Sink strainers play an important role when it comes to draining water from our kitchens, bathrooms, and any other place you might have a sink. In this article, I’m going to give you all the important details of what sink strainers are, what they do, types, my hacks, and tips for choosing the best ones suitable for your needs.
What Is A Sink Strainer?
A sink strainer is a perforated metal sieve that helps to prevent the passage of solid debris or large particles of food, hair, coffee grounds, etc from going down into the water drain system. A sink strainer plays a massive role in ensuring your sinks are not blocked by any large particles – that can go into the drains to breed bacteria.
Using a sink strainer is one of the best ways of stopping our drainage systems from accumulating solid wastes, dirt, and dregs. The sink strainer is a really simple but effective plumbing accessory that makes life in the kitchen safe hygiene-wise.
With a properly installed sink strainer, you’re going to save yourself a lot of cash that would have otherwise gone into drainage repairs.
The best part is sink strainers do not need any maintenance other than emptying and cleaning them from time to time.
What Is The Purpose Of A Sink Strainer?
There are different varieties of sink strainers that are used for both domestic purposes and industrial purposes but the function or purpose usually remains the same – and that is to keep the drainage system clear of solid waste and debris.
At home, it is very common to find sink strainers being used as covers for drains in showers, kitchen sinks, and bathtubs.
Let me give you a classic example! If you’re like me, you would understand how easy it is to leave dishes in the kitchen sink and the worse part is I never leave a clean plate after eating.
So it is also common to find me pushing down food particles into the sink while doing the dishes. But with a properly installed sink strainer, will essentially screen the water and only allow water to pass through.
Any debris left behind falls to the bottom of some sort of cup or basket which can be removed, emptied, cleaned, and replaced.
This helps to keep the water drains clear for water to go down the drain easily.
Types of Sink Strainers
There are so many different forms and styles of sink strainers and although strainers are very simple pieces, different strainers will each bring different things to your sink. These different types of sink strainer serve different unique purposes and your choice will be dependant on your needs.
Here is a quick rundown of the various types of sink strainers and what specific functions or functions are they likely to bring to your sink.
1. The Back Nut Strainer
The back nut strainer is usually attached to the bottom of the sink and held in place with a back nut – hence the name.
The structure of the back nut strainer is in such a way that the strainer is placed in the bottom of the sink and a rubber seal or gasket is made to hold it firmly in place to prevent leakage while a buck nut is placed to hold the entire system or components together.
2. The Plate Strainer
You might have seen this in your parent’s or grandparents’ kitchen sinks when you were growing up. The plate strainer is the simplest of all the sink strainers you will come by.
The plate strainer is a simple design that allows water to strain through a perforated plate. Usually, the plate strainer has a corrugated shape the help to increase the overall draining surface area.
3. Double Cup Strainer
As you can tell from the name, the double cup strainer comes with two cups. While one cup sits firmly and securely inside the sink, the second cup is a removable piece that can be removed and replaced as and when it’s necessary.
The main role of the second cup which is often not securely fixed is to act as a stopper to help fill up the sink with water when needed and to drain it as well.
4. The Flange Strainer
This type of strainer is called a flange strainer simply because a flange is used to connect to the bottom of the sink to ensure there is no leakage.
A flange in plumbing is a special rim that is used as a strengthening piece to keep all other parts helping to drain the sink secure.
5. The Drain Strainer
The drain strainer is a very common type of sink strainer. This type of strainer can be easily fixed into the drain.
The drain strainer is usually shaped into a cup and it’s often made of stainless steel. The best thing about the drain strainer is that it can be easily inserted into the drain and removed to fill up the sink or help to drain water from the sink.
The drain strainer is one sink strainer that requires no installation and it’s one of the simplest sink strainers you would come by.
6. The Stopper Strainer
The stopper strainer is often non-removable but comes with a functional twist to its use. The stopper strainer has a mechanism that allows it to be turned to stop water from going down the drain and when not turned, it filters, sieve, or prevent any larger particles from going into your plumbing system.
So as you can see, the stopper strainer has dual functionality, unlike most other sinking strainers. It comes with a mechanical switch that is placed to help you quickly and easily change its function.
7. Basket Strainer
The basket strainer is designed for installing into vertical plumbing systems and as the name implies, it’s often shaped like a basket.
The basket strainer is one of my personal favorites due to how easy it is to clean. All chaff or waste drained from water is captured in the basket.
Another great thing about the basket strainer apart from its highly functional basket shape is how much flow you will get due to its ability to offer a slightly more straining surface area than most other types of strainers.
What Are Sink Strainers Made Of?
Just as there are many types of sink strainers, there are also a variety of materials they will usually come in. A large number of sink strainers will usually be made of stainless steel for corrosion resistance due to the unlimited exposure to water and other liquids. There are also other sink strainers that are made of silicone, rubber, and even plastics.
Each of the materials used to make sink strainers also has unique properties that help to make a particular sink strainer very useful for special purposes.
Stainless steel is the most common material used for sink strainers because it offers high durability and sturdiness unlike any other material used for sink strainers.
Sink strainers made from stainless steel can withstand hot boiling water and extremely cold or freezing water. The best part is stainless steel sink strainers are also rust-proof which essentially when you think about it is one quality you would want your sink strainer to have.
As mentioned before, there are other sink strainers that are also made from silicone. Silicon is a material that is highly resilient just like stainless steel.
The best thing about sink strainers made from silicon materials is that on top of it being able to withstand extreme hot and cold, it has an added advantage of flexibility – quality sink strainers made from stainless steel lacks.
There are also sink strainers made from rubber. While rubber sink strainers will often times be cheap an alternative, you wouldn’t want this type of material as they do not do so well with hot water and temperatures.
Personally, rubber is always a big no because I would always want the best out of my sink.
How To Select The Best Sink Strainer
With quite a sizable type and different sink strainer brands out there comes the challenge of choosing the right or best ones that will perfectly suit your needs. So I have come up with 5 important factors to consider when choosing the best sink strainers whether for your kitchen sinks, or bathroom sinks, etc.
1. Type Of Material
One of the very first factors to consider when choosing your sink strainer is to consider what type of material to go for. As mentioned before, sink strainers come in a variety of materials.
The type of material a sink strainer is made out of determines the kind of quality and performance you get from your sink strainer.
While stainless steel should be a good quality standard for all of your sink strainers, silicone sink strainers will offer you an added advantage of flexibility with their sink strainer, sink strainers made from rubber will be a cheaper alternative that will not offer you the best quality – in terms of how well it performs especially with high temperatures, how long it lasts, and its overall look.
2. The Perforation Size
The next factor to consider when choosing your sink strainer is the size of the holes on the strainer. This is very important because you would want your sink strainer to be effective where it’s going to be installed and how much straining your would want.
From my personal experience, I find the best sink strainers to be those that have smaller holes or perforation sizes. So as a general rule of thumb, when it comes to sink strainers, the smaller the perforation sizes, the better.
What I usually tell my clients is just so you do not get caught off-guard with a blocked drainage system, you would want to always go far sink strainers with fairly small perforations so that it will be able to filter both larger particles and even the smallest ones possible.
3. The Drain Size
Another important factor you would like to consider when choosing a sink strainer is the size of the drain you have. You would want the overall diameter of the strainer to perfectly fit your drain. Not a very ninja point to make but a very important one though.
You would want to be particular on this so that your sink strainer isn’t too small that it falls into your drain or too big that the strainer loosely sits on the drain.
Either of these two situations wouldn’t allow your strainer to fulfill its purpose of preventing large particles from going into your drains.
4. Easy To Clean
Moving on, the sink strainer you pick out should be very easy to clean. As easy as this may sound, it is probably the most tricky factor you would want to consider.
This is because, as mentioned before, you would want to go for sink strainers with fairly small size perforation so that no particle escapes into your drains.
But the challenge with this is that because the perforations are relatively small, particles will easily get stuck within it – especially for low-quality strainers.
This would mean you will need extra time and care to be able to clean this type of strainer thoroughly. Before you go jumping off the wagon here, let me quickly add that this does not make sink strainers with larger perforations that are best or the most functional.
The point still remains that sink strainers with larger perforations are not going to serve the purpose if you need your sink strainers to effectively sieve through almost every drop of water that goes through your drains.
This leaves two huge dilemmas – going for sink strainers with larger holes which will mean particles won’t get stuck in-between its holes and the absolute ease of cleaning – with the obvious downside being a lot of debris or particles will escape into your drains.
Or going for sink strainers with smaller holes that will catch a lot more waste particles but will leave your sink strainer with a lot of particles in its holes, thus, making for a tougher and longer cleaning time.
What it comes down to is what your personal preference is in terms of what you would like to deal with. My personal preference is I would rather deal with my sink strainer than dig into my drains. 😀
One important tip that will make cleaning of your sink strainers a lot easier no matter which type you go for is the type of material it’s made up of.
In general, although the look of stainless steel sink strainers isn’t something most people would want, it will be a lot easier to wipe clean because of the smooth finish surface it usually comes in.
5. Price
How Much Do Sink Strainers Cost? This is a question you might be asking yourself at this point. And yes, this is an important factor and question you need to ask yourself when choosing your sink strainers.
The cost of a new sink strainer will largely depend on the type of material used, its features (securing and draining mechanisms), and sometimes the brand.
But on average, the price point you can expect for a good quality standard sink strainer will be between $8 to $15. Others with special features and materials can cost up to $100 while the ones made from materials like plastic can cost below $3. Here you can find the best sink strainer that you can buy for your sink.
How Do You Install A Sink Strainer?
Here’s a quick and easy resource on how to install a basket sink strainer.