Leak on Fleck Bypass Valve using PVC Fitting. What Sealant should I use?

[Charlie Bosco]

The one thing that makes me HATE plumbing is leaks! Mother EFFER! I finally get around to installing my Carbon filter and I cringe every time I need to use a threaded PVC to Brass fitting. There is NO way to test the connection without finishing the job. If it leaks the entire effing thing needs to be torn apart and redone. Only now I get to have a schitty looking coupler as a monument to my stupidity. Sorry Rant over..

I used a little teflon tape (2 wraps) and now I ended up with this photo below. Both sides are leaking at a drop every few seconds.. I am soooo pissed off I just put a bucket under it till I cool off and redo it.. There is no way to crank it down once its glued.. I have to cut it and do it over. The teflon you see in the photo was a string of it I tried to wrap around the leaking area as tight as I could.. 5 or six wraps seemed to slow it down a bit till I can repair properly..

After googling I found this..https://www.lascofittings.com/threads
I read here that the fitting should be finger tight then 1 or 2 turns.. Finger tight? Hand Tight? Everyone is different. What a BS procedure! They said no dope or Teflon. But use a sealant. But did not say what kind.

What Sealant do you suggest? I dont care about the cost. I want it to work.

In the future.. I think I am just going to prebuild the bypass with an 8" Nipple coming off both sides. One side with a cap and the other with a Hose Thread. Then I can pressurize the damn thing and look for leaks.. I can still tighten if needed.. Then just cut the nipples to fit my project.. Its more work but a lot less work than tearing this frigging thing apart and interrupting the water service.

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[Reach4]

I used a little teflon tape (2 wraps) and now I ended up with this photo below.

For PTFE tape, consider using a higher grade tape with more PTFE and thicker. The Oatey pink and most yellow tape meets those things. Yellow tape is not limited to gas. I would avoid the cheap thin stuff. PTFE itself has a specific gravity over two. The cheap stuff floats, even after removing the air bubbles.

Also use plastic-safe pipe thread sealant. They say dope over tape, but I would rather do light dope, tape, dope. I am not a pro. The dope right on the threads helps hold the ptfe tape for me to get started.

See the discussion on https://terrylove.com/forums/index.php?threads/whats-the-dope-on-pipe-dope.80299/

If your plastic fittings have mold marks on the threads, consider using better fittings.

For outdoors, protect plastics including PVC from UV. That can be done by paint. You are not supposed to use PVC for pressure plumbing indoors; I think that is an unjustified rule.

 

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[ditttohead]

That is going to need to be replumbed. I use tens of thousand of rolls of the standard white Teflon for basic simple assembly, for complex assembly I use the blue Monster Teflon. For the taping where disassembly is difficult and we can not have a leak we use the white Teflon with Talon pipe dope.

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[Charlie Bosco]

That is going to need to be replumbed. I use tens of thousand of rolls of the standard white Teflon for basic simple assembly, for complex assembly I use the blue Monster Teflon. For the taping where disassembly is difficult and we can not have a leak we use the white Teflon with Talon pipe dope.View attachment 65946View attachment 65945 View attachment 65946 View attachment 65945 View attachment 65946 .

Thanks, I ordered Blue monster tape and paste. Once I get everything in I will do the fix.. In the meantime here is my drip catcher.. It drips down the length of pipe. That is a week worth of drips.