Tape or wick

Spag74

I’m having a debate with my partner of which to use on the treads when repiping a steam boiler Teflon tape or wick. I’ve used tape in the past and no issues and wick but the wick can become a pain to fill the treads.Please get back to me on past experiences 

ChrisJ

It's 2021 not 1920. Should we Western Union your partner our responses?

On really good threads I use Megaloc dope and they always seal.
On questionable threads (Boiler block, cheap nipples, cheap fittings, old threads) 3-4 wraps of Blue Monster tape followed by a light coating of Megaloc.

PTFE tape won't rott out like wick does and it's easier to work with.

I've seem some guys who still use wick.
But, I've seem many people do a lot of things.

KC_Jones

Tape is perfectly fine on low pressure steam heating. It's rated for I believe 500° and a residential steam system will never see those temperatures.

There was a time when all one had was an oil and graphite mixtures, that time has passed.

pecmsg

KC_Jones said:

Tape is perfectly fine on low pressure steam heating. It's rated for I believe 500° and a residential steam system will never see those temperatures.

There was a time when all one had was an oil and graphite mixtures, that time has passed.

That's still in my finger prints!

JohnNY

I will alway be a wick-and-dope guy. My guys hate it. Wick fills the voids in the threads and expands when it gets wet. It goes on much faster than tape when you know how and it's an active sealant.

Also, just yesterday I asked one of my guys if he had any Reznor hooks on his truck and he said he hasn't seen one of those in "many many years".

When did I become the Old Dog?

KC_Jones

JohnNY said:

I will alway be a wick-and-dope guy. My guys hate it. Wick fills the voids in the threads and expands when it gets wet. It goes on much faster than tape when you know how and it's an active sealant.

Also, just yesterday I asked one of my guys if he had any Reznor hooks on his truck and he said he hasn't seen one of those in "many many years".

When did I become the Old Dog?

I have a few of those on the gas piping in my basement, no idea on the age, I've been there 19 years and they came with the house. Oh, and said gas pipe actually has what I believe to be the mill name embossed into the pipe, not sure how old that might be. And no, I can't remember the name off the top of my head.

dopey27177

I have been retired for 25 years, never used tape or wick on steam unless the the dies did not cut perfect threads. I used the wick util I replaced the dies. My choice of pipe compound was Permatex or Rector seal.

Never had leaks on steam piping.

PS using wick is a subjective issue, I only used two turns of wick. In this case more is not better as the more you use the wick gets pushed out of the threads and in some cases all the wick is pushed out and that is having no wick at all in the threads.

Most importantly is to have good threads on the pipe.

Jake

ChrisJ

JohnNY said:

I will alway be a wick-and-dope guy. My guys hate it. Wick fills the voids in the threads and expands when it gets wet. It goes on much faster than tape when you know how and it's an active sealant.

Also, just yesterday I asked one of my guys if he had any Reznor hooks on his truck and he said he hasn't seen one of those in "many many years".

When did I become the Old Dog?

There's a few Reznor hooks in my house, but none were from me.
Honestly, I thought they were still used by everyone, I think Supplyhouse carries them. The only reason I don't is hammers and my floor joists are bad, real bad. Like, working on an old car, dirt in your eyes bad. So, I stick to drills and screws. No dirt in my hair or eyes.

Honestly with all the dirt that's fallen out of that floor in the past 10 years I have no idea how it's still doing it, it's like an endless dirt generator and it's covered by a laminate floor.

Just last week I used some romex staples and hated it.

EBEBRATT-Ed

@Spag74

Pipe dope questions on this forum make me laugh LOL

There is no right or wrong answer and you get replies from 1000 posters you will get 1000 opinions. Everyone posting has had leaks a some point and has their favorite tricks to fix them.

Connecting to used/old pipe and fittings is usually different from a new install. I also do different things on larger more difficult pipe than I do on the small stuff.

Whatever works for you

Intplm.

Wick is a waste of time. Teflon tape/blue monster tape and or good pipe dope is always fine. Wicking is just ridiculous to use in my humble opinion.

jumper

With wick can you fix leaky joint by banging on it?

DavidDow_2

Wicking works fine. Just mix up some white or red lead powder with linseed oil. That's what the old man journeyman taught me in the mid 70's. My boss preferred pipe dope. However, I do like PTFE and a PTFE pipe dope along with malleable fittings and unions in strategic places. Never have leaks. Just be gentile on cast iron though.

JohnNY

jumper said:

With wick can you fix leaky joint by banging on it?

Yes. You can push wick into a joint and stop a leak long enough for it to rust up and seal on its own.

JohnNY

Intplm. said:

Wick is a waste of time. Teflon tape/blue monster tape and or good pipe dope is always fine. Wicking is just ridiculous to use in my humble opinion.

You have no idea what you're talking about. If you don't like wick because you've got another preference, then go with your gut. But "wick is a waste of time" and "just ridiculous" are uninformed statements. I'll concede that there are options available that make wick seem like an outmoded method but it's got its particular uses and it still works as well now as it has for something like the past 100 years.

EBEBRATT-Ed

Somebody told me a trick once to fix leaks in CI plumbing , something about Ivory Snow flakes but I don't remember the rest of the story

EdTheHeaterMan

EBEBRATT-Ed said:

Somebody told me a trick once to fix leaks in CI plumbing , something about Ivory Snow flakes but I don't remember the rest of the story

I'm 99 and 44/100% sure that iI don't know the "rest of the story either". Where is Paul Harvey when you need him?

ratio

@Erin Holohan Haskell, maybe we could get a badge for "Hey, I got that joke!", or "I see what you did there!"

Intplm.

JohnNY said:

Intplm. said:

Wick is a waste of time. Teflon tape/blue monster tape and or good pipe dope is always fine. Wicking is just ridiculous to use in my humble opinion.

You have no idea what you're talking about. If you don't like wick because you've got another preference, then go with your gut. But "wick is a waste of time" and "just ridiculous" are uninformed statements. I'll concede that there are options available that make wick seem like an outmoded method but it's got its particular uses and it still works as well now as it has for something like the past 100 years.

I haven't used wicking in years. It just hasn't been worth the trouble to stock it since Teflon tape has come around. I was once a big wicking user, not anymore. I just don't use it. Not my thing. But hey! "To each his own." and what @EBEBRATT-Ed says above. ^^^

djfreni

I work for the biggest hospital in Boston and we use tape only on everything ,and we have low,medium &high pressure steam and have no issues with leaks

Labenaqui

We "double-dope" with three turns of "Blue Monster" Tape & a light coat of "Tru-Blu" on all hot water & steam. No leaks in over 25 years .....

SethYank

I have never had the chance to use wicking, I've heard about it but none of the supply houses carry it that I know of. I use Gasoila and Monster tape, with the dope on the threads and the tape over it. I have seen many guys put the dope over the tape and that doesn't make sense to me because the tape holds it in the threads. Also I have talked to some engineers who tell me according to codes you should only use tape OR dope not both. I have seen the dope dry out and the seal was being held by the teflon. I welcome your input.

ChrisJ

SethYank said:

I have never had the chance to use wicking, I've heard about it but none of the supply houses carry it that I know of. I use Gasoila and Monster tape, with the dope on the threads and the tape over it. I have seen many guys put the dope over the tape and that doesn't make sense to me because the tape holds it in the threads. Also I have talked to some engineers who tell me according to codes you should only use tape OR dope not both. I have seen the dope dry out and the seal was being held by the teflon. I welcome your input.

Putting the tape over dope is a messy disaster and causes most of the tape to push out making using both practically pointless.

The tape stays in the threads and imperfections better than dope, but dope lubricates better than tape. That's why tape first followed by a very thin coating of dope makes sense.

Engineers are right, in a perfect world where the NPT threads are cut perfect and everything is clean just dope or tape works beautifully. However, in the real world where you have damaged threads, or threads that were cut poorly like most of the Chinese fittings I've seen, you more often than not need both.

SlamDunk

I recently came across Loctite 5117. It is wonderful stuff by itself and I use it on 100psi steam, and 200+psi feed water pipes up to 2" pipes. Only problem: it is super sticky so if you are messy, it will get all over every thing. But, cleans like a dream with rubbing alcohol.

ChrisJ

SlamDunk said:

I recently came across Loctite 5117. It is wonderful stuff by itself and I use it on 100psi steam, and 200+psi feed water pipes up to 2" pipes. Only problem: it is super sticky so if you are messy, it will get all over every thing. But, cleans like a dream with rubbing alcohol.

Did I ask about that on here?
I can't remember, but we have Loctite 5117 at work and it seemed to seal anything I used it on. But like you said, it's a bit messy.

It may have been in my head, but I got the impression that anything it went on was never going to leak.

I thought I did. https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/180655/pipe-dope/p1

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

I use Superdope or Hernon Dripstop 923 for buggered up threads. Hand-tight will hold 100 psi. Both products are anaerobic and these rapidly cure to form a tough cross-linked plastic that will bond to the metal. And we all know about cross-linking, no?

https://argco.com/piping-chemicals/super-dope-anaerobic-thread-sealant.html?SID=9goutvfupf07s4eblmameakv8a

https://www.hernon.com/product/dripstop-923/

SlamDunk

ChrisJ said:

SlamDunk said:

I recently came across Loctite 5117. It is wonderful stuff by itself and I use it on 100psi steam, and 200+psi feed water pipes up to 2" pipes. Only problem: it is super sticky so if you are messy, it will get all over every thing. But, cleans like a dream with rubbing alcohol.

Did I ask about that on here?
I can't remember, but we have Loctite 5117 at work and it seemed to seal anything I used it on. But like you said, it's a bit messy.

It may have been in my head, but I got the impression that anything it went on was never going to leak.

I thought I did. https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/180655/pipe-dope/p1

When I read about it, it was described as "self healing if a leak develops" . Who could resist that?

woodrow

I use blue monster and dope on anything under 2 inch wicking and dope on above 2 inch and loctite sealing cord on problem threads

STEAM DOCTOR

Fwi, I have used blue monster tape on 3" steam lines with no leaks. These day, I use blue monster tape and dope on just about all steam pipe (low pressure systems). Almost certainly overkill. 

ChrisJ

STEAM DOCTOR said:

Fwi, I have used blue monster tape on 3" steam lines with no leaks. These day, I use blue monster tape and dope on just about all steam pipe (low pressure systems). Almost certainly overkill. 

I used only megaloc on a bunch of 2" and 3" nipples and Ward fittings around my boiler.  Into the block got blue monster + megaloc.   It's still leak free but those nipples were cut beautiful.

JUGHNE

I just did 3 steam boilers and used blue monster tape and then Megaloc on that.
The tape seems to set down in the threads as applied with a little stretch.
I also rub in down to seat it in better. The tape seems to do the male threads and then the Megaloc over the tape seem to do the female fitting threads.

No leaks so far......3 & 4" import fittings/nipples on the steam side.
Domestic on the wet side of the boiler.

bill_brooks

i've not done a great deal of HP steam fitting myself. rather i was taught by steamfitters who worked on
my hospital steam plant. almost exclusively, the contractors who worked for me used teflon with a
rectorseal "hardsetting" sealant. i believe it was the bluish dope.
20yrs. later i've run into youngins' who worked for me and they've reported no issues, except the fact
that those joints in question are damn near impossible to seperate!

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes

From this and previous discussions, it sounds as though everything and anything works. Tape, dope, wick, hemp, glue, bacon grease............We're just talking about sealing a tiny void between male and female threads. A shorter discussion would be: What doesn't work?

I worked for a homeowner who tried to do his own gas piping. He said every joint leaked and when I came to look at the job, every joint was neatly wrapped, but on the outside of the pipe. I told him to keep his day job.

ChrisJ

Alan (California Radiant) Forbes said:

From this and previous discussions, it sounds as though everything and anything works. Tape, dope, wick, hemp, glue, bacon grease............We're just talking about sealing a tiny void between male and female threads. A shorter discussion would be: What doesn't work?

I worked for a homeowner who tried to do his own gas piping. He said every joint leaked and when I came to look at the job, every joint was neatly wrapped, but on the outside of the pipe. I told him to keep his day job.

I guess that depends on the quality of the threads and the pressure you're dealing with.
I've done a few NPT joints I would consider high pressure and had no leaks.

OldPro69

We always use La-Co T-O-T pipe dope. Have not had a leak problem. If we have an old pipe joint with the old build up in the threads, we clean what we can and use X-Pando Pipe Joint Compound. The stuff works every time. Don't use it if you ever need to take the joint apart. I have brushed it on an existing leaky joint and heated it carefully with a torch. That fix has been good for over twenty years.

Anthony Menafro

I would still use wick, but have no problem with tape!