canadave
New Member
So my wife and I discovered our kitchen sink was spilling water out underneath all over the place. I had a look and discovered the issue. Essentially, the plastic nut that I gather is a "slip joint", which is attached to the piece of plastic pipe coming up from the P-trap, was no longer tightly gripping the tailpipe coming down from the sink drain. In other words, that P-trap plastic pipe was sliding (almost freely) down and off the tailpipe.
What I don't understand is--how is it supposed to actually attach, without any glue or anything like that? The tailpipe inserts downward a couple of inches deep into the P-trap pipe; if I tighten the slip joint nut at the spot where the end of the P-trap pipe overlaps the tailpipe, is it supposed to be somehow compressing the plastic slip joint washer so that it tightly grips the tailpipe? If so, that's not what's happening; even if I tighten the slip joint nut, I can grab the P-trap pipe and easily slide it downward and off the tailpipe.
Do I just need to replace the slip joint nut and beveled washer? If so, does the new washer need to look exactly the same as the existing one, or can I use one that looks different (uses a rubber instead of nylon material, for instance) as long as the diameter (1 1/2") is the same?
What I don't understand is--how is it supposed to actually attach, without any glue or anything like that? The tailpipe inserts downward a couple of inches deep into the P-trap pipe; if I tighten the slip joint nut at the spot where the end of the P-trap pipe overlaps the tailpipe, is it supposed to be somehow compressing the plastic slip joint washer so that it tightly grips the tailpipe? If so, that's not what's happening; even if I tighten the slip joint nut, I can grab the P-trap pipe and easily slide it downward and off the tailpipe.
Do I just need to replace the slip joint nut and beveled washer? If so, does the new washer need to look exactly the same as the existing one, or can I use one that looks different (uses a rubber instead of nylon material, for instance) as long as the diameter (1 1/2") is the same?