Changing a Sink Drain

I ran across a simple question over the weekend. Simple means I figured I could answer it…LOL and also thought it was an isolated question until I saw it twice in the same weekend on 2 different forums and no one had answered it. The question was how easy is it to replace the kitchen (or bathroom for that matter) sink drain ring? That’s the ring you see from the top of the sink that your basket strainer fits into. Someone had told the writer that it was a piece of cake to change. I’ve never been good at making cakes, much better at eating them, but I can see how a novice might find it tough to do because of a simple fact. The drain ring isn’t held down by a simple screw thread or ring. The ring does apply the strength to the connection but plumbers putty or some other sealant is there to keep the ring sealed and water tight and this putty can make it feel impossible to remove and if you don’t know the basics you don’t even know the putty is there.
The simple fix is accomplished by loosening the connections to the drain ring under the sink. If you have just a straight drain line into a “p” trap you need only remove whatever is hold the drain down because the drain line is only slipped into the “p” trap so there is nothing to remove nor should you even mess with the trap. If you have a garbage disposal just loosen the pipe from the top of the disposal and do not loosen anything with the disposal. When the ring is free from its screw connection you will have to pry from above or force from below the ring to break it free from the putty. Once you have it free clean all of the old putty away, replace with a new bead of putty and reassemble the ring to the drain line and tighten it down until the putty oozes out evenly around the ring. Clean that excess off, check for leaks under the sink and you’re done. Don’t try to skip the putty and think that you can just tighten it enough to keep it from leaking. You will bend your steel sink, crack the finish on an enameled sink or break the porcelain sink long before the leak would stop. USE THE PUTTY.