Shower elbow.

[Gilesda]

Hi all.
I'm tarting up a shower room and fixing an ideal standard shower hose elbow, but I'm a but concerned about fitting it.
It has a brass threaded tube sticking out the back and I'm going to set a wall plate elbow into the wall to screw it into. I wont be able to screw it fully into the wall elbow because it has a soft rubber washer that seals against the tiles. Obviously I want it to end up with the outlet for the shower hose pointing down, so that will decide how far it goes into the wall elbow. I'm worried it will leak in the wall. I won't know it's leaking either as I won't be able to see once it's tightened up to the tiles.
I've got Loctite 55, or ptfe tape, or could get a liquid thread seal if that's a better choice. But how sure can I be that it will seal when I can't see inside the wall.
Thanks.

 

[dilalio]

The seal is made on the threads by using ptfe or 55 or such. It doesn't have to screw in all the way home.
Experience is the key here... I usually wind it in without anything on the threads and count the number of turns it takes before hitting the wall, I then note where the outlet is pointing in relation to where I want it to point and from that I get a feel for how many wraps of ptfe/55 are needed.

Put together a test rig using a shower hose or garden tap and you can practice to build your confidence AND remember, it's only an outlet at the end of the day... It won't be under pressure when the valve is off and when on, flow will take the path of least resistance... Out the elbow

 

[Gilesda]

Aye! thats a point about it not being under pressure. I'll do as you said about counting the turns so that I don't go past and have to back it off. The loctite 55 says you can back it off up to 1/4 turn but I'd rather stop at the right place and not risk any backing off.
I've got an overhead arm for the rainfall head to fit as well but that uses a better system. You fix a socket into the wall elbow and the arm pushed in with rubber washers to seal. Then a cover plate goes over so you can check for leaks before fitting that. I should have bought similar for the hose elbow.

 

[dilalio]

It's an everyday job for a plumber.
When you pipe up a concealed valve and need to use bent irons in the valve (on inlets and outlets) that have to point in a certain direction... Thats where water tightness matters, as the inlets will always be under constant pressure.

If you have a bib tap in the garden, remove and practice on that... Its the same principle in that you have to get the tap spout pointing down and the ptfe joint has to be watertight.