5 Tips to Help You Retrieve Jewelry Dropped Down the Drain

Uh oh. You’ve been washing dishes and then notice that a very important ring is suddenly missing from your finger and it’s one that you don’t want to tell your spouse you lost. If the last thing you remember hearing is the click of metal down the kitchen drain, read our tips to retrieve your ring—or any piece of jewelry—from the drain so you can proudly wear it before anyone else is the wiser.

1. Use a Magnet

If your jewelry is made of metal, a strong magnet can be a lifesaver. Pure gold or silver is not magnetic, but lots of jewelry contains alloys that are often ferromagnetic. Iron, nickel, cobalt, and other alloys are magnetic. 

Start by cutting off the power to your garbage disposal if you have one. Then glue or tie a small, strong magnet to a string or shoelace and carefully lower the magnet into the drain. Slowly and carefully, pull the magnet back up the drain; you want to be sure that you don’t knock the jewelry off the magnet and send it back into the drain.

2. Invest in a Four-Pronged Tool

A handy device with an unwieldy name, a four-pronged tool is a long snake with hooks at the end, intended to be used for grabbing things out of small, tight spaces. To use, all you need to do is slide the snake down the drain, catch the piece of jewelry, and then carefully draw the snake back up. If you’re finding it difficult to locate exactly where the jewelry fell, try looking around with a flashlight.

3. Try a Coat Hanger

A metal coat hanger can be unwound and reconfigured to the perfect hook shape to reach into a sink and grab a necklace. Make sure to bend the end in a way that gives it a strong hook, then feed the hanger into the drain. As with all of these methods, be sure to slowly and mindfully pull the hanger back up once you’ve caught the jewelry. 

4. Take Apart the P-Trap

If you’re unsuccessful with the above methods, you can try and take apart your P-trap to get better access to the inner workings of your plumbing system—it’s a common method to unclog your drain, so you can do a general cleaning, too. This process can be messy, so be sure to wear an old shirt and work wearing some rubber gloves.

First, make sure the faucet is turned off. Grab a bucket and place it under the sink to catch any water. The P-trap is the u-shaped pipe under the sink; you’ll want to unfasten any holders keeping the pipe in place. Usually you can twist these by hand, but if they’re a bit sticky, use a plumbing wrench. 

Remove the pipe—be aware that some water will likely spill out (into your bucket, hopefully). At this point, inspect any debris that has fallen out of the pipe and see if your jewelry is in there. You can also fish around in the pipe in case the jewelry is still stuck inside. If you can’t reach all the way through the pipe, you might need to use a coat hanger or other flexible rod to dig deeper.

5. Call a Plumber

If none of the above methods have worked—or you’re scared to dismantle the P-trap yourself—it might be time to call a local plumber. A plumber will be able to thoroughly check the P-trap and might have a tool to use to rescue your jewelry from deeper inside the drain, if necessary. In addition, they will ensure that your piping is replaced correctly so you don’t run into any leaks down the line. The cost to hire a plumber is between $180 and $490, on average.