Water Heaters - Wrapping teflon - pipe need to be dry?

Hey guys,

First post, so take it easy on me

Just installed a new 40 gallon water heater last night and there are small leaks right at the dielectric nipples for both hot and cold. Its a small leak, maybe 3 drips every minute, but does accumulate to a small puddle over time. The nipple is connected directly to the pipe with a threaded union bolt.

When wrapping the teflon tape on the nipple, I couldn't cut off the water completely due to a faulty shutoff valve, so water kept coming out and spilling over as I was wrapping the threads. Could wrapping the teflon tape on a wet pipe vs a dry pipe compromise its sealing ability?

I'm going shut off all whole house water supply tonight and re-wrapping the connection - any suggestions would be appreciated to assure it doesn't leak after this time!

Thanks!

The water shouldn't affect anything. Use at least 3 wraps or even 4, don't overlap the end of the nipple, slivers of tape can find their way into your piping if you do. Some people belt and suspender it, use the tape and then some pipe dope on top.

Getting the nipples tight enough can be a pain, since the WH wants to rotate.

btw, I was told that the tape and dope don't do any sealing really, but that they just act as a lubricant for getting the pipes tight enough..I'm not sure how true that is.

I'm not sure what a threaded union bolt is...union..yes, union bolt..no.

As long as you got 3 or 4 wraps of tape on the threads and wrapped the tape in the proper direction, you haven't got the threaded joints tight enough if they are still leaking.

Water isn't going to affect the tape's ability to seal at all.