If you wash dishes by hand, you know the moment: the water goes down and you’re left fishing rice and potato peels out of the drain with your fingers.

I’m Scott Grant, a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) and Senior Home Safety Specialist (SHSS), and I put this kitchen sink strainer through a few real kitchen messes at my own sink.

This video is sponsored by TubShroom, who paid me to show you how it works and sent the product at no cost.

In this review I show how the push-button stopper works, what the basket caught, and how to check that the SinkShroom kitchen sink strainer fits your drain.

Quick Takeaways

• Problem it solves: food scraps going down the drain, and picking them out by hand
• Who it fits: anyone who washes dishes by hand and has a standard size kitchen drain
• What I saw: the water level dropped a little over eight minutes, and the basket caught what I put in
• Best feature: one press to hold water, one press to drain
• Biggest limitation: it has to come out before you run the garbage disposal

Who This Is For

If you’re the one at the sink after dinner and you’re tired of fishing rice or veggie peels out of the drain, the SinkShroom catches them in a basket you lift out and tip into the trash.

If you soak pots and pans and want a stopper that also strains, one press-button unit does both jobs, so you don’t need a separate rubber plug.

If you’ve been wondering how to stop food clogging the kitchen drain, keeping scraps out of the pipe is a sensible place to start.

How This Could Help You

Picture the end of a meal: pots in the sink, the water draining, and a little pile of scraps sitting on the drain. The SinkShroom gives those scraps a basket to land in, so you tip them out instead of picking through them.

Press the button once and the sink holds water for soaking. Press it again and the button pops back up, and the water drains through the basket.

Does a sink strainer fit your drain? I give the size range in the video, and the listing says to measure first. I’d measure across the widest part of the opening.

Can you use it with a garbage disposal? It fits inside the disposal opening, but the listing says to take it out before you run the disposal.

Important Details You Should Know

It weighs about two and a half ounces, which is 72 grams. You can see the stainless steel finish up close in the video, and the basket is plastic.

The listing names 304 stainless steel, a brass pop-up core, a polypropylene basket and a silicone gasket, and it calls the parts rust-resistant and heat-resistant. The silicone seal is the ring that sits against your existing drain.

Getting Started

Installing it takes about as long as setting a cup down. You drop it into your existing drain, set it there, and walk away.

The one thing to check is the lip. You want enough of it hanging over the opening that the unit sits flush and the seal presses against the drain.

Features That Matter to You

The push-button stopper is what sets the SinkShroom apart from a plain strainer. Press down and the silicone seal closes the drain, press again and it releases.

If you’d rather have a more open drain, you can also lift the whole unit out.

The removable basket is the other half. You lift it out, tip it, rinse it, and set it back.

And if you have a stainless steel sink, the brushed finish blends right in.

Real Life Experience

A sink stopper only counts if it holds water, so I marked the level with tape and gave it eight minutes. The water was a little lower when I came back. It let a small amount out, but not much.

For the basket, I used rice, peels and coffee grounds, the kind of scraps that usually go down a drain. The video shows what the basket caught.

One buyer said the water backed up once the basket on her sink strainer filled. It does, and that’s just physics: when the basket is full, the water has fewer places to go. It isn’t a defect, and emptying the basket every so often keeps it from happening.

The basket cleans up easily. It’s plastic and can go in the dishwasher on the top rack, as long as the dry cycle doesn’t get too hot. Most of the time I’d just rinse it and give it a quick pass with a sink brush.

Will You Be Able to Use It?

You press the center button to switch between holding water and draining, and you lift the basket out to empty it. Nothing needs tools.

The one-time job is measuring the drain and dropping the unit in. After that, it’s the same lift and tip each time you empty the basket.

Important Considerations

It isn’t a universal fit. If your drain is outside the listed size, it won’t seat properly, so measure first.

If you run your garbage disposal a lot, you’ll need to pull the strainer out every time. That gets old if the disposal is part of your daily routine.

If you let dishes pile up for a few days, the basket will fill faster and the water will back up sooner.

And if you want a stopper that holds the water level perfectly, know that the level in my eight minute test dropped a little.

Help When You Need It

Retailer listings for this model show a one-year limited warranty. Check the listing where you buy for the warranty and return terms from that seller.

Understanding the Cost

I don’t quote prices, since they change. Use the link to see what the SinkShroom costs today.

It does the work of a separate rubber stopper and a mesh strainer basket in one piece, which is worth weighing if you’re replacing both.

Making It Work for You

Empty the basket after each cleanup so it never fills up. It only takes a few seconds.

Measure the drain before you order, and keep the strainer’s lip flush with the sink.

If a clog has already formed, that’s a different job. A drain clog removal tool handles that, and the strainer helps keep scraps from causing the next one.

Our Recommendation

If you wash dishes by hand and you’re tired of fishing food out of the drain, the SinkShroom is worth putting on your list to check out.

Look at something else if your drain is outside the listed size, or if you run the disposal constantly and don’t want to pull a strainer each time. A plain mesh strainer with a separate rubber stopper is the alternative: simpler, with no moving parts, but it takes two pieces to do what this one does.

Where to Get It

Check the link for current availability and pricing on the SinkShroom kitchen sink strainer on Amazon. Measure your drain first so you order the right size.

You can also buy it direct from TubShroom, the company that makes it. Pick whichever store you’d rather order from; it’s the same 2-in-1 strainer.

Conclusion

A basket that catches food and a stopper that holds water, in one piece you drop into the drain. That’s the whole idea, and the video shows how it plays out in a real sink.

What’s the one thing that always ends up in your sink drain? Tell me in the comments.