Persistent leak in new outdoor faucet, brass to PVC...

[zinfendel]

I plumbed a vertical PVC riser off of an underground, "open" (not on a sprinkler valve) sprinkler line. I bought this house last year and the PO must have 2000' of sprinkler lines in the front yard! While digging out a bed in front of the porch I found a line marked "faucet" with a T and plug in it underground. He must have planned to put a faucet there at some point.

Anyway, I bought a brass outdoor faucet and glued a male 3/4" NPT PCV adapter the to the riser. Put the faucet on there tight, and it leaked at the joint. So I took it off and teflon taped the threads and it still leaks.

Am I missing something? Something weird/wrong about threading brass NPT to PVC? How do I do this?

Thanks for any help..

John H

[mdshunk]

Did you split the plastic adaptor by chance? Maybe a hairline crack? Threading metal into plastic is tricky. If you do it up too tightly, you'll split the plastic. Teflon tape sometimes adds the extra bulk that breaks it. I prefer to use a paste type dope on metal to plastic connections, and just snug it up. Using something like RectorSeal #5 or Great White PTFE paste would be preferrable.