My kitchen sink was leaking for a month before I found the real problem

I kept tightening the P-trap under the sink, but the drip from the cabinet floor never stopped. After three tries, I finally took the whole trap apart and saw the washer was cracked on one side, not seated wrong. A new washer from the hardware store cost 89 cents and fixed it in ten minutes. Has anyone else wasted time tightening when the part just needed replacing?

2 comments

2 Comments

hall.nora7d ago

Oh man, the part about tightening the P-trap over and over is so familiar! My buddy had the exact same thing with his bathroom sink. He kept cranking on the connections for weeks, swearing it felt tighter each time. He finally brought over the whole pipe section, and we saw a hairline crack in the plastic elbow that you couldn't even see when it was installed. A two dollar replacement and it was done. It's crazy how we always assume it's just loose.

grantt117d ago

Classic. Those hairline cracks are the worst. Always chasing the wrong fix.