A few months ago, I had a leaky shower head, so I went to the hardware store to get some putty or caulk or something to fix the leak. But when they found out what I wanted it for, they sold me teflon pipe thread tape instead. The tape fills up the gap between the head and the pipe just fine, it's waterproof, and it's very slippery, so it's easy to put the shower head on and take it off again. Also you can remove it easily, even years later. I had never heard of teflon pipe thread tape, but it was just what I needed, and much better than the caulk would have been.
I get two reactions from people I tell this story to. Some people say ``Teflon pipe thread tape! Wow, I never heard of that before; I'll have to remember it.'' And some people interrupt me right at the beginning and say ``You should use teflon tape for that, you know.''
This talk is about teflon pipe thread tape. It's also about hose clamps, self-chalking plumb lines, mending plates, WD-40 in a spray can, and a whole bunch of other stuff. None of this stuff is specially magical; that's the point. Each of these tools will make half the people in the audience say ``Well, of course! Everyone knows about that.'' But the other half will say ``Wow! I never heard of that before, but now I don't know how I ever got along without it.''
I find teflon tape to be not great not terible for threaded water fittings. Sometimes I find it is just too thin and needs to be wound too many times.
In these cases I find that a bit of caulk covered afterwards in tape works best.
There is also a product like a thread covered in teflon (looks kinda like dental floss) but I never tried it because it was too expensive. Maybe as a professional it saves time.
Also I found that the direction you wind the tape matters. It is easier if the female/receptacle/socket part that needs to be screwed does not go against the end of the tape but in the same direction.
A few months ago, I had a leaky shower head, so I went to the hardware store to get some putty or caulk or something to fix the leak. But when they found out what I wanted it for, they sold me teflon pipe thread tape instead. The tape fills up the gap between the head and the pipe just fine, it's waterproof, and it's very slippery, so it's easy to put the shower head on and take it off again. Also you can remove it easily, even years later. I had never heard of teflon pipe thread tape, but it was just what I needed, and much better than the caulk would have been. I get two reactions from people I tell this story to. Some people say ``Teflon pipe thread tape! Wow, I never heard of that before; I'll have to remember it.'' And some people interrupt me right at the beginning and say ``You should use teflon tape for that, you know.''
This talk is about teflon pipe thread tape. It's also about hose clamps, self-chalking plumb lines, mending plates, WD-40 in a spray can, and a whole bunch of other stuff. None of this stuff is specially magical; that's the point. Each of these tools will make half the people in the audience say ``Well, of course! Everyone knows about that.'' But the other half will say ``Wow! I never heard of that before, but now I don't know how I ever got along without it.''
https://perl.plover.com/TPC/1998/Hardware-notes.html