HOW CAN I STOP A LEAKING FITTING? ( NEED HELP)

[jimdeq]

I have a four row water to air coil in my furnace plenum. The coil was built with 1-1/4" male adapters brazed on to the header. I cant get these adapters to quit leaking. After the first installation with tephlon tape and Gasolia Pipe dope they were dripping. I took them apart and did 10 wraps of tape and then used Permatex pipe dope, and they are leaking more then before. I noticed that when I thread the female adapter onto the male adapter on the coil I can thread it on all the way until it bottoms out ,all by hand. Can brazing be unbrazed with enough heat and then apply new male adapters? If I take a sawzall I could cut off the adapters and still have about 3/4" of pipe to work with before the header. Is that a better option?

 

[afblue]

I think you have a mis matched set of fittings, there is no way you should ever be able to thread NPT pipe fittings to bottom out by hand. Are you trying to thread an NPT with a SPT, MPT, or BPT?

 

[North of 60]

I have a four row water to air coil in my furnace plenum. The coil was built with 1-1/4" male adapters brazed on to the header. I cant get these adapters to quit leaking. After the first installation with tephlon tape and Gasolia Pipe dope they were dripping. I took them apart and did 10 wraps of tape and then used Permatex pipe dope, and they are leaking more then before. I noticed that when I thread the female adapter onto the male adapter on the coil I can thread it on all the way until it bottoms out ,all by hand. Can brazing be unbrazed with enough heat and then apply new male adapters? If I take a sawzall I could cut off the adapters and still have about 3/4" of pipe to work with before the header. Is that a better option?

Question. Is this all copper or black iron @ your 1 1/4 male adaptors? What is your 1 1/4 FIP. Black or copper?

 

[jimdeq]

The fittings must be mismatched. I cant find any documentation or specs on the coil paperwork. Regardless ,I have to fix it. Yes all components and fittings are copper.

 

[North of 60]

The fittings must be mismatched. I cant find any documentation or specs on the coil paperwork. Regardless ,I have to fix it. Yes all components and fittings are copper.

Well then its an easy fix. Fittings are easily stretched. Remove the fittings and clean up. U can either use a threaded copper union or your FIP. Paste the threads with solder paste and thread together. Use 50/50 and solder. Done. Work back from there with what ever you want. I doubt the threads are a mismatch but it will not matter with this procedure.

 

[jimdeq]

Sorry for the weak mind here, but what does stretch a fitting mean? What is 50/50?

 

[North of 60]

Sorry for the weak mind here, but what does stretch a fitting mean? What is 50/50?

Stretched fitting means it has been expanded beyond its original clearances. Copper and brass can be like this. Especially if its been heated. It has now become a soft copper. 50/50 is solder with more lead content that has a lower melting point. When you apply heat in that area it will not have to reach the temps to damage the brazing at your coil header. I will get lots of shipping damage up here with crushed out of round fittings. To rule out any leaks, this procedure is then preformed.

 

[jimdeq]

Thanks for the help. I got er fixed.

 

[North of 60]

Good on ya. :coolsmile:

 

[heaterman]

I'm tellin ya guys, nothing beats this stuff. It will seal NPT to straight cut British threads, stretched fittings, damaged threads, you name it. We use it on all our threaded fittings up to 4" diameter. No leaks, no drips, ever. You can get it at any Grainger store or find it on Amazon or Ebay. I talked the local hardware store into carrying it for us. I like it much better than teflon because it doesn't seem to come apart and get sucked into pumps or valves like tape. You don't need to use as much of it as recommended on the bottle.

(broken link removed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o4uMq6yQiQ

 

[Willman]

The cord stuff works great as advertised. pricey but worth it. I just watched video and always wrapped the threads after crossing over the starting piece. Looks like they just wrap it up any which way and it works fine. Hafta try that next time.

Will

 

[ewdudley]

The cord stuff works great as advertised. pricey but worth it. I just watched video and always wrapped the threads after crossing over the starting piece. Looks like they just wrap it up any which way and it works fine. Hafta try that next time.

Will

About a dime per joint for inch and a half pipe, seems like a pretty good value to me, even if it were for just the "allows for post assembly adjustment" feature alone.

I like to smear on a rather thin coating of Permatex black pipe sealant with a tooth brush, followed by the Loctite 55. I guess the nice thing about pipe sealing is that everybody's favorite method works quite well.

It's really nice to come around and stop comfortably with the fitting facing the right direction without being tempted to go around one more time just to be sure.

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

I'm tellin ya guys, nothing beats this stuff. It will seal NPT to straight cut British threads, stretched fittings, damaged threads, you name it. We use it on all our threaded fittings up to 4" diameter. No leaks, no drips, ever. You can get it at any Grainger store or find it on Amazon or Ebay. I talked the local hardware store into carrying it for us. I like it much better than teflon because it doesn't seem to come apart and get sucked into pumps or valves like tape. You don't need to use as much of it as recommended on the bottle.

(broken link removed)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o4uMq6yQiQ

When using this cord, can you do a soldering operation in a close location, say 1" away from the cord on 1/2" or 3/4" pipe/tube ?

 

[afblue]

Watching the video in the 3D Spanish version was hilarious "locitite cincuenta y cinco "Teflon Desperdicio". Also I didnt know that Spanish pipe was left handed threaded? But regardless, I am impressed with the functionality, seems alot easier to use than keeping teflon tape flat, It also pulls off the pipe easier when rejointing. This product also follows along with the theory of "Hemp and Paste" jointing for non tapered piping. I am impressed, and I will be using this stuff for sure on my install!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBb6UYjzVJ8&feature=related

 

[Sawyer]

I used Loctite 55 on all my threaded black and copper fittings after reading Heaterman's thread last year. I did not have one leak.

As we do not have a local supplier of anything where I live I bought it for $11.17 delivered from (broken link removed to http://www.drillspot.com/search/?q=loctite) 55

I bought two tubes and have a lot of the second tube left for expansion projects.

 

[Zoidberg]

Watching the video in the 3D Spanish version was hilarious "locitite cincuenta y cinco "Teflon Desperdicio". Also I didnt know that Spanish pipe was left handed threaded?
...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBb6UYjzVJ8&feature=related

I have not been able to watch the video (no flash player), but "LOCTITE® 55™ é um vedante de tubos e conexões roscadas de uso" sounds a lot like Portuguese.

 

[afblue]

Watching the video in the 3D Spanish version was hilarious "locitite cincuenta y cinco "Teflon Desperdicio". Also I didnt know that Spanish pipe was left handed threaded?
...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBb6UYjzVJ8&feature=related

I have not been able to watch the video (no flash player), but "LOCTITE® 55™ é um vedante de tubos e conexões roscadas de uso" sounds a lot like Portuguese.

I appoligize for a bad translation, but its still funny that everything was shown left hand threaded.

 

[NYEDGE]

Watching the video in the 3D Spanish version was hilarious "locitite cincuenta y cinco "Teflon Desperdicio". Also I didnt know that Spanish pipe was left handed threaded?
...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBb6UYjzVJ8&feature=related

I have not been able to watch the video (no flash player), but "LOCTITE® 55™ é um vedante de tubos e conexões roscadas de uso" sounds a lot like Portuguese.

I appoligize for a bad translation, but its still funny that everything was shown left hand threaded.

Your right af, it is Portuguese.

 

[Zoidberg]

Watching the video in the 3D Spanish version was hilarious "locitite cincuenta y cinco "Teflon Desperdicio". Also I didnt know that Spanish pipe was left handed threaded?
...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBb6UYjzVJ8&feature=related

I have not been able to watch the video (no flash player), but "LOCTITE® 55™ é um vedante de tubos e conexões roscadas de uso" sounds a lot like Portuguese.

I appoligize for a bad translation, but its still funny that everything was shown left hand threaded.

Your right af, it is Portuguese.

It is Portuguese, but afblue was wrong. It's understandable, though. I know for a fact that, given the right condictions, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian can sound about the same to the untrained ear (I was once asked to translate a "Spanish" song that turned out to be Italian). As well, I know I am unable to tell English from German from Dutch unless I am paying concentrated attention.

 

[afblue]

I really appolgize, apparently my 3 years of Spanish in HS 12 years ago did me absolutely no good, since I cant even recognize whether its right or not

 

[Zoidberg]

I really appolgize, apparently my 3 years of Spanish in HS 12 years ago did me absolutely no good, since I cant even recognize whether its right or not

Sounds a lot like what my French courses did to me in HS Some of my in-laws are French and I am pretty sure they do not understand a single word of what I tell them (either in Spanish or in French).

Now on topic, I have been using Tangit Unilock to fix the mess a "professional" plumber did to our house when it was built. He claimed to have tested the installation with air (we did not have mains water at the time) and declared it good. When we finally connected the water, wherever there was a threaded fitting there was a big leak also. He had used both teflon and that thing that looks and smells like wet dogs and whose name I don't remember.

 

[dogwood]

Thanks for the product tip Heaterman. Will the Loctite 55 work as well on a straight thread to straight thread application?

Mike

 

[SteveJ]

Loctite 55 works better than advertised - black iron to termovar without unions, black to copper, black to balancing valve, copper to balancing, you name it - it works just as heaterman said.

You do not need as many wraps as per heaterman - I started using about 2 or 3 wraps less than on the bottle and then the joints look much cleaner.

I went from tapered to straight but have not tried straight to straight.

Love it - no mess, easy to disassemble, easy to adjust after system has been running.

The only leaks I have had are from old connections with pipe sealant - and what a bear to remove...

Much faster than soldering - no prep work needed - I did score the threads with channel locks.

Thanks again heaterman...

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Single best way to stop the leak is to shut the water off upstream.

Since we're hopelessly off topic . . .

What do you call a person who speaks two languages?
{bi-lingual}

What do you call a person who speaks more than two languages?
{multi-lingual}


What do you call a person who speaks only one language?



{American}

Old, I know, but still funny.