My kitchen counters were installed today with the stainless steel undermount sink attached. Do you recommend plumbers putty or silicone for the strainer basket and garbage disposer?

plumbers putty.

I use neither. The strainer baskets come with a paper gasket which does an excellent job of sealing.

Plumbers putty on stainless.

I would never do that.

e-plumber
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"The society which scorns excellence in Plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an
exalted activity will have neither good Plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water." -
John William Gardner 10/8/1912 - 2/16/2002

Repair your leaking Plumbing fixtures ASAP [www.theplumber.com]
This slow drip will waste 7+ gallons of water per day.

never do what eplumber

Flip a coin.
It doesn't matter with stainless, whatever you feel comfortable working with. If it were a porous material, you would not use, (oil based) plumbers putty, there's a chance it would bleed.

Putty is my choice in that situation, very easy clean-up.

The important thing with an undermount sink is that it was secured properly to the underside of the countertop, I've seen a few drop because they weren't mounted properly. The weight of a full sink of water with a disposer installed...it's heavy, let's say about 60+ LBS.

e-plumber
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The society which scorns excellence in Plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an
exalted activity will have neither good Plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water." -
John William Gardner 10/8/1912 - 2/16/2002

Repair your leaking Plumbing fixtures ASAP [www.theplumber.com]
This slow drip will waste 7+ gallons of water per day.

What george 7941 does.

e-plumber
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The society which scorns excellence in Plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an
exalted activity will have neither good Plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water." -
John William Gardner 10/8/1912 - 2/16/2002

Repair your leaking Plumbing fixtures ASAP [www.theplumber.com]
This slow drip will waste 7+ gallons of water per day.

george
The paper gasket is not intended, and is ill-equipped, to go there. You should use the paper gasket for its intended purpose, to protect the rubber gasket from the nut. Use PUTTY or silicone where the strainer contacts the inside of the sink. Using the paper gasket there was a terrible idea.

right on jerco

The paper gasket is a friction ring so it wont bind up the rubber seal.

Putty all the way.

Cardboard Seal???? That is so the nut slides while tightening it without pushing out the rubber gasket. I too use putty on non-porous sinks and silicone on porous sinks.

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You either don't install strainers or have been extremely lucky. The paper washer goes under the sink, not under the flange. With the disposer it is used as a spacer, and it is a friction washer between the nut and rubber gasket on a strainer. But the rubber gasket is also not a seal. Use putty.

Right now the concensus is putty, so now we need packy to become the silicon person and make it evenly divided 60/40.

Souix Chief makes "putty-less" gaskets for strainers and drains. I like them. A local supply house has a display with freebies. I loaded up.

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"You can't get there from here"
Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe

i actually changed a basket strainer and a garbage disposer strainer yesterday. the woman wanted brushed nickel rather than bright stainless. i put the original ones in about 3-4 years ago with 100% white silicone. both came out with a little coaxing but the silicone adhered only to the corian sink. i used nothing on the flange of the new strainers as the old silicone was still soft and made a perfect seal.
i was thinking of coming home to get my digital camera so i could post a picture, but i figured the other half(60%) of you who favor putty would just tell me i was on prescription drugs. (like teddy's son who last night crashed his car but the police let him go because he said he was on his way to congress to cast a vote. it was 2:45 AM!! and he was not drinking, he was staggering from prescription drugs)

yeah prescription drug or not he should have been issued a soberity test. i have a few that cation me against things like driving. he supposedly took them by the directions. but i bet he didnt read the warnings

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PLUMBERS "Protecting The Health Of The Nation"

I understand he was looking for a bridge over the Potomac River.

Fortunately, he had not offered to drive some lady home.

I always use plbrs. putty on every drain attachment I come across in my plbg. work. Every bathtub drain, every shower drain, and every kitchen sink drain.
It goes like this, a glob of putty rolled out snake-like, and wrapped under the flange of the drain type, set drain into hole provided, put on the rubber gasket, then the paper/cardboard slip ring and then the jam nut, tighten until I can't anymore.
I've been installing fixtures for some 30 yrs, and have never had a problem using plbrs. putty. The only problems I did have, was using silicone on drains when I was out of putty.
So Good Luck,
Rudy

EAT "WILD ALASKA SALMON"

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EAT "WILD ALASKA SALMON" IT'S BRAIN FOOD.

EAT "WILD ALASKA SALMON"

5,000 Alaska bears recommend them.

Grizzly bears have salmon breath!

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Since 1995 (3 years before Google started) PlumbingSupply.com has been THE best plumbing supplier on the web. Please visit our sponsor [www.PlumbingSupply.com]

But if you can smell it, you are already too close to his salmon, and also to him.

Wild Alaska Salmon taste good but also have the good taste to use silicone on their basket strainers. Right on Packy, I also use silicone on all drain parts and have also easily removed them years later.

I thought Charlie the Tuna had good taste, but Chicken of the Sea wanted him to taste good. And I'll bet he used putty on his strainers.

However, both ended up dead meat. Use either silicone or putty depending on which you have experience and confidence in. Just don't use the cardboard gasket under the strainer lip.

Charlie was always disappointed because someone else became the "tuna in the can".

Sorry for the late reply:

Plumbers putty will work, for a time. It ages, dries and cracks eventually. We as strainer mfg started supplying an .020 thick SBR (rubber) washer with every strainer we manufacture, over thirty years ago. It fits between the flange and the sink, as per the illustrated instructions on the carton, in all that time, we've had zero returned for leakage due to the washer.

Mind you, we've had several complaints about leakage when installed with putty. And yes, we even replace them when they are installed incorrectly!



Edited 1 times.

will plumbers putty stain stainless steel sinks.