I'm fitting a new kitchen sink at the moment. I attached all the clips, fitted the supplied foam seal, ran a bead of silicone sealant round the outside, put it in the cutout and started to tighten the clips when two off them pinged off so... out it all comes and start again.

Unfortunately the sealant is now smeared all over the worktop instead of being in a nice neat seal under the sink, and because it's the silicone based stuff it's much more difficult to clean off, so when I get in tonight I'm going to take it out and start yet again.

I was wondering what is the difference between the silicone and water soluble sealant. I find the water based stuff much easier to work with because I can just run a wet finger along it and make a nice neat edge but is it hard wearing enough to last in a heavily used environment like a kitchen sink?

If not what can I use as a solvent for the silicone sealant?

you could have probs just left it in ive removed sinks in the past that have just been stuck in with silicone and ive damaged the sink/worktop trying to remove it.

i dont use silicone with clips as i dont see the need, the clips hold it down and the foam makes the seal, i use a polyurathane varnish to seal the cut edge too, never had a call back

I use PVA glue to seal the cut edges of the worktop and only use the sealing strip supplied with the sink. You could run a very fine clear silicone around the edge of the sink after install if you want, but is usually not necessary.