ray189•10d ago

Rant: Stop using plumber's putty on drain baskets, watched my neighbor's sink drip for 2 months

3 comments

3 Comments

@michaelchen nailed it with that black ring comment. Seen it way too many times myself. This whole thing is just part of the bigger problem where people grab whatever tube of goo is closest instead of reading the instructions. Plumber's putty is for setting stuff like faucets and pop-up drains, not for sealing basket threads that need a regular slip joint washer. Same thing happens with teflon tape - folks wrap ten layers when one or two does the job and then wonder why the fitting cracks.

michaelchen10d ago

You seen the black ring of death under there yet?

hart.mark9d ago

Hold on, is this actually that big a deal though? I mean, yeah, you sometimes see some crud build up under there, but calling it the "black ring of death" sounds like it's some kind of plumbing apocalypse. Seems more like a minor nuisance that you can just scrape off with an old toothbrush. Half the time it's probably just some hardened soap scum mixed with a little grit from the water, not the end of the world. People love to make a big dramatic story out of every little thing that happens under a sink.