Wax-free toilet seal questions

[npurdy506]

I'd like to use a wax-free toilet seal on a new toilet I'm installing. There's a 90-degree bend in the waste pipe right at the flange, so I know it presents a challenge. I have both Fernco and Fluidmaster seals to try.

The Fernco looks short enough to fit before the bend, but it's REALLY hard to press it in the 3-inch (exact inside measurement) pipe. It took much of my body weight and some contortions during a test fit, even with soapy water on the seal. It seems like that would be difficult to do once it's glued to the toilet and can't easily be seen or moved around. Is this normal for the Fernco, or is there a trick I don't know about?

With its o-ring design, the Fluidmaster goes in firmly but easily. Because of the 90-degree pipe bend, however, the seal stands about 1/4" proud of where the toilet bottom would rest.

It looks like a possible fix for the Fluidmaster would be to cut off about 3/8" from the bottom of the plastic cone. The o-ring should still roll into place during installation and provide a tight seal. Has anyone tried shortening the Fluidmaster seal this way?

The Fernco seal can be found here: http://www.fernco.com/plumbing/wax-free-toilet-seal

The Fuildmaster seal can be found here: http://www.fluidmaster.com/index.asp?bhcp=1
.

[jadnashua]

Do you have an offset flange? If so, you probably don't want to use a waxless seal with their funnel, as it would make a bad situation worse. If it is just that the ben is close to the flange, and you have a normal flange, it should work fine with either since you have the full diameter of the drain pipe to work with.

[npurdy506]

It's not an offset flange -- just an elbow that begins almost immediately below the flange. Having the full diameter of the pipe doesn't help since the rigid Fluidmaster seal is almost the same diameter as the 3-inch pipe. The seal hits the pipe wall at the first instant the pipe starts to curve.

The installation instructions from Fluidmaster even anticipate the problem in the "Troubleshooting" section:

"• The drain pipe makes 90 degree turn so that Bowl Gasket
bottoms out."

I was just wondering if anyone had shortened the Fluidmaster gasket to correct this problem. For the Fernco seal, I was wondering if there's some trick I'm missing to make it fit in a 3-inch pipe more easily. Thanks for your help.

[jadnashua]

WIth such a short vertical length, I think you may have trouble getting a good seal. I'd opt for wax.

[shacko]

My personal preference is not to use that type of seal or flange that goes into a 3in. pipe; 4in is fine.