Stone vessel sink drain problem

[TL]

Just to follow up. . .

I ordered two of these drains with oil rubbed bronze finish. They arrived yesterday. I open the box and the finish looks black to me. I look at the box and it says ORB. I open the other box, same thing. I then notice that on the bag that the drains were in, the number ends in BL. I'm obviously not seeing things. They are matte black. I get ahold of Kohler customer service right before they close yesterday while I'm on the road and the rep tells me that they've had "problems with cleaning chemicals wearing off the ORB finish, so they have been shipping the black ones instead since they have a similar finish." Umm. . .what?? I thought maybe I was being punked.

Something doesn't seem right here. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Why in the world would a company send a different finish in place of another? Why not send a chrome finish even though everything else in the room is brushed nickel. . .it should look ok, right?

I had to cut the call short and have been baffled ever since. I'm waiting until the CS reopens on Monday so I can give them a call. I think they should send the current ORB pop up portion and when they figure out their finish problems (if that is the case), send the updated version.

 

[TL]

For anyone still scoring at home. . .

They discontinued the finish and I couldn't find any replacements anywhere. I'll think of Kohler fondly when I sit down on all of their toilets that are in my house.

As it turns out, I have something that will work. Moen sent me one of these free of charge to try out - how nice!

The flange and the threads are all one piece and the tailpiece screws into it. So I can use that grid extension I pictured in post #5 to screw into the drain and then screw the tailpiece into the bottom of the extension. Problem solved.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[TL]

I'm hoping to throw these together this weekend after the order arrives, but wanted to get a few opinions. . .

The sinks don't have drain openings that are "recessed." I've seen a few threads about complaints with a little bit of water not being able to fully drain from the sink because the flange is a little proud after installation. I've seen debates about using plumber's putty (may stain natural stone) versus using the supplied rubber gasket (makes the drain a little proud) versus using silicone (difficult to remove?).

I'm inclined to use the gasket that comes with the drain, which looks like it will leave a little water behind. Should I just accept that that is an acceptable "flaw" in this application? Can someone speak to their experience using any of these three methods? Thanks.

Tom

 

[Terry]

I've seen thinner washers there. I do like using the washer. The Mountain I installed last had a fairly thin washer. They do make a Stainless Putty for stone.

 

[TL]

The washer does seem a little thick. You can see it in the pic. Hmm...

 

[TL]

I meant to follow up here . .then I forgot. Then I remembered and it's been bugging me that I have not gotten around to it until now. Anyway. . .

As I mentioned above, I was able to use the Moen pop-up drains (the ones I preferred) and then use the extension (post #5) for the "problem" sink. The drain openings are in fact "recessed," just not a pronounced as I have seen in other sinks. I ended up using putty instead of that thick washer - I had some stain free stuff from another project that I didn't realize I had.

Here's the left sink with the extension. . .

The right sink without. . .

 

[Terry]

Normally with a stone counter over plywood, you would cut a hole large enough in the plywood so that the faucet attachments are to the stone and not the wood. Wood will compress over time and loosen. If it loosens in the future, there is a way to use a hole saw to cut out the wood from below.

 

[TL]

I didn't know that.

So, you're saying that crescent should be right up against the underside of the tile? It definitely doesn't take toooo much force to rotate the faucets. I had called Moen about that and had come to the conclusion that that was a "limitation" of a vessel sink faucet with an extension. They didn't seem to get "tight" enough. Would being against the tile have prevented that? I could always fix it. It's not like they're spinning around, but you can twist them if you wanted to. . .