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A short video about PTFE tape
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As you can see from this close up, it is thread seal tape
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And the main purpose of making this video is to tell people that this tape does not go
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around the olive in a compression joint. We get hundreds of emails from people who say things like, I'm no plumber, but I know
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PTFE tape goes around an olive. That's rubbish. It's called thread seal tape
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And in this situation, we're going to show you how it seals the thread on an outside tap
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We're going to seal that thread with PTFE tape. But before I do that, I just want to say that PTFE tape is..
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very rarely used on compression joints. People seem to think that that the best use for it It is a use for it and it certainly won do the compression joint any harm but a compression joint and this is a separate video that you can see on the DIY Doctor Channel
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A compression joint relies on the olive being compressed by the nut into the fitting
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There's no need for PTFE tape. If you do want to use PTFE tape as I say it won't do it any harm but it shouldn't be necessary
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Okay, so PTFE tape itself. Take the Ptf E tape and remember that with a clockwise thread where you screw the nut right to get it tight
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the PTFE tape goes on in a clockwise direction so that as you turn the nut, you won't undo the PTFE tape
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Hold the PTFE tape on the thread with your thumb and then making sure
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that the reel of PTFE tape is in reverse to the tape itself, i.e. it's coming off the back
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of the reel so that as we turn the reel the tape is coming off the back of the reel and it not out of control so we can wind round generously pulling tight as we go making sure that we go up against the seal at the end of the tap
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taps are designed outside taps are designed to screw in to their
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wall brackets with a little bit of play so that when the tape the thread seal tape is on the
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thread it will stop in an upright position okay so we put about eight or ten
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pull the tape push it into the thread revolutions eight or ten revolutions that's the word
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I was looking for. So push the tape into the thread so that you can only just see the thread sticking through the tape
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Then we move up to our tap bracket push the thread in and turn slowly And as you can see as I turn now it getting tighter
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As it bites into the thread, I keep going round and I should get one more complete revolution
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to make sure that that tap is in a perfectly serviceable and watertight position
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So that's how we use PTFE tape. It doesn't go round the olive
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As a lot of lunatics suggest, we have even had a plumbing school tell us we're doing it incorrectly
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and the tape should go round an olive. That's absolute rubbish. As you can see from the tape, it's called thread tape and that's how we use it
