Gross-o-meter sink question

August 22, 2021 3:51 PM

Enjoy our household dispute about which sink strainer is more disgusting.

People who have experienced both: household dispute. We are between a traditional sink drain like this versus this OXO strainer.

Which is more unpleasant? Define as you like.

posted by A Terrible Llama to Home & Garden (34 answers total)

for me, the grossness comes from what's caught in it, not from the design of the strainer. We prefer something cute or brightly colored, but it's just gonna be gross. Yuck!
posted by QuakerMel at 3:56 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

The Oxo one goes in the dishwasher! That automatically makes it less gross. We have that one.
posted by Mid at 4:04 PM on August 22, 2021 [14 favorites]

The more traditional style tends to get really gross under that rubber gasket, and the Oxo strainer doesn't have a gasket that gets nasty. This is something that I think the person who deep cleans the sink would notice more than someone who just washes dishes at the sink. And for daily functionality they are both pretty gross. You can buy three of the more traditional kind for the price of the Oxo strainer, which gives you more opportunity to just recycle and replace it when it starts to get weird. That's what I do.
posted by twelve cent archie at 4:07 PM on August 22, 2021 [6 favorites]

Also the Oxo one has a big lip that you can hold on to when slamming the gunk into the trash! My least fav part of the traditional strainer is that you have to hold the rubber black thing to empty the gunk, and the black rubber thing is usually slimy and nasty and disgusting to hold.
I suppose you could hold the traditional one by the metal cup but that doesn't work well when there's gunk caught in the strainer holes.
posted by blueberrypuffin at 4:08 PM on August 22, 2021 [10 favorites]

You can flip the Oxo one inside out to empty it, which makes it significantly less disgusting.
posted by Mavri at 4:19 PM on August 22, 2021 [8 favorites]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding how it works, but the Oxo one looks like it would create a raised lip around the drain, meaning not all the small stuff will wash in. (If that's not the case, disregard this comment.)
posted by Dip Flash at 4:25 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

The traditional Winco sink drain is grosser. Adding to the evidence listed above, its wide, shallow basket makes captured gunk hi-res.

(I've used different sink strainers across several kitchens, as dictated by drain diameter and product availability, and never gave the matter a lot of thought. If you're a stealth OXO shill, you deserve a raise.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 4:30 PM on August 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

Best answer: This is a trick question, of course: both strainers are equally gross. You need a simpler strainer like this one (makes and models may vary), which does exactly what it has to, and has fewer parts and surfaces to degunk when washing. I've bought a bunch of these over the years and they never fail to deliver.
posted by bassomatic at 4:42 PM on August 22, 2021 [24 favorites]

It's a toss-up, but I'd be concerned that the silicone of OXO will get slimier than the stainless steel of the traditional.
posted by hydra77 at 4:42 PM on August 22, 2021 [3 favorites]

I used the Oxo one and I hated it:

1. The raised lip means that it keeps 1-2 mm of standing water in the sink.
2. It gets pretty gross, and once that happens, it doesn't let any water through. Although this is also true of the traditional design to an extent.

I really just want a plain steel sink strainer without the rubber plug thing but they don't seem to make those?
posted by splitpeasoup at 4:52 PM on August 22, 2021 [2 favorites]

First one is more gross because it's harder to clean, and requires more contact with gunk to do so. Sometimes you have to bang it against the wastebin really hard to clear it out and then gunk sprays everywhere. And it rarely forms a perfect seal so stuff gets caught in the cracks between it and the drain, and then you have to deal with that. Plus the plunger bit gets slimy buildup over time. So gross!

The Oxo one has better coverage is easy to empty by flipping it, and then rinsing it thoroughly. Slightly fewer moving parts to get stuff built up in.

If there's something about the silicone you don't like, bassomatic's suggestion is a great compromise--it has similarly great coverage, and no silicone and no moving parts. But you still gotta wham it against the wastebin.

(I have in fact used all 3, and keep coming back to the Oxo.)
posted by rhiannonstone at 4:59 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

No experience with the OXO, but it looks like it’s only a strainer rather than a combination plug/strainer. If you ever need to plug the sink then you’d need both the OXO and a separate plug, which means always having one or the other sitting someplace outside the sink, which has to count against it.

I detest the cheap metal plug/strainers. They always seem to work erratically for either function. I bought a Franke drain assembly years ago and will never go back. Unfortunately it does require the entire assembly; you can’t use the Franke basket it a generic builder-grade drain fitting.
posted by jon1270 at 5:12 PM on August 22, 2021

The OXO Good Grips 2-in-1 Sink Strainer w/Stopper has the silicone basket, too.
posted by Iris Gambol at 5:26 PM on August 22, 2021

I have a silicone one (not the Oxo) and everything sticks to it—shreds of spinach, wet noodles—when I whack it against the garbage bin. Flipping it inside out doesn’t help.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:04 PM on August 22, 2021

Every time you run the dishwasher, put the all-metal one in. Also, can opener and scrubbie.
posted by theora55 at 6:05 PM on August 22, 2021

We switched to the Oxo one. It is fine and easy to empty … except for the part about holding a few mm of water from going down the drain. I liked the old style but my wife couldn’t master the knack of jiggling it a bit to get it to seal, so it would always leak a little. The Oxo one *does* seal—you just turn the center dingus.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 6:09 PM on August 22, 2021

Oxo is the best. You can turn it inside out. Much easier to clean.
posted by tiny frying pan at 6:20 PM on August 22, 2021

I have the OXO one and I just wash it every time I do the dishes. It's nice and I like that you can flip it inside out to really clean it out.
posted by jessamyn at 6:52 PM on August 22, 2021

I had a silicon one like the OVO and I loved it - especially as we eat a lot of rice and you can turn it inside out to get all the little grains out.

BUT within a few months, the silicon broke down and cracked (maybe because it wasn't OVO) and was grosser than anything I've ever used. Previous wire mesh strainers had gone rusty.

We finally found one exactly like the one that bassomatic linked to and it's great - easy to dump and rinse (even with lots of coffee grinds and rice - sometimes at the same time), but sturdier than either the silicon or wire.

That said: the Amazon seller wants $18 for it. We bought ours for $2.50 at a dollar store.
posted by jb at 7:49 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

Absolutely neither one and the screen kind linked above. My sink is often gross (but really mostly tea leaves) and I have one of those, but also I find it less gross when I know from whence the grossness comes. My friend with a frequently gross sink who’s dishes I often do has an oxo one, so maybe I’m biased. A benefit of the screen ones is that you can find them at dollar stores etc. I don’t replace them all that often but I always keep a spare so you know that if its ever TOO gross, you can just use a new one.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 7:49 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have used both and they’re pretty much exactly the same. And you can put both in the dishwasher so that’s not really a factor.
posted by anderjen at 8:16 PM on August 22, 2021

I think the Oxo one is grosser for all the reasons described, but it's like the difference between a dead squirrel and a dead rat - they're both gross, and as long as it's not my problem I'm not worrying about it.
posted by wotsac at 8:17 PM on August 22, 2021

Define as you like.

This is super open-ended and you acknowledge that this is to settle a fight.

Both can be unpleasant in their own ways and can get unpleasant through different paths and degree of lack of maintenance. Without strict win conditions, this can either be an ongoing lighthearted exercise, or a mono-atomic crystal-edged wedge driving the relationship into a tsunami created by the calving halves crashing into the sea of co-reliance.

If it bugs you, just bleach the entire sink and/ or use gloves.

The Winco will be more much more unpleasant if given zero maintenance. With minimal maintenance (a splash of bleach every so often), the unpleasantness would be about equal.
posted by porpoise at 9:08 PM on August 22, 2021

Literature search: Withnail on matter. [2 mins]
To answer: either is better than this.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:01 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

I hate the ones with things in the middle like either of those. Gunk just sticks to them. Uck. That said, I'm very happy with my separate silicone drain strainer and stopper. (Now if I could just do something about the built-in bathroom one... those are NASTY. Darn apartment living.)
posted by stormyteal at 11:43 PM on August 22, 2021 [1 favorite]

stormyteal, disassemble the built-in, store the pieces/plan on replacements to install prior to moving, and use a non-permanent strainer.
posted by Iris Gambol at 1:39 AM on August 23, 2021

Response by poster: Literature search: Withnail on matter . [2 mins]
To answer: either is better than this.

I remember that scene and have always loved it.

Matter
*shudders*
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:47 AM on August 23, 2021

Response by poster: Okay: I was on team silicone is gross because it gets slimy and when you flip it into the garbage you get gross food on you. It also has smaller holes, so if you let an egg white wash down or something, there it will stay getting more and more gooey and adding to the overall grossness.

Mr. Llama was team silicone. I think his opinion was that it required less contact with grossness, but that was not my experience.

Usually our arguments go with 'whoever cares more, wins' but both of us felt acutely that the opposing model was a disgusting sloppy thing filled with matter.

I like the idea of splitting the difference and trying out a simpler one and see if we both are happier.

Thanks everyone. (I lost 10 to 4 if you're keeping score. Couldn't count some answers as clearly one or the other.)
posted by A Terrible Llama at 5:52 AM on August 23, 2021 [2 favorites]

I'm late to the party here, but all the cup-style drainers are gross and, to make matters even worse, slow the water draining in your sink so gross gunk has an opportunity to spread itself around. You didn't mention whether there is a disposal in your sink or not, and that makes a big difference. If you have a disposal, you don't need a strainer to catch the icky stuff since it will otherwise flow down into the disposal for elimination. With a disposal, you just need to stop flatware from drifting down and getting chewed up. For that purpose, we use this one and put it in the dishwasher whenever it runs. Because the holes are so large, not very much junk gets caught on/in them. They are not the most durable, sorry to say, but they're cheap and we keep a few on hand as replacements.
posted by DrGail at 9:11 AM on August 23, 2021

Fwiw, I use a mesh/screen strainer and put it through the dishwasher whenever I run it. Only thing that is gross is when cheese gets on it.
posted by AugustWest at 12:04 PM on August 23, 2021

Both your choices are awful in their own unique ways, as many have noted above.
I use this style of strainer in my current pathetic single kitchen sink, no disposal, no dishwasher. It catches everything and cleans easily with a tap against the trash bin, and gets scrubbed every week or so as part of overall counter/sink cleanup. The sink has never clogged or backed up. Same with shower/tub.
posted by winesong at 3:47 PM on August 23, 2021 [1 favorite]

Just wanted to say I love the regular Oxo strainer (and most Oxo products) but the OXO Good Grips 2-in-1 Sink Strainer w/Stopper is GARBAGE. It doesn't drain the water fast enough, even when I remove the bottom part that seals it. I decided to try it when we moved last month and threw it out today because I hated it, ordered the regular Oxo one.
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 9:05 PM on August 23, 2021

Uhm, bleach is pretty cheap. Glug some bleach on it.

If you're still squeemish, use a pair of tongs/ chopsticks/ whatever to turn it over and glug bleach on the other side.

Or gloves. You can glug bleach over your gloves afterwards too.
posted by porpoise at 9:39 PM on August 23, 2021

I have the oxo one and hate it. This style is also my preference - by FAR. Empties effectively, doesn't stop up at the first whiff of food, no weird cracks to trap anything, washes easily.

Not as good as using a garbage disposal, of course. But second best.
posted by mosst at 10:25 AM on August 24, 2021