Trouble with hose bib change-out (leak)

Sand paper will be fine. Once you have it soldered make sure you use 2 wrenches when installing the bib, 1 to hold the soldered fitting and the other to turn the hose bib.

Jerome2877 said:

Sand paper will be fine. Once you have it soldered make sure you use 2 wrenches when installing the bib, 1 to hold the soldered fitting and the other to turn the hose bib.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Is the use of two wrenches for now and forever, or just because the joint is fresh?

ginahoy said:

Thanks. Is the use of two wrenches for now and forever, or just because the joint is fresh?

Click to expand...

You should always hold the fitting with a wrench if you have access to the fitting.

Always two wrenches....
Always two wrenches....
Always two wrenches....
Always two wrenches....
Always two wrenches....
Always two wrenches....

I'm finally getting around to replacing the hose bib with a soldered fitting. Presumably I need to use teflon tape on the MPT threads of the bib. Is it OK to make this attachment before sweating the fitting, or will the heat damage the tape? All this talk about using two wrenches has me concerned that I might put stress on the solder joint, even with two wrenches.

Solder the joint first
Then tape or dope the male threads
Then assemble using two wrenches or pliers.

Success! I have to say, it was a pain to evacuate the water. I used a shop vac, and I thought I had it all. But when I sat down to sweat the joint, the wind kept extinguishing my torch! So I decided to hold off until dusk. When I returned to complete the job, water was fast dripping out of the pipe! I realized I failed to shut off the cold water feed to my DHW tank, as well as shunt my water softener. I'm sure someone probably mentioned that little detail in one of the several threads I read last week.

I had to run the vacuum for another 5 or 10 minutes, but eventually declared the pipe dry. It was still breezy, but the wife was standing there with her arms crossed (water having been off all afternoon), so I site-rigged a wind screen and did the deed.

One last little scare as I dutifully used two wrenches to install the bib -- I ended up with the spout pointing up! I either had to make another 180, or back it off 180 and hope the teflon tape made a good seal. I was wondering if I missed a tip to pre-position the sweat fitting so the bib would end up properly oriented?? Anyway, I decided to go forward and was able to bring it around. Either I was lucky, or there's enough "give" in MPT fittings so that this isn't an issue.

Thanks for the assistance, all.