The complete guide
How to Choose a Pop Up Bathtub Stopper That Actually Seals
The bath that will not stay hot
There is a specific kind of small annoyance that comes with a worn bathtub stopper. You run the tub, get in, and ten minutes later the water is somewhere around your waist instead of your shoulders. You top it up. Ten minutes after that, same story. Eventually you give up and get out, and the whole point of the bath has quietly disappeared.
The other half of the problem is slower and less obvious. Hair goes down the drain every time you shower or wash your hair in the tub. It catches on the inside of the pipe, soap residue sticks to it, and over a few months the drain starts taking longer and longer. By the time you notice, the fix is messy.
A pop up bathtub stopper with strainer deals with both at once. It gives you a fresh seal so the water stays put, and it puts a basket in the path of the hair so you can throw it out instead of fishing it out later.
How a click tub stopper works
The mechanism is simple, which is why it lasts. Inside the copper body there is a spring and a catch. Press the cap down and the catch holds it in the lowered position, pushing a silicone gasket against the seat of the drain opening. That gasket is the part doing the sealing. Press the cap again and the catch releases, the spring lifts the stopper, and water flows out around the edges.
Compared with the older designs, there is a lot less to go wrong. A chain and rubber plug depends on you remembering where the plug went. A trip lever system hides a plunger inside the overflow pipe where you cannot easily reach it. The best click tub stopper designs keep everything in one piece, sitting in the drain opening where you can see it, lift it and clean it.
The strainer basket sits inside the body, under the cap. It is a separate part, so it comes out on its own. That matters, because a strainer you can only clean by removing the whole stopper is a strainer you will not clean often enough.
Getting the size right
This is the one step that decides whether the thing works. The clips on this stopper expand outward against the wall of the drain opening, which is both how it holds position and part of how it stays sealed. They are made for openings from 1.4 to 1.6 inches, roughly 36 to 41 mm.
Measure the inside of the metal drain opening in your tub, across the widest point. Do not measure the old stopper, because stopper caps often overhang the opening and will give you a number that is too big. If you have a ruler with both scales, read the inch figure and sanity check it against the millimetres.
If your measurement lands inside that range, you are fine. If it is clearly over or clearly under, this is not the right size, and forcing it will only end in a leak. Bathtubs vary more than people expect, especially older ones, so two minutes with a ruler is worth it.
Fitting it
Pull out whatever is in the drain now. Some old stoppers lift straight out, some unscrew counter clockwise, and a few are held by a small set screw under the cap. If yours does not come out easily, do not lever at it with a screwdriver, because you can score the drain seat and then nothing will seal.
Once the opening is clear, wipe it. Soap residue and limescale build up on the seat, and a gasket cannot press flat against a rough surface. A cloth and a bit of warm soapy water usually does it. Give it a dry wipe as well.
Then line the new stopper up square with the opening and press it down firmly and evenly. You should feel the clips take. Press the cap once to check it locks down, once more to check it springs back. Run a few inches of water and watch the level for a couple of minutes. If it holds, you are done.
Who this suits
Renters get the most obvious benefit. Nothing here is permanent, nothing is glued, and the original stopper goes back in whenever you need it to. You can improve a tired bathroom without asking anyone's permission.
Anyone with long hair in the house gets the second benefit. A bathtub drain hair catcher sounds like a minor thing until you compare it with the alternative. Pulling a wet clump out of a drain pipe is genuinely unpleasant, and it comes around every few months in a busy bathroom. A basket you rinse under the faucet changes that into a ten second habit.
Then there are people who just want a decent soak. If you bathe to unwind, a seal that drops the water level the whole time defeats the purpose. A replacement bathtub drain plug costs very little next to the number of baths you will take in the next few years.
It is less suitable if your tub uses a trip lever on the overflow plate with a plunger hidden inside the pipe. That is a different system entirely. Look at what is actually sitting in your drain opening before you order.
Living with it
Care is straightforward. Lift the strainer basket out after a bath, tip the hair into the garbage, rinse it, and drop it back. Do that regularly and the drain stays quick.
Once in a while, take the whole stopper out and clean the gasket and the drain seat. Grit under a seal is the number one reason a good stopper starts to weep, and it takes a minute to deal with. Wipe the copper body with a soft cloth and warm soapy water. Skip anything abrasive, because scouring pads and powders will scratch a brushed finish and it does not come back.
Copper finishes shift in tone over time with constant water contact. Drying the cap after a bath slows that down. Some people like the change, some do not, so it is worth knowing in advance.
One habit worth building: give the stopper a press before you start filling. If the cap is already down and you forget, you end up filling with the drain sealed and the overflow doing work it should not need to do.
The short version
Measure your drain opening first. If it is between 1.4 and 1.6 inches across the inside, this pop up bathtub stopper with strainer should push straight in and grip without tools. You get a one touch seal instead of a chain or a lever, a copper body with a brushed finish that looks like a fixture rather than a part, and a strainer basket that catches hair before it reaches the pipe.
Keep the basket emptied and the gasket clean, and it will go on doing its job quietly. It is a small part with a disproportionate effect on how a bathroom feels day to day. If the measurement does not match your tub, let us know and we will point you somewhere better.