Shower Drains, Grates & Strainers

Fifty-eight shower drains, grates and strainers from Sioux Chief (36), Oatey (14), Mountain Plumbing (4), Brizo, Infinity Drain, Moen and E.L. Mustee. By part: 30 complete drains, 19 grates and strainers sold on their own, 6 drain bodies and collars, a test plug and a no-caulk wrench, and one fiberglass entry ramp. From $3.51 to $1,669.

A shower drain is two parts, and they are sold separately

The body glues or clamps to the pipe and gets tiled or grouted around. The grate is the visible disc that drops into it. They wear out on completely different schedules - the body outlives the house, while the grate gets scratched, corroded, or simply stops matching a remodel. That is why 19 of the items here are grates and strainers with no body attached, and 6 are bodies with no grate. If you are replacing a drain because it looks bad, measure the grate: you may need nothing else.

Solvent weld or no-caulk

Six of these are solvent weld - the body cements directly onto ABS or PVC pipe, which is what you want in new work where the pipe is cut to length and the drain sets the height. Five are no-caulk, sometimes called compression: a rubber gasket slides over the pipe and a nut squeezes it against the drain body. No-caulk is the retrofit answer, because it seals onto pipe that is already in the floor - including cast iron, where there is nothing to glue to. Oatey's 42239 wrench is the tool that tightens that nut in a hole you cannot get a hand into.

The Sioux Chief 827-2J is the third option: a jacking bolt drain, where three bolts raise and level the grate after the pan is set. That is the one for a job where the finished floor height is not settled when the drain goes in.

Round or square, and they do not swap

Nineteen round grates and nineteen square. The round ones run 4-1/4" or 4-7/16"; the square ones 4-1/2". The critical point is that the grate has to match the body it seats in - a 4-1/2" square grate will not drop into a body built for a 4-7/16" round, even though both are "2-inch" drains. The 2-inch refers to the outlet pipe, not the opening you see. Check the drain body model before buying a replacement grate.

Finishes

Eighteen items in stainless steel (matte and polished), twelve in nickel or nickel bronze, four chrome, three oil rubbed bronze, three matte black, two white and one Brilliance Black Onyx. Nickel bronze is the commercial standard - it is cast, heavy and nearly indestructible, which is why it costs three to five times what a snap-in stainless strainer does. For a residential remodel, the finish that matters is the one that matches the shower trim already going in.

Tile-in and linear drains

Being straight about the range: this page is mostly 2" round and square drains for a conventional pan. There are three exceptions worth knowing about. The Brizo BT062415-BNX is a 4" tile-in square drain, where the grate holds a cut tile so the drain disappears into the floor. The Oatey 42251 is a tile drain base that takes a 2" or 3" outlet. And the Infinity Drain S-AS-6548-SS is a 48" linear shower drain grate kit in 12-gauge 316 stainless with 2mm wedge wire - the kind used on a curbless shower where the floor slopes to one wall instead of to a centre point.

Two inches is the standard, and here is why

Almost every drain on this page is 2". A shower delivers at most about 2.5 gallons per minute through the head, and a 2" drain carries far more than that - the size exists for hair and soap, not for flow. Tubs use 1-1/2" because a tub drains a fixed volume on demand rather than continuously. If you are replacing a shower drain, the outlet is almost certainly 2"; if it is 1-1/2", you are looking at a tub conversion, and the tub drains are on their own page.

Related

See also tub and bath drains, floor drains, shower heads, shower trim sets and pressure balance valve trim, or the full bathroom department.