Kenmore Brine Tank Delaminating

[Wally Hays]

Yes, the mating faces are either damaged or the unions are mis-aligned. Take the joints apart and have a look.

[Akpsdvan]

The trick is not to use the True Value PTFE paste on the threads but rather on either the male or female part of the union.. when one undoes the union nut there are two parts, the part that has the threads that the nut screws on to and the other part that the nut stays with. With both parts clean , put a small amount of paste on either one, does not matter which, but doing so will put a seal between the two metal parts and has worked 99 out of 100 for me.. a trick that I learned years ago from an old time plumber that told me about that trick after telling him about the challenge of getting a union to stop leaking...even with 2 of the largest pipe wrenches and lots of pressure they would not seal... now with just a little paste on one of the two parts ,, 2 normal size and light pressure and life is great..

[dave in WI]

Great advice everyone, thank you. Come to think of it, I did drop one of the fittings on the cement floor, it could have damaged the sealing surface, I did not look that closely.

Fixing it will have to wait for another day, the family is on their way back and it's getting late in the day. If the sealing surface and alignment look good, I'll try the paste on the surface. If one of them are damaged, I kept the old ones I cut out. I should have reused them, they are expensive buggers. But I wanted to get the job done. How does that saying go, there is never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over again. But I thought I was doing it right...

Thanks again.

[Akpsdvan]

Why put off til another day.. ?
That slow leak is going to make the pump work more, and put water on the floor or fill up a bucket that you might have under the leak.

[dave in WI]

Just came across this old thread, what I thought was a leak a the union was in fact condensation. It hasn't leaked a drop in about a year and a half.

Thanks again everyone for the help.