Okay okay, I got tired of my "wye" connectors going bad, leaking at the inlet fitting. I know, it's my fault, I got a good deal on Gilmour wyes and bought ten of em. Well, at present there are four new ones left in the box they came in; three others in use; two more, both gone bad, sit in the garage waiting for me to fix them or throw them out; and one that is MIA.
Started thinking about buying better quality wyes, brass maybe. Okay, but the price makes me hesitate. So, cheaper brass ones? I could get ones without shutoffs. I hardly ever use the shutoffs on wye connectors. I like having shutoffs at the end of a run of hose, not in the middle where the wye often is.
Plus, the ones where the inlet doesn't swivel must be less expensive, and are not likely to break at the inlet end. So okay, that's what I went looking for. Found em: two-for-$15 ($14.99) at amazon of course. Gave it a try.
They came in a little box, one black washer in each, two extra washers (red), plus a little roll of teflon tape. It felt like a pretty good deal. Oh, and the ID: between 5/8" and 3/4". Bigger than the ID of the hose washer. That's good. I'm not gonna do better than that.
Then I got thinking about positioning the wye as I want it when it doesn't have a swivel. In this case (to replace one of my three Gilmours presently in use, and to add an extra hose connection at that location) both the new brass wyes will connect to short (2ft or less) lengths of hose that have swivel fittings on their inlet ends. I should be able to turn the short hoses as needed to position the wyes correctly. That's my plan, anyway.
As a substitute for the swivel inlet I could use quick-connect fittings I guess. Not cheap, but they swivel. And then I got thinking about getting little fittings, nothing but a female swivel and a male GHT end. It would be like a replaceable inlet-end swivel for my new wyes. There are lots of little fittings like that, that go from FGHT to MNPT, from garden hose to pipe thread. That does me no good. Interstate Pneumatics has what I'm looking for, via amazon. Nice, except they're seven and a half dollars apiece. They cost as much as the brass wyes I got. I object.
There are PVC fittings similar to what I want for a couple dollars apiece, but they are "slip" fittings or they have pipe thread. No good either way. Could be a project for my 3D printer, if I get one someday.
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Both wyes came with the black washer "nubs down". I reversed em, to put the nubs closer to the inlet end in case it makes a difference.
Yesterday we had the plumber here, replacing our old pressure tank for household water. I watched him put teflon tape on pipe thread, four times around. So I used the teflon tape that came with my wyes, four times around. Then I put coke bottle caps loosely on the wye outlet threads, to keep spiders out.
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I shoulda known Teflon be damned, the first brass wye leaked at the inlet end. I disconnected the two outlet-end hoses -- there's no swivel at the inlet end, remember -- and removed the wye. Surprised me, it was a little loose. So I tightened it, put the output hoses back on, tried it, and still had the leak. Took the outlet hoses off, took the wye off, took the black washer out, put in one of those Gilmour washers, ugly orange but noticeably bigger than the black one, and threw the black one away.
Put it back together again: So far, so good. But it just became a one-beer job.
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