I was so excited when putting a new Quartz countertop on my kitchen cabinets, then the final step is to install a new kitchen sink. The job sounds simple but it was a frustrating experience for me, all because of the included sink clips. I bought the Kohler Pro-Function Kitchen Sink Kit from Costco, this seems to be great value at less than $300 and the kit includes all accessories for the sink. I put the sink on the new countertop, it looks amazing and I was ready to secure it.
The provided sink clips are designed to accommodate countertops up to 1-3/4″ thick. However, even with my 1-1/4″ countertop, the screws are extremely short. I place the screw head onto the sink’s rail, then adjust the clip so that the clip hooks to the underside of the countertop, and finally, tighten the screw from below with a flat-head screwdriver. This process was far more difficult than it sounded. The short screws made it incredibly hard to properly engage and tighten the clips.
Fortunately, there’s a simple solution to avoid this common headache, you just need longer sink clips. I bought the Elkay Heavy-Duty Extra Long Clips and Screws from Home Depot. They look almost the same; The only difference is the longer screws. This small difference makes it much faster and easier to secure the sink.
I also recommend you to get a telescoping screwdriver to make the job even easier. I use the one from Dewalt and the longer reach helped me a lot in the cramped space under the sink.
While the original Kohler clips can work, they demand significantly more effort and time. I can install a longer clip in less than a minute but it could take 4-5 minutes to handle the shorter screw. You can install 2 clips on the shorter lengths of the sink, and 3 to 4 clips on each of the longer lengths. If you are planning a Kohler top-mount sink installation, I highly recommend bypassing the frustration and buy the longer sink clips right from the start. It costs just a few bucks and that will save you a considerable amount of time and effort.
