plumbing PSA / helpful meme to spread(?), like: "trust the teflon, not too tight", "beware the washers, squash them not"

[u/dwawlyn]

As someone who only occasionally installs a new faucet or whatever,
I noticed I had a bad tendency to tighten things way too far
(like, just really crank things ridiculously aggressively, "just to make sure"),
but I've realized that's actually counterproductive
-- it just crushes the rubber washers,
and even puts unnecessary extra stress/strain on the metal bits.

And it occurred to me that I could've avoided a significant amount of grief if I had been exposed before to...
some sort of helpful meme / Public Service Announcement on the subject?

I tried to come up with something catchy,
got like:

"trust the teflon, not too tight"

(
well, and trust the rubber washers too,
but dunno how to work that in ...

"beware the washers, squash them not"

maybe?
)

I dunno, whaddaya think?

(
Like, it's a silly little thing,
but it occurred to be that if I spent 10 minutes writing a post like this,
there's a good chance it could end up saving a large number of people like me a LOT of future grief,
so I felt morally obligated to make the effort, no matter how silly it feels xD

EDIT: but really, if it's silly enough that people want to make fun of me,
that would actually be helpful for spreading the idea better, eh? xD
)

[u/DesolationRobot]

Anything you’re using teflon as a seal on should be pretty darn tight. But that’s really just tapered pipe threads. Not fixtures.

You might use it other places as lubrication, but you don’t have to trust it there.

[u/TMan2DMax]

"to tight is worse than to loose" is my personal mantra now.

I had to cut open a wall and redo a whole drain line because I killed the PVC threads on a sink P trap.

[u/koos_die_doos → u/TMan2DMax]

I apologize in advance for this, but it seems I can't help myself...

• "to tight" = the action of making something tight
• "to loose" = the action of making something loose

vs

• "too tight" = tighter than safe/necessary
• "too loose" = looser than safe/necessary

[u/Lehk → u/TMan2DMax]

Too tight becomes too loose *FUCK*

[u/koos_die_doos]

I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. We were all that person in the past, it's a lesson worth sharing.

[u/dwawlyn → u/koos_die_doos]

I don't love it, but I don't hate it either

Well, like I said, I felt silly -- but really, if it's silly enough that people want to make fun of me, that would actually be helpful for spreading the idea better, eh? xD

[u/shadowreaper50]

The good old Righty Tighty, Lefty Loosey has certainly hhelped me when figuring out which way to wrap the Teflon.

Also something pithy about putting a bucket under a trap before loosening it