks and be kind as I am a first time plumber & remodeler

 

[Jadnashua]

Is the Sharkbite adapter screwed down to something? If not, when you screw in the shower arm, you'd be putting a lot of torque on the fitting. That fitting is making its seal with o-rings, and holding it together with teeth.

If it is anchored well to blocking, then you may be able to make another revolution. Some like to use both pipe dope and teflon tape. You can try adding another wrap of tape, but if you get too much, you might end up with leaks as it's hard to get in in without folding it, which can cause a leak.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Iminaquagmire]

As long as the sharkbite is secured, rewrap the threads on the shower head arm, then dab some teflon paste over the tape. Makes a better seal than teflon alone in my opinion.

 

[Kingsotall]

Yellow tape is for gas. Teflon dope must be used with teflon tape. Have heard of degrading issues when using rectorseal with tef tape.

 

[hj]

arm

Yellow tape is for gas. Teflon dope must be used with teflon tape. Have heard of degrading issues when using rectorseal with tef tape.

Teflon tape is teflon tape regardless of the color. I seldom use tape, but when I do, I never have to use dope/paste with it. Degrading issues should not be an issue, since either the tape or the Rectorseal, by itself, will seal the joint and thus degradation could not eliminate both of them.

 

[Kingsotall]

You know how if you ask three different plumbers how they would plumb something you'd get three totally different answeres¿ I've heard a myriad of ways to prep threads and at some point I heard rectorseal does that because of it's petroleum qualities. I just use Redwoods "belt and suspenders" approach whenever I can and am mindful to not mix the abovementioned. Never use the yellow tape, I think HD is the one pushing it.