RE: [APD] Re: CO2 tanks and teflon tape

["Douglas Guynn" <d_guynn at sbcglobal.net>]

To quote Scott H.

"Tape is neither necessary nor especially useful. It won't
improve the seal and you shouldn't expect it to. The tank
should have CGA 320 fitting on it with male threads and the
regulator should have CGA 320 female fitting. CGA 320
fittings are *not* like standard pipe threads. With
standard pipe threads, the tapered threads provide the seal
and using tape or pipe dough helps ensure that the threads
don't have any small gaps. But the CGA fittings  *do not*
seal at the threads! They seal where the flat faces of the
two fittings meet and that's why you *must* have a fiber or
nylon washer between the two -- to seal the joint where
those to seats meet. In fact, applying tape makes it
possible to bind the threads before the fitings are fully
seated against the washer -- althoguh it would take a lot
of tape to do that."

-----Original Message-----
From: aquatic-plants-bounces+d_guynn=sbcglobal.net at actwin.com
[mailto:aquatic-plants-bounces+d_guynn=sbcglobal.net at actwin.com]On
Behalf Of Diane Brown
Sent: Monday, November 01, 2004 9:32 PM
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
Subject: [APD] Re: CO2 tanks and teflon tape



On Monday, Nov 1, 2004, at 18:23 US/Central, 
aquatic-plants-request at actwin_com wrote:

> You should normally not use teflon pipe tape on gas fittings (the same 
> goes
> for natural gas lines if you ever work on those). There is a yellow 
> teflon
> tape for gas lines that you could use, but it probably isn't 
> necassary. For
> gas lines you normally use a pipe thread compound that is goo-in-a-can.
>

Why shouldn't I be using teflon tape?  Does it just not help, or does 
it actively impair the seal?

(This is a very timely question since I just emptied my big tank and 
need a refill....)

Diane Brown in St. Louis
http://www.well.com/user/debunix/fish/fishIndex.html

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