[throwawayacc4]

This article sucks. Lots of bad info from an inexperienced plumber.

How the US military, nuclear power plants, and plumbers worth their weight in salt do fittings: 3-4 times around the (male) fitting with PTFE tape, then a light amount of pipe dope on top of the PTFE tape.

Also, DO NOT buy the cheap PTFE tape as suggest. Buy the milspec tape. Your big box store will have both and you'll know where that money (a couple dollars at most) went.

[Severian]

Milspec, lol. Doesn't that normally equal as cheap as they can get away with?

There is a high-density thread sealing PTFE tape that works a bit better than the el' cheapo generic white stuff (although it's usually white too). Anything marked as such should be sufficient unless you are working on an oil rig or nuclear reactor.

EDIT: Unless the package has MIL-T-27730 on the tape, labeling it milspec has no meaning.

[kevin_thibedeau]

> Milspec, lol. Doesn't that normally equal as cheap as they can get away with?

It means a product meets stringent requirements that can't be cheated on.

[throwawayacc4]

>Milspec, lol.

Yes, MilSpec [0].

>Doesn't that normally equal as cheap as they can get away with?

No, wrong. You're thinking of "military grade", which is effectively meaningless as a term.

>There is a high-density thread sealing PTFE tape that works a bit better than the el' cheapo generic white stuff

This is what I was alluding to. It's thicker and denser.

>EDIT: Unless the package has MIL-T-27730 on the tape, labeling it milspec has no meaning.

This is where you're wrong. Milspec has a specific meaning [0]. The milspec in question is Military Spec # A-A-58092 [1].

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Military_Stand...

[1] https://www.lowes.com/pd/Oatey-0-6-in-x-43-ft-Plumber-s-Tape...

[CamperBob2]

Nuclear grade [1] or GTFO!

[1] https://www.grainger.com/product/3M-Duct-Tape-Nuclear-Grade-...

[CamperBob2]

3-4 times around the (male) fitting with PTFE tape, then a light amount of pipe dope on top of the PTFE tape.

That doesn't sound like a good idea at all. The whole idea behind PTFE (aka Teflon) is that it reduces friction because nothing, including pipe dope, sticks to it. What value does the pipe dope add to a properly-wrapped fitting?

[naich]

Mate, I'm not a plumber and it's 100% written from the perspective of someone who is not a plumber. This article is not an instruction manual for plumbers, but a blog of what a non-plumber found to work for him.