Hi,

I have an outdoor irrigation system that seems to have some dripping from what I believe is the cleanout/blowout valve that the landscaper I hire in the fall uses to blow the line out so it doesn't freeze. Simply put, I know the copper pipe out of the home is the feed pipe, which leads to a "T", and going upwards leads to the triple backflow preventer, and the outside with the dripping is a female thread. It had been a plastic plug, and I bought a brass plug at my local plumbing supply thinking it would fix it.

I wrapped the plug threads twice with the white plumbers' tape, tightened it quite a bit, and still having the same result.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I have included the pictures below.

Remember, I need to have access to this in the fall/early winter so I can have someone blow the lines out so they don't freeze and break the pipe.

Thank you! Pilot

Are the threads part of the tee or is a close nipple ?

I'm not sure what this means. The threads are inside the copper part of the pipe. The tee itself appears to be soldered to the long pipe that goes through the concrete into the house and the other part goes into the back flow.

That is a plastic cap, not a plug, and I do not see a "brass plug" anywhere. That opening has absolutely nothing, or at most, very little, to do with "blowing out" the irrigation system.

The plastic cap was the "before" picture. It was replaced with a brass plug. I believe this is where the lawn company blows out the line in the fall as there were lots of tool marks on the plastic cap.



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It would be the wrong place, since it is before the antisiphon valve and they would have to pressurize your HOUSE piping to do it from there.

That would be a good place for a boiler drain with a vacuum breaker on it. Add a tee to the PVC for winterizing the sprinkler system.

Ok. What purpose does it serve then? This is new piping from when the system was installed about 3 years ago.

If I don't need to access it I can teflon cement the damn thing.



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Yes, you sure can.

Teflon is a "lubricant", NOT a "cement".

Maybe you can remove that brass cap you added, wrap some teflon plumbing tape around the threads of the fitting that the cap screws onto, then reinstall the brass cap. Hopefully that will stop the leaking. The tape is often called "PTFE" tape since teflon is a trademarked name.





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I have the tape on the brass plug now, unfortunately. I will look into something permanent.

A brass plug, or cap, is usually considered permanent.

Was the brass cap you put on there possibly one made for a "FLARE" fitting instead of a normal pipe "IPS" cap fitting? If so that may be why it isn't sealing. Can you post a photo of the brass cap that you tried? Even a cheap galvanized pipe cap would work for that situation if you want to try that.

Sure can. Will try to take a pic today or tomorrow. Thanks.

I ended up resolving the issue by using a higher quality teflon tape, Oatey "FASTSeal" tape. It is holding with no drips.

Thanks to all.