JASchneider
New Member
Greetings. Please excuse my sloppy terminology. I have a question for anyone out there who has experience with an L.A.-style p-trap, which has the usual slip joint for the sink drain, but a radiator-vavle-type compression joint on the other side of the j-bend (that is, right in the middle of the trap water). I have a Watts chromed brass model, which I happened into when trying to figure out an odd installation of a specialty wall-hanging sink, in which the drain is very close to the wall. The appropriate solution probably would have been (and might still be) a bottle trap, but the L.A. trap happened to fit just right between my sink drain and the DWV stub out from the wall. Problem is, that compression joint tends to leak. It comes from the factory with a clear (and carcinogenic, if you read the box) sealant on the j-bend flange. Like a radiator valve or elbow, the nut has no washer of any type -- it's just supposed to be a metal-to-metal seal. I figure the only possible remedy is to clean the flange and then smear it with a good pipe sealant, tighten it carefully, and then let it set for a day before running water in the sink. But before I do that, has anyone else used one of these traps successfully, or do they just tend to leak? If they're really just problematic, I'd scrap the thing and go get a bottle trap. TIA.
(same as mine, but mine's smooth and chromed all over)
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