Leaks when plumbing new kitchen faucet

I have just installed a new kitchen faucet assembly and been unsuccesful at eliminating 100% of the leaks in the plumbing.

I have connected new brass fittings (valve, nipples, T’s) between the PVC water pipe and the flex hose to the faucet but no matter what I do, t he brass fittings still leak.

All of the new brass fittings are ½†pipe thread that have been wrapped with approximately 2 wraps of teflon thread tape (in the proper direction). I have dis-assembled and re-assembled the fittings several times (always cleaning and re-taping the threads) using varying degrees of tightness, but nothing works - small beads of water slowly build up at each of the connections and eventually drip.

I am not a plumber so I could certainly be overlooking some basic steps. Can anyone offer suggestions.

leaks

First, I hope you have CPVC pipes instead of PVC or you may have a worse problem than a few leaks. Why do you have valves, nipples, and tees before connecting to the faucet? Brass is a soft material, so it is hard to prevent leaks. Do not use the teflon tape use a pipe joint paste compound instead.

Are you sayng that you have plastic (CPVC) male nipples extending from the wall and you afe connecting female threaded valves to them? Plastic threads can be distorted by overtightening, which is easy to do. You may have to replace the plastic pieces.

The generally recommended procedure for connecting plastic threaded components is to tighten be hand as far as it will go, then 1/2 to 1 full turn maximum by wrench.

The PVC (or CPVC-not sure) connects to a brass 1/2" pipe thread shut-off valve.

The outlet of the shut-off valve connects to a brass 1/2" pipe thread male-male adapter in order to connect to a teee that supplies the dishwasher with hot water.

The straight-through outlet of the tee also has a male-male adapter to connect to the flex hose that goes to the faucet.

I suppose that a big part of the problem was that this was a Sunday afternoon emergency plumbing job where Home Depot was the only source for fittings. Some of the adapters could have been avoided if more parts were available.

Thanks, I'll try the pipe joint compound. What about a combination of tape and compound like many people recommend?

This is a text schematic of the hot water plumbing from the top (faucet) - down (PVC pipe from basement). I hope it makes sense:

FAUCET

Flex hose - ½†(female) pipe thread to faucet.

Brass adapter (nipple?) male-male ½†pipe thread

Brass TEE - TOP OUTLET - ½†female pile thread
Brass TEE - SIDE OUTLET - 3/8†Swagelock to dishwasher
Brass TEE - INLET - ½†female pipe thread

Brass adapter (nipple?) - male-male ½†pipe thread.

Brass shut-off valve - OUTLET - ½†female pipe-thread
Brass shut-off valve - INLET - ½†female pipe-thread

PVC (or CPVC) with ½†male pipe thread.

FLOOR


Note: the brass male-male adapters have hex nuts in the middle to facilitate tightening.

The brass "adapters" that you're describing are compression fittings. These are sealed by the brass rings (aka ferrules) on the pipe inside the threaded compression fittings, not by the threads.
To seal them, put pipe dope or a smear of clear silicone caulk or a wrap of teflon tape on the rings. Putting anything on the threads of a compression fitting will not seal it.
Use a back-up wrench on the fitting when tightening the nuts with another wrench.
Good Luck!
Mike

Mike Swearingen said:

The brass "adapters" that you're describing are compression fittings. These are sealed by the brass rings (aka ferrules) on the pipe inside the threaded compression fittings, not by the threads.
To seal them, put pipe dope or a smear of clear silicone caulk or a wrap of teflon tape on the rings. Putting anything on the threads of a compression fitting will not seal it.
Use a back-up wrench on the fitting when tightening the nuts with another wrench.
Good Luck!
Mike

Click to expand...

Thanks for responding, Mike. The male-male adapters have 1/2" pipe thread that mate with the female pipe thread on the brass valve and TEE. If they were compression fittings as you suggest, would they really be 1/2" pipe thread? Once again, I am not a plumber but my limited experience has shown that pipe threads and compression fitting threads are not compatible. Besides, the plastic packages that they came in say 1/2" pipe thread and nothing about being a compression fitting.

I think that I have discovered the source of the problem though. I contacted a friend who is a plumber (would have done this earlier but I'm too sensitive about asking for free professional advice unless it's from a public web forum) and after going through the details he guessed (correctly) that it was the teflon tape I was using. He said that the extremely thin gage of the stuff they sell at DIY stores needs at least five of six wraps to work effectively. The two-wrap guideline that I was using was for professional grade tape. It seems that my two wraps of thin tape were being ripped apart by the threads when tightening. I re-assembled everything with six wraps and so far it looks good.

Oops. Blew that one. Should have re-read the previous posts better first.
Your friend is right.
Mike