How do I get something back that fell down a sink drain?

Stop using the sink, and do not run water. Water carries small objects along the pipe. Every glass of water you send down after a lost item moves it farther from the place you can easily reach. If the item fell in while the faucet was running, turn it off now.

Then look before you touch anything. Shine a flashlight into the drain opening. If you can see the item, you may be able to lift it out with long tweezers or, if it is iron or steel, a small magnet on a string. If the drain has a stopper or a strainer, remove it first. A pop-up stopper can hold on to an item, and it can also hide one. Kohler's guide for pop-up drains describes the removal: "unthread the rod nut, pull the ball rod out, and remove the stopper from the drain." Our pop-up stopper page shows the full sequence with a bucket in place.

Every properly installed sink drain has a trap, the curved pipe under the sink. The plumbing code requires each fixture to be "separately trapped by a liquid-seal trap," and the trap holds a water seal of "not less than 2 inches" and "not more than 4 inches," per IPC 2024 Section 1002. That low bend is the lowest point in the sink's drain, so a heavy small item, like a ring, an earring or a screw, tends to settle there instead of traveling on. That is the reason the trap is the first place to look.

Before you start, know what you are doing and why. The trap is meant to come apart, which is why the nuts on each end are hand-tightened. Opening it is a normal maintenance step, and it is one of the few plumbing jobs where a bucket and ten minutes solve the problem. You need a bucket, a flashlight, gloves and a towel. Most traps come apart by hand. Here is the sequence:

1. 1Clear the cabinet and put a bucket under the trap. Some water will come out.
2. 2Loosen the slip nuts on each end of the trap by hand. If they are tight, use channel-lock pliers, gently. Plastic nuts crack.
3. 3Lower the trap into the bucket and pour out its contents. Sift through them with gloves.
4. 4Rinse the trap and look inside for anything wedged in the curve.
5. 5Reattach it snugly. Seat any washers, thread the nuts on by hand, then run water and watch for drips. If it drips, see leak under the sink.

AAA lists the same trap check among its standard steps for clearing drains, since the trap unfastens for exactly this reason. You may find hair and gunk along with your item, which is a bonus. Our slow-draining sink page covers what to do once it is off.

Where the sink is changes the details a little:

• Bathroom sink. The stopper linkage sits behind the drain body under the sink, so watch the pivot rod when you work near the trap. A lost ring often lands right on the stopper or in the trap just below it.
• Kitchen sink. There is usually a trap and, on many sinks, a disposal or a second basin plumbed to the same trap. If a disposal is on the drain you dropped the item into, treat the disposal as the first hazard.
• Tub or shower. The drain is a different arrangement, and the trap is often not under the tub where you can reach it. If an item drops down a tub drain, do not run water, and call a plumber unless the trap is accessible from below.

Do not reach in. This is the one place where a mistake hurts. InSinkErator's own instructions say: "Do not stick your hand in the garbage disposal at any time," and that you must disconnect power before any repair. Turn the wall switch off, and unplug the disposal or shut off its breaker so nobody can switch it on while you are working.

If the item is caught and the disposal hums, the reset button is on the bottom of the unit. InSinkErator says the overload protector is a red square button on the bottom, facing the floor, and if it has tripped it sticks out about a quarter inch. With the switch off, press it in. See garbage disposal humming, not working for what to do if it jams.

If something valuable fell into a disposal, leave the power off and call a plumber. Removing an item from inside a disposal can mean taking the unit off its mount, and that is where an item can be lost for good, or a person hurt.

If you are not sure whether the item went into the disposal or into the drain, treat it as the disposal until you know. Turn the power off first, then look with a flashlight through the sink opening. You can often see whether something is sitting on top of the blades or the rubber splash guard. Do not touch the blades, and do not use tongs while the power is connected to the unit.

If the trap is empty, and the item is nowhere you can see, the item went past it, into the branch line behind the wall or beyond. At that point you are trying to retrieve something from a pipe you cannot see into. That is the time to stop and call a plumber, who can open a cleanout or use a camera and a retrieval tool. Do not run a snake blind, because you may push the item farther in, and do not use a chemical cleaner, which will not move a ring and adds a hazard.

Small lost items that turn up later are often stuck in a low point or a bend in the line. Tell the plumber roughly when it fell, what it is made of, and whether you have run water since. It helps them pick a spot to look, and it tells them how far the item could have traveled.

A few habits keep this from happening again. Take rings off before you wash dishes or work at a sink. Close the stopper or put a strainer over the drain before handling anything small over it, such as jewelry, screws or hair clips. Keep a small dish next to the sink for rings. A one-second habit saves a service call. If you would rather not do it yourself, a plumber can retrieve the item from a trap in minutes, and HQ gives free estimates.

Once the item is out, if the sink now drains slowly, read why the same drain keeps clogging. HQ Plumbing & Air is licensed and insured, gives free estimates and upfront pricing, and takes calls 24/7.