How To Use Plumbers Tape To Stop a Leaking Shower Filter With Pictures

When you get a new shower filter from us it usually comes with a small roll of Teflon tape / plumbers tape which is on a little blue spindle.

It looks like this:

Sometimes customers email us and ask us what on earth this little bit of tape is for, so we decided that today we'd go ahead and write a small article about what this plumbers tape / Teflon tape is and exactly how to use it on your new shower filter.

So what exactly is this plumbers tape?

Plumbers tape is known by quite a few names, it can be called: Teflon Tape or PTFE tape. But whatever name it is called it always does the same thing. For the sake of uniformity, let's just call it plumbers tape from now on because that sounds the easiest to understand. Plumbers tape is made from polytetrafluoroethylene (that's why it's sometimes called PTFE) and has a dual purpose. The first purpose of using plumbers tape when installing a new shower filter is that it creates a tight seal between the shower filter and whichever tap fitting you're attaching the shower filter to, whether that is a shower hose or a shower pipe. The second purpose of the tape is to create a type of lubricant between the threads of the shower filter and the tap so that when you go to unscrew it later it doesn't seize up and can't be unscrewed.

Not all shower pipes and bath pipes are exactly the same size. Even though the vast majority (we'd say nearly 99%) of showers and bathrooms have pipes which are 1/2 inch BSP (British Standard Pipe) thread size, there can sometimes be small variances in size. Also because showers and shower pipes can last decades (or even centuries!) in homes, because of wear and tear sometimes pipes and threads on pipes can wear down and that can cause small variations in size. So when you go to install a bran new shower filter onto an old pipe, when you put the shower filter onto the pipe and you don't use plumbers tape that small variance in the size might mean that there can be a leak between where you installed the shower filter and the pipe or hose. So that's why plumbers tape is really always handy to have when installing a new shower filter or making sure your shower filter doesn't leak.

So now we know what it is and what it is exactly for, let's get down to the nitty gritty and demonstrate exactly how to use plumbers tape on some of our shower filters.

The first thing you need to know even before taking the plumbers tape out of the spindle is to identify the male threads and the female threads the two pieces of tapware that you're going to join together.
Does that sound confusing already? If it is, don't worry - it's really simple and once you know, you'll know forever.
You see the 'male' end is the end where you see the exposed threads, if you look at the picture below, it's the part numbered 1.
The 'female' end of the pipe is the opposite part, the part which the 'male' end is inserted into and it has the threads on the inside of the pipe, it's the part numbered 2 in the picture below:

Now you know, you know, am I right? ;)

Now that you know one end from the other the first step to successfully using plumbers tape to stop any leaks on your shower filter to to always wrap the plumbers tape around the male end of the two connections.

So for example with hand held shower filters, the male end will always be on the hand held shower filter itself, so you just go ahead and wrap it around the male end like this:

Do you see how the white plumbers tape is wrapped around the male threads of the Paragon Luxury Hand-Held Shower Filter Head? Then all you would need to do is screw the hand held shower filter into the hose that is pictured next to it, because the hose itself has the female threads that the shower filter screws into.

When attaching an in line shower filter though, the same principle applies, only wrap the plumbers tape around the male threads. But this time there will be two places you need to wrap the tap onto because when installing an in line shower filter there are two male threads. The first male threads will be the actual water out pipe that you are screwing the shower filter onto. Then the second male threads is on the actual shower filter itself, below is pictured the Compact Shower Filter with the plumbers tape wrapped around it:

After the plumbers tape is wrapped around the male threads of the shower filter you just screw on the hose or the shower head as you would in the first step.

So there you have it - now you know how to exactly use plumbers tape when fitting your new shower filter so that you do not have any leaks whatsoever between the shower filter and the pipe or the hose.

We hope you've found this guide helpful and if you have any questions or comments please just leave them below in the comments section.
If you need any help with finding the right shower filter for you please do not hesitate to contact us. You can even send in a picture and we'll be able to guide you further! We're always happy to help.

Have a great day!