Recommendation for push pop up bathroom sink drain

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Tuttles Revenge

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I prefer silicone for seals that matter.. But on a bath sink the seal at the top is what keeps water in the bowl while the stopper is plugged and putty is just fine. The seal the prevents the drain from leaking and ruining your cabinet is the rubber gasket that contacts the sink on its tapered surface and contacts the threaded portion of the drain body. The point where the rubber gasket contacts the drain body, I like to coat with a bit of silicone.
 
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We have California Faucets Zero Drains in our master bath sinks. They push click down to lock. Seem to work and look nice. Heavy brass construction and a pretty durable finish. Easy to remove to clean out a hair clog.

They specify silicone for installation if you want a warranty on their finish.

http://www.calfaucets.com/zerodrain
 

Jakester

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We have California Faucets Zero Drains in our master bath sinks. They push click down to lock. Seem to work and look nice. Heavy brass construction and a pretty durable finish. Easy to remove to clean out a hair clog.

They specify silicone for installation if you want a warranty on their finish.

http://www.calfaucets.com/zerodrain
.

This is the best looking drain I have ever seen!
 

Jakester

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Hopefully I don't get any issues with leaks. The drain hole in my sink isn't perfectly round, so it will be fun to get a tight seal.

Sink.jpg
 

Tuttles Revenge

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The bottom is where leaks occur. The top seal just holds water in the bowl while the stopper is depressed. Load it up with silicone to fill the gap. Just be prepared to clean it up.
 

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Hoping it is not bad manners to revive an old thread. Lot of good information here.

I am going to throw one other consideration into the discussion. I replaced one of the sink drain stoppers (delta brass pop-up with the pull rod system) and it had a little silicon gasket/washer. While I thought it was pretty cool that they had moved away from Plumber's putty, when I was all done with the replacement I was not a happy bird since that silicon washer now created an additional thickness where some water would just stay in the sink. The one that I had replaced was done with plumber's putty and that was very tight - there was really speaking no water staying behind in the sink.

In another bathroom, I had a Moen faucet installed and it came up with its own pull rod system drain. The flange piece that sits in the drain, as far as I can tell, is much thicker than the old Delta one that was replaced. So again the same problem - there is some water that accumulates due to the thicker flange.

I am now looking to buy some pop-up drain assemblies. Between Delta/Brizo, Kohler and Zero-drain, is there a recommendation on which of these has the thinnest flange that sits in the sink? And seems like plumber's putty or something like that is the way to install if one wants to avoid water sitting near the silicon washer. I did see zero-drain in a store but my fear is that the flange is a bit too thick.
 

Tuttles Revenge

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Hoping it is not bad manners to revive an old thread. Lot of good information here.

I am going to throw one other consideration into the discussion. I replaced one of the sink drain stoppers (delta brass pop-up with the pull rod system) and it had a little silicon gasket/washer. While I thought it was pretty cool that they had moved away from Plumber's putty, when I was all done with the replacement I was not a happy bird since that silicon washer now created an additional thickness where some water would just stay in the sink. The one that I had replaced was done with plumber's putty and that was very tight - there was really speaking no water staying behind in the sink.

In another bathroom, I had a Moen faucet installed and it came up with its own pull rod system drain. The flange piece that sits in the drain, as far as I can tell, is much thicker than the old Delta one that was replaced. So again the same problem - there is some water that accumulates due to the thicker flange.

I am now looking to buy some pop-up drain assemblies. Between Delta/Brizo, Kohler and Zero-drain, is there a recommendation on which of these has the thinnest flange that sits in the sink? And seems like plumber's putty or something like that is the way to install if one wants to avoid water sitting near the silicon washer. I did see zero-drain in a store but my fear is that the flange is a bit too thick.
Its not bad manners to pull up old relevant threads to ask a relevant question.

I just opened up a Masco (the company that owns delta/brizo brands) push pop up that does have an opaque silicone gasket like you describe. Some of those are intended to fit into european spec drains which are a slightly larger diameter than US spec drain holes and will cause that gap as you describe. I would just remove that gasket and replace it with putty.

(wrote the following before I looked at the drain I have) The thick rubber washers are not meant to be installed between the flange and the sink. Often a soft neoprene / foam gasket will be provided for that purpose and it would smoosh down completely so that the flange will make contact with the sink. That gasket or putty is there to fill in gaps where the porcelain isn't perfect to prevent water from seeping into the drain when the stopper is closed.

Is this the delta pop up you installed? Or something similar?

I really like the Delta/Brizo (masco) push pop up assemblies. The mushroom topped ones I like for the larger european sized sink drains and the center pop ups I like for the US sized sink drains.

Metal Pop Up.JPG
 
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AnonTrade

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Its not bad manners to pull up old relevant threads to ask a relevant question.

I just opened up a Masco (the company that owns delta/brizo brands) push pop up that does have an opaque silicone gasket like you describe. Some of those are intended to fit into european spec drains which are a slightly larger diameter than US spec drain holes and will cause that gap as you describe. I would just remove that gasket and replace it with putty.

(wrote the following before I looked at the drain I have) The thick rubber washers are not meant to be installed between the flange and the sink. Often a soft neoprene / foam gasket will be provided for that purpose and it would smoosh down completely so that the flange will make contact with the sink. That gasket or putty is there to fill in gaps where the porcelain isn't perfect to prevent water from seeping into the drain when the stopper is closed.

Is this the delta pop up you installed? Or something similar?

I really like the Delta/Brizo (masco) push pop up assemblies. The mushroom topped ones I like for the larger european sized sink drains and the center pop ups I like for the US sized sink drains.

View attachment 84428


Generally similar but I am not seeing the gasket that goes below the flange. I had asked Delta for a replacement for my existing unit under warranty and they sent me some cheap plastic thing and then I emphasized to them my existing assembly was a very solid metal thing and then they sent me the replacement. But funny thing is that I am looking over the internet and I don't see that same washer in any of the current delta setups.

When I was installing this, I had also ordered a KES pop-up stopper - that was my 1st preference since it was a push-pop unit. The KES thing came with a similar gasket but the diameter was not correct - so I ended up using the Delta replacement part. However, I can find an example of what the KES thing looked like:

Pictorial view of the unit

Cut out view

They also have a video on that page and at 0:27 one can see how they did the gasket. And in the video, at 0:13, one can also see the water not draining fully.
 

Tuttles Revenge

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Yeah.. I'm pretty sure that washer is for european spec sized sink holes which are wider. The simple answer is to discard the silicone washer and replace it with putty or silicone. The only purpose of that gasket or putty in that location is to prevent water from draining out of the sink while the stopper is closed.

In the example of the KES drain you linked. The gasket they show is a foam gasket that compresses 100% like putty would. It simply fills in any imperfections of the porcelain sink.
 

Tuttles Revenge

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FWIW, I bought a couple of these last year, the white gasket shown in the picture is super compressible and doesn't raise the drain flange. I was a little skeptical but gave it a try and haven't had any complaints.


Cheers, Wayne
Was that a silicone gasket or a foam gasket? I see several different gaskets provided with pop ups depending on manufacturer and models. Most don't come with any gasket and those depend on plumbers putty being installed for that seal.
 

AnonTrade

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I'm not sure I've ever seen a silicone gasket--since it was super compressible, it must have been foam?

Cheers, Wayne
Yeah looks like foam. But the ones that have encountered were silicon gaskets. And the one in my delta unit is not super-compressible - don't forget that there is another gasket below the sink - so when tightening too much, we are compressing that one too.

Thanks Tuttles - yup will ignore the gasket.
 
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