I have to replace the P-trap under a bathroom sink in an apartment that's going to be vacated December 1st. I have a favourite in mind, but I'm wondering which 1 1/2 inch ABS or PVC P-trap other people would recommend and why.

Obviously, I'd want a P-trap that's adjustable with clean-out. I don't want one that glues together because then I can't take it apart to clear the overflow channel on the bathroom sink. And, it's important to have a clean out because I regularily get tenants that tell me they dropped something down the sink drain.

Also, I'm thinking I may end up replacing all the bathroom sink P-traps in my building because I'm finding that if I take one apart, no matter how meticulously I clean both ends of it, there's still a good chance of it leaking on me once I put it back together. I haven't been able to find a P-trap that uses a replaceable O-ring to make a seal, but I know of one that uses a polyethylene gasket instead, and that's what I'll go with unless someone brings something better to my attention.

I'm hoping people in here will suggest P-traps they think are good so that I can see what's available. If I end up replacing 21 bathroom sink P-traps, I don't want to find out that there was a better one I could have installed, but didn't.

On Tuesday, November 19, 2013 3:59:59 PM UTC-8, nestork wrote:
I have to replace the P-trap under a bathroom sink in an apartment

that's going to be vacated December 1st. I have a favourite in mind,

but I'm wondering which 1 1/2 inch ABS or PVC P-trap other people would

recommend and why.



Obviously, I'd want a P-trap that's adjustable with clean-out. I don't

want one that glues together because then I can't take it apart to clear

the overflow channel on the bathroom sink. And, it's important to have

a clean out because I regularily get tenants that tell me they dropped

something down the sink drain.



Also, I'm thinking I may end up replacing all the bathroom sink P-traps

in my building because I'm finding that if I take one apart, no matter

how meticulously I clean both ends of it, there's still a good chance of

it leaking on me once I put it back together. I haven't been able to

find a P-trap that uses a replaceable O-ring to make a seal, but I know

of one that uses a polyethylene gasket instead, and that's what I'll go

with unless someone brings something better to my attention.



I'm hoping people in here will suggest P-traps they think are good so

that I can see what's available. If I end up replacing 21 bathroom sink

P-traps, I don't want to find out that there was a better one I could

have installed, but didn't.









--

nestork

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/images...-trap-i-lg.jpg

nestork wrote:
I have to replace the P-trap under a bathroom sink in an apartment
that's going to be vacated December 1st. I have a favourite in mind,
but I'm wondering which 1 1/2 inch ABS or PVC P-trap other people would
recommend and why.

Obviously, I'd want a P-trap that's adjustable with clean-out. I don't
want one that glues together because then I can't take it apart to clear
the overflow channel on the bathroom sink. And, it's important to have
a clean out because I regularily get tenants that tell me they dropped
something down the sink drain.

Also, I'm thinking I may end up replacing all the bathroom sink P-traps
in my building because I'm finding that if I take one apart, no matter
how meticulously I clean both ends of it, there's still a good chance of
it leaking on me once I put it back together. I haven't been able to
find a P-trap that uses a replaceable O-ring to make a seal, but I know
of one that uses a polyethylene gasket instead, and that's what I'll go
with unless someone brings something better to my attention.

I'm hoping people in here will suggest P-traps they think are good so
that I can see what's available. If I end up replacing 21 bathroom sink
P-traps, I don't want to find out that there was a better one I could
have installed, but didn't.


It seems like something from here or a similar commercial supplier would
work. They may be a bit costly up front but I'll bet it would be a long
time before you had to replace one. Discounts for volume are usually
available.

I have no relationship with this site, it's just a suggestion found via
Google offered as a place to start.

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/commer...ass-traps.html

These are plenty good enough for residential use, a lot depends how
the old pipe is connected to the pipe in the wall. Sometimes it's easy,
sometimes it takes some creative plumbing, nothing a lot of roofing
asphalt can't fix. The plastic is easy to take apart and screw back
together when the need arises.

http://www.homedepot.com/s/p-trap?NCNI-5

Thanks for everyone's input, but I'm looking for an ABS or PVC P-trap, not a commercial brass or chrome plated brass P-trap.

nestork wrote:
Thanks for everyone's input, but I'm looking for an ABS or PVC P-trap,
not a commercial brass or chrome plated brass P-trap.





Why? Doesn't your subject line say "best"? Wouldn't a commercial grade trap
be better than anything made from ABS or PVC?

A cast brass P-trap that you have to solder into place, that you can't remove and that doesn't have a clean out would not suit my needs well.

By "better" I meant an ABS or PVC P-trap that would be better suited to my needs.

nestork wrote:
DerbyDad03;3152435 Wrote:

Why? Doesn't your subject line say "best"? Wouldn't a commercial grade
trap
be better than anything made from ABS or PVC?

A cast brass P-trap that you have to solder into place, that you can't
remove and that doesn't have a clean out would not suit my needs well.

Did you look at the products offered at the site I linked to? They aren't
solder in place and they have clean outs.

Here's an example:

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/images...-trap-d-lg.jpg


By "better" I meant an ABS or PVC P-trap that would be better suited to
my needs.

On Wed, 20 Nov 2013 00:59:59 +0100, nestork
wrote:


I have to replace the P-trap under a bathroom sink in an apartment
that's going to be vacated December 1st. I have a favourite in mind,
but I'm wondering which 1 1/2 inch ABS or PVC P-trap other people would
recommend and why.

Obviously, I'd want a P-trap that's adjustable with clean-out. I don't
want one that glues together because then I can't take it apart to clear
the overflow channel on the bathroom sink. And, it's important to have
a clean out because I regularily get tenants that tell me they dropped
something down the sink drain.

Also, I'm thinking I may end up replacing all the bathroom sink P-traps
in my building because I'm finding that if I take one apart, no matter
how meticulously I clean both ends of it, there's still a good chance of
it leaking on me once I put it back together. I haven't been able to
find a P-trap that uses a replaceable O-ring to make a seal, but I know
of one that uses a polyethylene gasket instead, and that's what I'll go
with unless someone brings something better to my attention.


IME experience those seal washers for PVC traps are reusable, but I
often have to dope them up with teflon paste or silicone caulk. They
do distort somewhat.
Using a new washer might help.
http://www.tractorsupply.com/en/stor...her-pack-of-10
Never had to do it though. And these washers might have a slightly
different shape than the original that came with the P-Trap.
IMO a clean-out just introduces another leak point.

I'm hoping people in here will suggest P-traps they think are good so
that I can see what's available. If I end up replacing 21 bathroom sink
P-traps, I don't want to find out that there was a better one I could
have installed, but didn't.

Since it seems you can't depend on consistency in washer size and
shape with P-Traps made by different manufacturers - I've had some
1 1/2" parts that didn't fit well with others - this might be my
preference if I had as many to maintain as you do.
http://www.amazon.com/Fernco-Inc-PFT...pr_product_top

BTW, I would never use a metal P-Trap. They corrode, simple as that.
Never had a PVC P-Trap go bad. Never.

Derbydad:

Thanks for your response, and I acknowledge that I didn't see the brass P-trap you linked to in your post.

But, when I bought my building, ALL of my kitchen sinks had brass P-traps like the one in the photo, but mine were all soldered together rather than adjustable. The problem I had with them was that the clean out had a fine thread on it, and I found that the brass on those threads would dezincify. That's where the brass turns reddish brown and crumbles under the force of a screw driver. I replaced all those circa 1960 commercial brass p-traps with ABS P-traps. I expect brass metallurgy is better today than it was in 1960, but I just don't see the need to buy a brass P-trap for several times the cost when plastic stands up to water and time so much better.

This web site won't accept my posts if they're longer than a few lines, so I'll respond by breaking the response up into several posts:

I think you may have misinterpreted what I meant by a "polyethylene gasket".

I think you're thinking I meant these things:

http://www.plumbingsupply.com/images...er-beveled.jpg

No. I can't find a picture of the polyethylene gasket that the PermOSeal P-trap uses online, so I'll describe it. If you can imagine two of those beveled washers end to end so that the thickest part was in the middle and the polyethylene tapered thinner to both ends, and if the thing was 2 1/8 inch in inside diameter instead of 1 1/2 inch, that would be the polyethylene gasket in CanPlas's PermOseal ABS P-trap:

Plumbing

Product Specification

You can barely see the polyethylene gasket in the cross sectional drawing and on top of that, it's poorly illustrated as well. The polyethylene gasket fits into a bevel at the bottom of the socket and gets compressed between the ball and socket as you tighten the union nut. That both effects the seal and holds the two halves of the trap ridgidly together.

The PermOseal P-trap is specifically designed to deal with pipe misalignment by having a ball and socket union instead of a straight union like most P-traps. But, what I like about it is that it uses that 2 1/8 inch ID polyethylene gasket described above between the ball and the socket to provide the seal. When you tighten the union nut, it's that gasket gets wedged between the ball and socket (in a manner similar to beveled washers) that effects the seal.

What I like about this trap is that the ball and socket surfaces are easy to clean and easy to inspect for cleanliness. Replacement polyethylene gaskets are available from CanPlas as Part # 103231-6. So, if I take one of these traps apart, clean the ball and socket and replace the polyethylene gasket, that trap has no excuse to leak on me.

I've never had a problem with a leaking clean out cap or plug on an ABS P-trap. Up until now I've used rubber O-rings and have been biased toward P-traps that used clean out plugs rather than clean out caps. But, CanPlas also makes the rubber gaskets for the clean out available as Part # 109310-004PSA, and for their small cost, I can replace them too.

Yes, I've seen those flexible rubber P-traps, but I can't say I was ever impressed with them. They always struck me as a half-a$$ed fix for those chrome plated bathroom sink P-traps that always corroded. I had 21 of those chrome plated P-traps in my building when I first bought it, and I've replaced them all with ABS. Chrome plated P-traps are a nuisance because the metal is paper thin when they're new, and it just gets thinner as it corrodes from there.

nestork wrote:
Derbydad:

Thanks for your response, and I acknowledge that I didn't see the brass
P-trap you linked to in your post.

But, when I bought my building, ALL of my kitchen sinks had brass
P-traps like the one in the photo, but mine were all soldered together
rather than adjustable. The problem I had with them was that the clean
out had a fine thread on it, and I found that the brass on those threads
would dezincify. That's where the brass turns reddish brown and
crumbles under the force of a screw driver. I replaced all those circa
1960 commercial brass p-traps with ABS P-traps. I expect brass
metallurgy is better today than it was in 1960, but I just don't see the
need to buy a brass P-trap for several times the cost when plastic
stands up to water and time so much better.



I'm not arguing, but while it may be true that plastic stands up to water
and time better than brass - at least compared to the old brass - you have
listed other issues with the plastic traps, e.g. the o-ring.

It doesn't matter if the plastic lasts forever if you can't reseal them
after you take them apart.

It seems to me there that are reasons that commercial traps are more
expensive. Perhaps a couple of those reasons are longevity and
serviceability. A trip to a plumbing supply house for an inspection and
some up- to-date information might be advisable here.

Brass traps are more expensive because they're made of brass.

I've lived long enough to have come to the realization that just because something costs more, it isn't necessarily any better. It's DESIGN that matters. A good design will beat an expensive price every day of the week.