Built-in soap dispensers mounted next to a kitchen or bathroom sink are great, but refilling the small pint-size bottle can be a hassle. Here’s how to solve the problem:

  1. Buy a 2’ to 3’ piece of clear, flexible tubing that fits tightly over the tube on your soap dispenser (usually 1/4″ inside diameter tubing).
  2. Push the tubing down over the soap dispenser tube 1/2″ or more.
  3. Feed the tubing through the soap dispenser hole in the sink.
  4. Run the tubing into a large container of liquid soap or dishwashing liquid.
  5. Pump the soap dispenser repeatedly until the soap comes out.

Watch the video above to find out more.

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Joe Truini: One of the most useful accessories you can add to a kitchen sink is a pump soap dispenser. The problem is you have to refill them constantly because the bottle attached to the pump is only about a pint sized bottle.

And so it’s empty, and you have to refill it. Now, how do you fill these easily? Well, there is no way. Either you have to remove the bottle, fill it with a larger bottle of soap. Or you have to remove the pump, and try pouring it down there. But then you can’t see when the bottle’s full, and it has a tendency to overflow onto the sink.

So here’s the solution. Go out to a hardware store or a home center, and buy a length of flexible, clear tubing—this is about a quarter-inch diameter. And what we’re going to do is extend the tube on the pump. So just stick the fill tube from the pump onto the tubing—just wedge it on maybe a half-inch or so.

And now take the other end of the tubing, feed it down through the hole in the sink, put the pump back, and now reach under there and find the opposite end. Now what you can do is take it and just put it right into an economy size jug of liquid soap—put it right through the top, all the way down there. And now just start pumping.

Now it might take a few minutes for the soap to come out, but with that giant jug down there, you’ll only have to refill this maybe once every couple of months. Maybe not even that often.

And now once the tube is filled with a couple of quick pumps the soap is coming right out. And now there’s one less excuse for not doing the dishes.


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Editorial Contributors
avatar for Joe Truini

Joe Truini

Radio Show Co-Host

Joe Truini is a contractor, author, and the host of “Simple Solutions” on Today’s Homeowner TV and the weekly Today’s Homeowner radio show. He has worked on both large commercial projects and residential remodeling, and has written for national publications such as This Old House and Popular Mechanics. He has also written eight books, including three best-selling shed-building books. Joe lives in Connecticut with his family and enjoys hiking, traveling, and baseball in his spare time.

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