About ready to close and have a question. I blow out my pipes through my skimmer. I use a pipe and screw it into the intake hole at the bottom of the skimmer. In previous years I’ve used Teflon tape around the threads. I’m wondering if there is a better product to use to seal that connection. The Teflon tape seems to bunch up as I screw the pipe in and I’m worried I’m not getting a good seal.
Pipe sealant.
- Thread starter pb4uswim
- Start date
If the tape is bunching up, it needs to be wrapped around the other direction. It needs to be wrapped clockwise if you are staring down the threaded side of the fitting.
I don’t think you really need a perfect seal to blow out the lines. The tapered threads alone should form a “pretty good” seal. Maybe skip the tape if it’s causing you issues? Do you also use the “gizmo” things in the skimmers after blowing the lines? You can use o-rings on them instead of tape. O-ring size is 227.
The blow though pipe is in lieu of the gizzmo. So the seal is important or the pipe slowly fills.
But you raise a great point, blow though gizzmos will likely kill two birds with one stone. The softer plastic will likely make a better seal and still not have to lower the water. While PB4 already has the DIY PVC pipes, new blow though guzzmos won't beak the bank at $25(?) each and they last years and years.
Thanks for the input. Maybe I was wrapping the tape wrong. I know to do it the right way but I might have messed up. Anyway, I taped it today and it seemed to work fine. Had some other issues closing the pool, but it’s done and that’s the end of the season. Now I just have to wait for the leaves to fall for my next big project (leaf raking).
THATS the problem. You need to tape it the *left* way so that when you tighten the gizmo the right way it doesn't loosen the tape. Glad we cleared that up.
For real though, I never pay attention to it and sometimes I tape over and sometimes I tape under depending on which hand picked up what. Every once in a while I taped it the wrong direction and it promptly bunches up. It should happen alot more than it does for me, but now that I said it out loud it will happen the next 10 times.