Black rubber shrank... is there any way to get it to expand to its original size?

[Muse]

So, I'm talking about my sink strainers. I have a white two sided porcelain sink. I bought a cheap set of sink fittings (a kit) for it at local Truevalue Hardware store a few years ago, which included two strainer/plugs. Pretty typical, stainless steel strainers, plastic vertical grab piece and underneath, black rubber plug on each one. Worked fine until a week ago when one of them wouldn't stop water from draining. The black rubber plug must have shrunk to the point where it won't grab the steel of the drain. Instead of just buying something else I figure maybe there's something I can do to expand that plug enough where it will stop water from draining out:

1) Boil it in water?
2) Boil it in some kind of oil?
3) Just spread some kind of oil on it and let it absorb, e.g. in the sun? I have a 3oz tube of Super Lube Silicone Lubricating Compound with PTFE I could try. Or maybe mineral oil, olive oil, 3in1, motor oil, etc.

Anyone have a take on this?

 

[mindless1]

If you had put silicone grease on it when new, it probably would have helped to prevent shrinkage due to sealing it off from oxygen, but at this point I doubt there is a way to rejuvenate it enough, though if I were going to try to then I would use a seal conditioner product like AT205 Reseal.

https://www.amazon.com/ATP-AT-205-Re-Seal-Stops-Bottle/dp/B000NVW1LM

This is uncharted territory so I've no idea how much, how long it would need to sit and soak into the rubber before use, or if it would even do anything useful... just sayin' that if I had a bottle of AT205 lying around, that is what I'd try.

Not so sure I would buy it just for this purpose, surely somebody sells the right size drain stoppers?

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=drain+stopper

 

[deadlyapp]

They sell universal versions of this for like 5 bucks. Why wouldn't you just buy a new one.

 

[Muse]

If you had put silicone grease on it when new, it probably would have helped to prevent shrinkage due to sealing it off from oxygen, but at this point I doubt there is a way to rejuvenate it enough, though if I were going to try to then I would use a seal conditioner product like AT205 Reseal.

https://www.amazon.com/ATP-AT-205-Re-Seal-Stops-Bottle/dp/B000NVW1LM

This is uncharted territory so I've no idea how much, how long it would need to sit and soak into the rubber before use, or if it would even do anything useful... just sayin' that if I had a bottle of AT205 lying around, that is what I'd try.

Not so sure I would buy it just for this purpose, surely somebody sells the right size drain stoppers?

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=drain+stopper

I shopped drain stopper/strainers yesterday and today at Amazon and Ebay. Didn't spring for any. Today, tried spreading silicone rubber lubricant on the shrunk up stopper, didn't expect success, didn't get any! Why one shrunk enough to not work and the other one didn't, I don't know.

Well, I remembered that I had several "old" baskets under the sink and got them out a few minutes ago. I removed the rubber stopper from one and put it on the basket that wasn't behaving and it's not the right fit but it's doing the job. If it weren't for the pandemic I probably would have gone and bought a matched set, this time not buying the cheap one. Anyway, I'm good for the time being.