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I cleaned my sink with Pink Stuff and Elbow Grease - the winner removed months of dirt
Reach Daily Express | April 26, 2026 12:39 PM CST

When it comes to keeping my home clean and tidy, I like to think I stay pretty on top of things. However, there's one area that often goes months without being tackled - and that's the kitchen sink.

Endless washing of the dishes means that there are often food stains on the draining board or water marks down the side of the sink itself. And don't even get me started on the tap - that's another area that rarely sees a cleaning cloth. This weekend, I decided enough was enough, and tested out two cheap cleaning sprays to see what one worked the best.

I headed to my local Home Bargains to get the goods. Deciding to go in completely blind and try out two I'd never picked up before, I opted for the Pink Stuff multi-purpose cleaning spray and the Elbow Grease All Purpose Degreaser.

Both are incredibly budget-friendly, with the Pink Stuff spray coming in at just 99p, whilst the Elbow Grease variety was slightly pricier at £1.19.

In order to fairly test out each one, I tried out one of the sprays on the draining board, and the other on the sink and tap itself. Both were looking worse-for-wear after not being cleaned for longer than I'd care to admit, so I knew both sprays would have to work hard to get rid of the grime.

Elbow Grease

To begin, I decided to test out the Elbow Grease spray on my sink basin and tap. I thought living in Scotland meant hard water wasn't really an issue, but the stainless steel covered in white chalky marks would suggest otherwise.

The spray is essentially a degreaser, proudly hailed as the 'only cleaner you'll ever need' on the bottle. It specifically says it can remove grease from kitchen surfaces, so I had high hopes.

It was simple enough to use as well. All you need to do is spray it generously over the affected area and wipe off again, although the bottle notes that you might have to repeat this for particularly tough spots.

At first, it seemed to work pretty well. The spray had a pleasant lemony scent, and after spraying and buffing it away the watermarks were gone and the sink was shiny again.

However, when I went back into the kitchen about 15 minutes later, I noticed that some of the marks had started to creep back again, and it was noticeably still quite dirty.

As mentioned, the bottle does say that the application might have to be repeated for stubborn marks. Mine didn't look too bad, so I assumed this wouldn't be the case, but I repeated the process anyway and this seemed to shift the majority of the stains.

Having said that, it worked brilliantly on my tap, and this was gleaming again after only one application.

Pink Stuff

Moving on to the Pink Stuff spray, which I used to tackle the draining board. Previously, I'd tried the Pink Stuff paste to clean my hob, and was pretty impressed with the results - although this was my first time trying out the spray, which I'd heard only good things about.

According to the bottle: "Our versatile multi-purpose cleaning spray for hard surfaces is tough on stains, penetrates and removes grease and grime, leaving shiny clean results."

For this product, all you do is spray, leave for a few seconds, then wipe with a damp cloth before drying it off with a dry one. There were marks all over the draining board, including in the grooves, so I was anticipating having to do this twice again.

However, I was pleasantly surprise that the stains lifted off instantly, with no need for heavy scrubbing. The spray smells delicious too, which is always a bonus.

The surface looked so much shinier after buffing away the product, which was great, but the true test was whether it would still look clean shortly afterwards. I left it for the same amount of time, in order to make the comparison fair.

When I returned, it was no contest - the draining board had kept that shine, with no streaks to be seen either. While both sprays obviously have their benefits, I'd recommend the Pink Stuff one if you want a beautifully clean sink, and it's the cheaper option too.


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