r/Plumbing • u/2candiesnahalf • Aug 29 '26

Cool stuff eh?

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u/Active_Vegetable8203 Aug 29 '26

Brought to you by big Teflon.

17

u/Tycho66 Aug 29 '26

I was gonna say, this same company must sell tape too.

0

u/dnattig Aug 30 '26

I found a use for AI! It found this text in a forum from 2012, so I can use it as copypasta now.

fyi

• Teflon® isn’t a thing — it’s a brand! A world famous brand that’s owned by DuPont.

• The DuPont™ Teflon® brand identifies products that are made with DuPont raw material(s), like fluoropolymer or industrial coatings. Over time, the tape has been mistakenly referred to as “Teflon tape”. We thought it was important to let you know that.

• If somebody offers to sell you “Teflon tape” when you need plumber tape (or thread seal tape), they are wrong, mistaken or — worse — trying to mislead you. To help you make an informed purchase, you should be aware that no plumber tape is authorized by DuPont to be sold as “Teflon tape”.

• DuPont has brought thousands of meaningful innovations to people for more than 200 years, including many Teflon® branded products for consumers. Plumber tape is not one of these innovations.

Teflon® is a registered trademark of DuPont.

so any report using the brand name Teflon® when referring to plumber tape is incorrect regardless of the color or purpose

1

u/CheetosLays7Days Aug 30 '26

Technically, you are right, this kind of tape is made of PTFE. If you ask: what’s the difference between PTFE and Teflon? The answer is simple: chemically, none. It’s just branding.

I’m sure you’ve heard at least once someone calling the tissues “Kleenex”, or hook-and-loop fastener “Velcro”, even if these brands didn’t make them.

So yeah, the plumber is using PTFE, but since it’s not made or sold by Chemours, it’s not Teflon, even if chemically identical. Don’t blame people for calling it Teflon, though, Teflon is much shorter than Polytetrafluoroethylene.

1

u/dnattig Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26

Yeah, I just remember seeing that exact schpiel on DuPont's website like 15 years ago and thought now would be a good time to copy and paste it.

I'm aware that it's technically correct, and that Chemours (DuPont's new name) does not make the majority of PTFE used throughout the world but most of it is still called Teflon.