# What is your go to Wax Ring?



## PondthePlumber (Sep 2, 2018)

What is your go to wax ring for setting toilets? Is there a particular brand or style that seems to give a more reliable seal?


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

round and waxy work for me, its a pain to make the square ones fit....lol...most seem to work well..summertime you better keep them flat in the truck or your cleaning wax off everything below and you need to cool them down before use and in the winter ill put a few on the dash to warm up if I have to set a bowl...I keep ones with horns and some without depending what im doing..


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## Alan (Jun 18, 2008)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> round and waxy work for me, its a pain to make the square ones fit....lol...most seem to work well..summertime you better keep them flat in the truck or your cleaning wax off everything below and you need to cool them down before use and in the winter ill put a few on the dash to warm up if I have to set a bowl...I keep ones with horns and some without depending what im doing..


It seems like most of the toilet bowl leaks I find are ones with horns. Pull the toilet up and it separates in a perfect line where the horn was embedded. Reset with regular wax and never have a problem again. 

"No Seep" LoL.

If it works for you, that is great. 

Regular plain wax for me, any will do. I have noticed some are harder than others, but that doesn't bother me so much. Once it sticks, I know it will seal as long as the bowl doesn't move.


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

Alan said:


> It seems like most of the toilet bowl leaks I find are ones with horns. Pull the toilet up and it separates in a perfect line where the horn was embedded. Reset with regular wax and never have a problem again.
> 
> "No Seep" LoL.
> 
> ...


I only use the horn if I have to stack gaskets either from someone that re tiles and doesnt want to pay to raise the flange or some other occurrences out of my control..and that can be anything..lol


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## PlumbdogTim (Apr 9, 2018)

If I'm going to reset a toilet I will spend the money getting a ring like this one. 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/NEXT-by-Danco-Perfect-Seal-Toilet-Wax-Ring-with-Bolts-10826X/206393853

You just never know what kind of a nightmare of a flooring situation you are going to be running into and this one works good on the below the floor flanges. A new install I like to go with the foam type, just because it's cleaner than wax. If you are doing a daycare where you have to set 60 toilets it's a waste of money but if it's just one toilet you should be able to bake it into the price.


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## ShtRnsdownhill (Jan 13, 2016)

PlumbdogTim said:


> If I'm going to reset a toilet I will spend the money getting a ring like this one.
> 
> https://www.homedepot.com/p/NEXT-by-Danco-Perfect-Seal-Toilet-Wax-Ring-with-Bolts-10826X/206393853
> 
> You just never know what kind of a nightmare of a flooring situation you are going to be running into and this one works good on the below the floor flanges. A new install I like to go with the foam type, just because it's cleaner than wax. If you are doing a daycare where you have to set 60 toilets it's a waste of money but if it's just one toilet you should be able to bake it into the price.


wax gaskets have been around since the beginning of time, all these new fangled materials have a short history, foam absorbs moisture and is a house for bacteria to grow especially at the bottom end of a toilet, and almost $10.00 for a ring to set a toilet and I bet there will be problems as the rubber doesnt adhere to the bottom of the toilet making a good seal many toilets have small imperfections that the soft sticky wax fills in, thats crazy, if a toilet doesnt fit right on the floor and flange being just a bit off then something else is wrong and needs to be fixed, and not with some expanding wax/rubber ring..just my thoughts...its your business run it the way you seem fit...


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

I always use plain wax without the horn {plastic flange}.


If a W/C is augered and it has the wax seal with that plastic flange, there is a chance that the hook on the tip of the auger can hook onto that piece of plastic and turn it; now you've just made the situation worse. 


After the plumber leaves, the W/C will stop up for sure.


Here's Tommy Plumber's tip: I ALWAYS use my plunger on a W/C stoppage. 9 times out of 10 I can clear them w/ my plunger.


Sticking an auger down a W/C with either that plastic flange or any hard obstruction {ie: a small glass perfume bottle, child's toy, etc.} just jams it more, in my opinion.


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## canuck92 (Apr 1, 2016)

Back in trade school are prints teacher told us he uses plumbers putty, somthing iv never herd of nor am i willing to try.


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## The Dane (Feb 19, 2015)

canuck92 said:


> Back in trade school are prints teacher told us he uses plumbers putty, somthing iv never herd of nor am i willing to try.


I have taken out a couple of old toilets that had plumbers putty and not wax rings. It's old school and you don't see many toilets with putty these days.

Sent from my BLN-L24 using Tapatalk


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## PlumbdogTim (Apr 9, 2018)

ShtRnsdownhill said:


> wax gaskets have been around since the beginning of time, all these new fangled materials have a short history, foam absorbs moisture and is a house for bacteria to grow especially at the bottom end of a toilet, and almost $10.00 for a ring to set a toilet and I bet there will be problems as the rubber doesnt adhere to the bottom of the toilet making a good seal many toilets have small imperfections that the soft sticky wax fills in, thats crazy, if a toilet doesnt fit right on the floor and flange being just a bit off then something else is wrong and needs to be fixed, and not with some expanding wax/rubber ring..just my thoughts...its your business run it the way you seem fit...


Honestly I can't speak too much on the merits of the foam gaskets. I usually use the "perfect seal" type of ring. I just like how clean the foam ones are. If they don't form well with the bottom of the toilet then I guess you should find that out right away before caulking. They should mold to the bottom of the toilet as they compress though.

As far as the bacteria goes, I figure it's going to be pretty nasty on the business end of the toilet anyway.


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## Logtec (Jun 3, 2018)

Any decent wax ring with a horn has always worked just fine of me.
(I set and or reset toilets almost every day, and (knock on wood) I never have any problems.) 
if there is going to be a problem, it’s usually because the flange is damaged, if so- it gets fixed or replaced. 
Or- the tiles are cracked/loose/broken, or the floor is soft or weak, it will need to be addressed before the toilet is set/reset.
If the flange is low, I add a riser kit.
Done.


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## fixitright (Jan 5, 2012)

Toilet Horn VS Toilet Auger = Trouble


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## CMplumber (Jul 3, 2016)

I use both horn and non horn wax rings. I also keep white,bone and black pre-mixed tile grout to go around toilets to keep any rocking from happening. The premixed type removes easily later and does not set like concrete to where you cant remove toilet later.

However with the continuously worse tile and concrete trades crowning toilet risers hacking tile around remodels and exotic flooring I have really been looking into the foam gasket type as we use them on wall hung toilets with great success. If anyone has used a certain type foam type with great success over the past 6 to 8 months please share as I am looking to change in some situations.


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

Here's my secret, I buy regular wax, I prefer the stickier one but I don't use it as the wax papers tears little pieces on it and it's not easy try to scrape it off. I use the one that come poured in a mold.

Winter is coming, gotta bring all my batteries and wax inside each time I come back home....Not fun at all.

People are not happy when I ask them to put the wax in their microwave for 5 minutes. Or worse when they don't have a microwave, the hot water is shut off.... So I bought a foam one just in case It's frozen.

Horns only in special applications, but I love them in a way as it brings me more work with rotted floors, broken flange because it rotted etc.


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## Alan (Jun 18, 2008)

Tango said:


> People are not happy when I ask them to put the wax in their microwave for 5 minutes.


I find that giving people choices makes everything go more smoothly.

Here's a new in box wax ring that I need to warm up in the microwave in order to install your toilet
OR
you can put in this old used chunk that I just scraped off of your ****ter, so that it's soft enough for me to mold into a ring.

It's sort of like dog training. Make the choices easy for them so that they choose the one you want them to choose.


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## Logtec (Jun 3, 2018)

CMplumber said:


> I use both horn and non horn wax rings. I also keep white,bone and black pre-mixed tile grout to go around toilets to keep any rocking from happening. The premixed type removes easily later and does not set like concrete to where you cant remove toilet later.
> 
> However with the continuously worse tile and concrete trades crowning toilet risers hacking tile around remodels and exotic flooring I have really been looking into the foam gasket type as we use them on wall hung toilets with great success. If anyone has used a certain type foam type with great success over the past 6 to 8 months please share as I am looking to change in some situations.


Rubber shims and silicone is all I’ve ever used and have never had a problem.


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## Logtec (Jun 3, 2018)

Tango said:


> Here's my secret, I buy regular wax, I prefer the stickier one but I don't use it as the wax papers tears little pieces on it and it's not easy try to scrape it off. I use the one that come poured in a mold.
> 
> Winter is coming, gotta bring all my batteries and wax inside each time I come back home....Not fun at all.
> 
> ...


Let the wax ring sit in a basin full of hot water for 5 mins, and it’s all good. 

I understand if the customer was mad of a plumber wanted to warm the wax in a micorwave- where there warm the food..

Horns all the time, I’m never had an issue with auger a w/c with a wax gasket w/ a horn..


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## PondthePlumber (Sep 2, 2018)

CMplumber said:


> I use both horn and non horn wax rings. I also keep white,bone and black pre-mixed tile grout to go around toilets to keep any rocking from happening. The premixed type removes easily later and does not set like concrete to where you cant remove toilet later.
> 
> However with the continuously worse tile and concrete trades crowning toilet risers hacking tile around remodels and exotic flooring I have really been looking into the foam gasket type as we use them on wall hung toilets with great success. If anyone has used a certain type foam type with great success over the past 6 to 8 months please share as I am looking to change in some situations.



The company I work for typically uses ProFlow brand wax rings with a horn. And we use rubber shims and DAP when setting a toilet and which usually does fine, even on really poorly set tile. Buuuut, we have a few repeating warranty calls about loose toilets. I think they jar the toilet by just dropping backwards onto the seat because every year they call complaining that the toilet is loose again.
Setting them in grout seems like it might be stronger? Maybe I should talk to the boss about using grout if we have that kind of warranty call.


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

If by go to you mean on new installations that would be for me the 3/8" black rubber seals from wb.



However, I stock blow-wax, with and with out horns, black wb rubber seals in many thicknesses, and 1" black foamed rubber seals from wb that are jigglier than jello and squish real nice. Perfect for those loose-tiledovertwice-screwholesbustedout flanges that would just be a nightmare with wax because the toilet rocks cuz the tiles are 3/8" off.


As for durability over time. One of our recently retired guys used the wb rubber seals for decades. I have pulled toilets he last set 30 years prior and the rubber seal looked almost new.


If you are on slab where the toilet won't rock, then yes bol-wax no horn. But most new construction has thin flooring that flexes or imperfect tile and the 3/8" ones fit perfect on these new shallow skirt toilets.


For leveling a toilet I also use soft wedges and ge 100% white siliconcarne in the gold tube or clear lexel.


I had one floor in a nursing home that was tiled so poorly some spots had a 1/2" gap. I mixed up some waterplug and used my putty knife to force it under the skirt all the way round then wiped it smooth with a wet brown paper towel. 5 minutes later that thing was rock solid. No lawsuits for this guy  Looked great too, almost perfectly matched the grout.


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

One of our guys hates lexel because it is difficult to smooth if you ain't fast so he just uses the acrylic/silicone mix from the supply house. I prefer 100% silicone because it won't shrink or mold. Lexel is great for the wonky floors. And lexel has the added bonus of turning to jelly when it is new if someone pisses on it. After like 48hrs it's good to take anything no matter how much you piss on it.



I had one retirement cottage where I was going for a third time because "The toilet leaked at the base.". Bullshizz it did! Luckily the second time I had used lexel. I pulled almost the whole bead I had layed, showed it to the wife, and asked if her husband ever missed. She looked real red and then apologized several times.


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## breplum (Mar 21, 2009)

44 years using NoSeep type flanged wax rings w/no problems.
Spacer kit if the flange is below the floor level, and sometimes stack plain wax on top of the NoSeep.
After dry, trial fit, if necessary, hard clear/translucent wedges, cut with chisel. They snap off beautifully. Haven't cracked or chipped a tile yet. 
And usually, clear silicone seal to finish.


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## skoronesa (Oct 27, 2015)

breplum said:


> 44 years using NoSeep type flanged wax rings w/no problems.
> Spacer kit if the flange is below the floor level, and sometimes stack plain wax on top of the NoSeep.
> After dry, trial fit, if necessary, hard clear/translucent wedges, cut with chisel. They snap off beautifully. Haven't cracked or chipped a tile yet.
> And usually, clear silicone seal to finish.





I prefer WB rubber seals, joe blow likes neo seals, you swear by wax. At the end of the day all that matters is you don't get a callback.


Some artists paint others work in stone and some throw fecal matter at a wall. Who are we to judge?


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