looking for a replacement seal for an old bottle trap

Steve Day · Jan 15, 2019

Hi, I have a 1970s vintage bottle trap waste under the sink and had to unscrew the bottom cap to clean out a blockage. I noticed the rubber seal on this cap which appears to be a 50mm or 2 inch flat o-ring affair is starting to deteriorate.

can anyone recommend a work around or replacement source in case it starts to leak? would a liberal bead of silicone grease help? or possibly a bead of silicone sealant left to dry to form a makeshift o ring?

AMGasServices · Jan 15, 2019

Please post a picture of the o ring and bottle trap.

You could try using ptfe tape.

WC1 · Jan 15, 2019

Ptfe might work as above, or a bead of fernox "lsx" would work better than silicone. Silicone can be very rigid and you might not get it off again in future. Don't put too much on or you'll gunk up the pipe inside.

snowhead · Jan 15, 2019

Sounds like this is the seal half way down the trap where the bottle splits?

Something like these ;
2MM THICK BLACK EPDM RUBBER FLAT ROUND RING WASHER SEAL GASKETS 12MM - 80MM OD | eBay

Alternately a Local independant plumbers merchant may have something.

townfanjon · Jan 15, 2019

Have you a local toolstation? , they sell them , or did .
Never found any at a merchants

Pickwickpick · Jan 15, 2019

I've never had any joy looking for them at builders merchants either, your best bet if you've got some calipers is to measure up the inner diameter, outer diameter and thickness and then order them online. There are a couple of suppliers that are easy to find on google that have pretty much every combination under the sun. Depending on how badly distorted the original o ring is, you might find its best to measure inner&outer diameters off the bottle trap and just get the thickness of the original one.

I definitely would not try and go down the silicone route, I've been called out to a fair few leaks where people have tried to use silicone in such situations, it never works for long imo.