Silicone wrap - my experience

DuggieFresh5

I've gotten a lot of good advice on The Wall and wanted to "give back" by sharing my experience with silicone wrap.

I work for a large industrial distributor and this leads me to being influenced by vendors and trying new products, silicone wrap from Loctite being one. I have had success temporarily repairing my steam main with this wrap. I've had it in place for 2 weeks while waiting for a contractor to come in and re-do some piping (HSA warranty repair).

I had this pipe repaired once by a plumber (learning all the time about right trade for the job...) and he put one of those 2-part epoxy patches on the leaky nipple. It leaks from a hole in the body, not at the joint. He took off my silicone wrap repair to install this patch early Spring last year. The patch started leaking -- during Summer when I wasn't even firing the boiler anymore.

I repaired the epoxy patch with more wrap (generic brand this time) and I'm good to go once again. I saw one drop eek out once, but nothing ever again. The system is in active use and I believe the elastic and self-adhering properties of the silicone wrap make it a natural fit for this type of fix. Again, this is the steam MAIN, not a condensate line.

I'm a home owner, but not a duck tape fixes everything homeowner. I like to do repairs correctly, thus waiting for the re-piping to happen, but I would recommend this as a temporary fix for homeowner or contractor alike if you get in a pinch.

I hope my experience can help someone else out of a jam (at least temporarily!).

Doug

BobC

Loctite makes some great stuff, at my old job they bailed us out more than once.

Silicone is amazing stuff, it has great elasticity and a wide temperature range. I'll make a note of this fix, ya never know when it might come in handy.

Bob

Ironman

Thanks for sharing. I'd seen it on display at one of my suppliers, but haven't tried it yet. Think I'll get one and keep it on the truck for the right occasion.

icesailor

I always worry that the truly thrifty DIY'er will consider this a permanent fix and never get it addressed.

Then, someone in a suit comes along looking for someone who recommended or suggested a product that caused harm.

There's enough time to do it right. But always time for someone else to paid to do it over. Like my old High School Auto Shop teacher always used to tell us: "You can't buy a mechanic in a can".

vaporvac

That is true, icesailor, but until I get my leaks welded, this is looking good. (They can't be tightened without dismantling the entire install and we no longer have the equipment to carry the heavy pipes). Some of them "self_healed" with rust, but three remain. I had been wondering about this myself as a temporary fix, so I'm glad to know it works.
Question: the Loctite i google is white. Is that blue tape the generic one? do you have a link so I am sure i'm getting the right stuff?

R2.0

Look up F4 tape. Pretty amazing stuff.

Abracadabra

I have several rolls of Blue Monster silicone tape for emergencies in the truck. Great stuff.

http://cleanfit.com/blue-monster-compression-seal-tape.shtml

jumper

A wonderful feature of steam is very low pressure so emergency fixes can work indefinitely.There's epoxy and there's epoxy.The really good stuff costs more than welding.And epoxy doesn't like to move with the steel during repetitive thermal expansion contraction cycles.Silicone on the other hand can stretch and relax.Try applying it when metal is hot and then more when it's not.

DuggieFresh5

I've seen Loctite in black and red. The blue in the picture is made by ER Tape.

Performance is similar. The ER Tape is thicker and a little tougher to stretch than the Loctite. I like the stretchiness of the Loctite, but the ER Tape is so thick, there is more substance to it.

Both did the same job in my case.