Repairing Leak in Plumbing - What Am I Doing Wrong?

[Pool_Medic]

I’ve plumbed thousands of pumps using sched 40 white pvc unions or fittings with zero leaks. 3-5 wraps of pink Teflon tape, tightened then glued with the appropriate glue for rigid or flex pvc. I suspect OP has a hairline crack somewhere.

 

[markayash]

You may want to look very closely at that leak. I've seen this a couple of times and it turned out to be a hairline crack that was barely visible until you pressure up. Take a very close up photo and then zoom in. This is more common with fiberglass pump housings. I have some photos in one of my posts a year or two ago that show this. I'll try to dig them up.

Chris

I had a similar years ago that turned out to be a hairline crack in the pump housing
Don’t try this at home
But what I did ( was an older pump ) was bought a male to female adapter and applied a thin coat of JB world on the threads and that worked.
Risk is if it doesn’t work your hosed

 

[setsailsoon]

If you look at the threads top center you can see the crack in mine. I bit the bullet and replaced the case.

 

[JamesW]

A better connector to use is gray pipe or one of the black high temperature connectors.

There are two different gray fittings.

One is schedule 80 PVC which is not resistant to high heat. Maximum Operating Temperature 140 Degrees F.

The other is CPVC, which is resistant to higher heat. Maximum Operating Temperature 210 Degrees F.

 

[Nickpooch]

Hi,

I had my pump strainer basket broke so I replaced it and did the plumbing job myself to repair the plumbing and add in unions so it would be easier to repair in the future. I did a pretty shoddy job, but it lasted through this past summer thanks to Flex Seal (lol, I know)

The Flex Seal is starting to fail this summer and it’s leaking pretty bad now and air is getting to my lines and the flow light is red on my SWG so it’s not producing chlorine…

It’s really leaking in two areas, where the plumbing adapter threads into my Pentair 340400 pump and at the vertical union in the O-ring. See the pics below:

View attachment 413605

View attachment 413607

View attachment 413609

The big leak is at the threaded adapter. I used Teflon tape both times trying to repair this and it's still leaking. Is there any other product that I could use to seal it? When I first unscrewed it from when it was installed, there was some "playdoh" like material, but I am not sure what that is to buy it again...

Not sure why the union is leaking either, the two sides of the union are pretty tight together and I screwed it down tight.

Thanks for the help!

Aaron

I had same issue. Take off and make sure oring is in there. Lube it with soap and water. Fixed it for me.