# New shower drain installed, but gasket not sealing



## Bud Cline (Mar 12, 2006)

I wouldn't use silicone at this time simply because if the fix doesn't work you would/could have a helluva silicone mess to also deal with. And, you wouldn't know for many hours if the fix took properly because you have to wait for the silicone to set-up.

The possibility exists that the gasket is somehow distorting at the final moment it is being tightened. This could be a bur causing a distortion, check to see that all mating surfaces are smooth. Then use some Vaseline or vegetable oil or something to lubricate the fit before tightening everything and see if that works.


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## TheEplumber (Jul 20, 2010)

I've seen too many "no caulk" drains fail. Replace it with a solvent weld drain.


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## Ishmael (Apr 24, 2007)

Compression drains are used in installations where there is no access to the trap/drain pipe beneath the shower (such as in a basement installation, or maybe in a condo unit where your neighbor doesn't want his ceiling cut open). Use fittings that can be glued if you have access from below.


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## AlbacoreShuffle (Sep 18, 2011)

" Do they make shower drains where the body of the drain fits inside the pipe it's connecting to? This seems like it would be a superior design."

Yes.


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## dryvlyne (Oct 23, 2011)

Thanks for all the replies. I ended up putting some silicone where the gasket and top of the pipe meet earlier this afternoon. I used my finger tip to rub it around the gasket/pipe lip and made sure it got in between the miniscule gap between the two. 

This seems to have done the trick as I am no longer seeing any water build up from the bottom between the gasket and the bottom of the shower drain. 

If I felt comfortable trying to do a solvent weld I would have gone that route, but I've no experience doing that. It does sound as though that is the best long-term solution. 

I certainly would not recommend anyone use a compression gasket-based shower drain if they can help it. The seal that a compression gasket makes is suspect IMO. 

Also, in the interest of full disclosure, one of the shower drains I tried to install previously was supposed to be a top-down only solution, but I quickly learned those aren't all they are made out to be either. While I felt the gasket solution was better - there were 3 screws to tighten which would apply even pressure to the gasket all the way around the body of the pipe - the 3 "wings" which were supposed to catch the bottom of the shower when tightening three other screws didn't fully catch. 

Fortunately I already had access from the bottom when I went to test this because water came streaming down from where one of the "wings" didn't catch properly. If a typical person would have tried to do all of this from the top and assumed everything had gone well they would have had an absolute mess to deal with!


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