RO Faucet Drip Under Sink.

I had my RO system replaced but had to keep my existing faucet to match the rest of my sink hardware. There are 2 tubes (one red and one black ) that hang down under the sink and are not connected to anything. The black one has a slight drip.

I called the guy that installed it and he said to just crimp off both tubes with zip ties and that would solve the problem.

My question to him was that if I crimp off the tube that is leaking the water will need to go somewhere else. He stated it would not need to go anywhere ... My gut tells me that if I crimp it off the water will leak out somewhere else - there is a small air hole at the base of the faucet, will the water back up and leak there ?

What are these 2 tubes for and what are the consequences of crimping them off ? Any ?

The small one is the drain hose from the RO to the air gap, and the large one is the drain from the air gap to the drain pipe. There should NOT be ANY water in either one, (and as a practical matter it should be impossible for it to happen), unless the small one is connected, and then you would get a flood. IF there is water coming out of them, especially the small one, there is something functionally wrong with the installation, and if you "zip tie" the lines closed, and there REALLY IS water coming out, it will then leak out of the hole on the rear of the faucet.

The installer said he 'by passed' the faucet.... I'm going to call the company owner tomorrow and ask him to come take a look at the install... there is water dripping out of the larger of the 2 lines. I have a one gallon bucket under it and there is about a quarter cup of water after 4 days collected.

if the faucet is bad, no problem, i'll pay to have a new one installed. just don't want to lay out more money to find out it is a bad install.

By "bypassing" the faucet, he means that he connected the RO's drain directly to the sink drain, instead of going through the faucet's air gap. The air gap is a completely isolated feature. The ONLY water that goes into it is from the small hose, and the larger hose is to take THAT water to the drain pipe. There is NO OTHER water connection to those two hoses, UNLESS the faucet is defective and has a crack, or something, so water can get into the air gap's "cavity".

So, it sounds like the faucet needs to be replaced then .... Water is definitely dripping out of the big hose and crimping it off will just drive the water out of the air gap..

exactly. There is NO water connection between the faucet and the air gap, so the only way water can be dripping from it is if there is a crack of some kind inside it.

Many Thanks for the input !!