Repairing Cracks in Female Threaded Fittings

[expose]

My Hayward Vari-Flo Valve had a crack in the outlet fitting which was causing a continuous water drip. I didn't want to try to tighten the outlet pipe that screws into it for fear that it would just make the crack bigger. To fix it, I unscrewed the outlet pipe, put a stainless steel hose clamp around the outside of the fitting, tightened it as much as I thought I could without ruining the clamp, put more Teflon tape on the threads of the outlet pipe, and then reassembled it. It works great. (See the picture.)

This should work for any kind of female threaded fitting. If you can't unscrew the pipe going into it, you could try the hose clamp without unscrewing the pipe first, but I think it probably won't work in most cases. However, it will probably slow the leak, and certainly prevent further cracking.