Stone Dish Drying Mat for Kitchen Counter – Wrapped in Silicone to Easily Clean Stains, Home Dish Pad – Quick Drying Diatomaceous Earth Stone Mat – Ultra Absorbent Heat Resistant Dish Mat

This item is a real unusual one for me - it's a kitchen gadget I'd never even *heard* of, and it actually works! I read cookbooks for fun and worked my way through almost all of Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything," so encountering a brand new kitchen gadget is a thrilling experience for me :PThis item is basically a large, thin stone, with a removable silicone sheath that, when it's placed inside, covers its bottom and holds the item in place. I believe the sheath is helpful, as it helps keep the item from shifting when placed on another hard surface, like a marble or granite countertop. The silicone is also necessary if you want to use the item as a trivet, as you then flip it over and place your hot dutch oven or clay pot or ramekins, etc.If you look at the photos I attached to my review, I poured half an 8 ounce glass of water on the stone, and was going to find a clock to put near the rock for a "time lapse" of pictures of it drying, but honestly in the 2 minutes I looked around for my kitchen timer, the stone was already almost completely dry!Really cool item that really does dry INCREDIBLY quickly. That said, it's not magic - if you place some wet bowls or cups on it, the water that drips on the rock will dry almost immediately, but it's not like it magically sucks the water off the items placed on top of it. That said, if you had oven-safe items and a dehydrator, I bet you could dry off an entire 5-course meal's worth of tableware in a few minutes, haha.Cool item, and an effective, classy, all-natural drying device!

What it is: A diatomaceous earth stone dish drying mat on one side; and a heatproof silicone "trivet" on the other.The unit is 16" long and 12" wide. The silicone mat covers one side of the stone, and wraps snugly over all four edges.The stone is of diatomaceous earth (a naturally occurring, soft, sedimentary rock). It has a velvet-like feel and will not scratch delicate dishware.Water immediately absorbs into the stone, thus no run off.The stone will darken considerably when damp (see photo), but totally dries and lightens up in a few minutes.A sandpaper disk (provided) can be used to scrub out any stains from coffee, juice, etc.The silicone heat pad has elevated ridges to provide air circulation underneath a hot pan.The edge wrapping around to the drying side also keeps the stone side from sliding around on the counter.The silicone mat is a great size for holding a large pot.As a drying mat, it is a "convenience" size - it won't take up much counter space, and is excellent for leaving a few items out to dry.

My partner and I live in a very small house, space is so limited that there is no dishwasher. Our only method of dish washing is by hand but even that has its limitations with the one stationary dish drying rack that we use. I decided to try out a couple of portable type (easy to pull out and stow away with what little storage space we have) of drying rack products, and was intrigued by this stone drying mat. This is a beautiful stone and I like the silicone base, which helps keep the drying mat from sliding. That's literally all that you get in the package and the package is a simple brown cardboard sleeve box. There weren't any provided written instructions on how to properly care for the drying mat, so I've been referencing info online. I like to cover one of my sinks with this mat and have layered a stainless steel rack on top to help me prop up some of the other big, heavy dishes that are too bulky and tend to tip over and roll in my stationary metal dish rack. I'm also a little selective about the amount of water that goes on this mat and try not to be excessive on the water content that dribbles on the stone. Yes, it does absorb water. I did read somewhere that you can just let it take a soak as some of the water will need time to dry out and mildew can form inside of the silicone base if there's too much water trapped in there. I haven't tested out putting hot materials on it, but that's what potholders are for and didn't want to take any chances on this drying mat. Overall I'm happy with this product. The price isn't cheap but it's a lot more affordable than the big contending brand names. If I could suggest an improvement that would be to add little manual on how to properly care and store this item for prolonged use.

I like the diatomaceous stone bath mats and was happy to find that they're also made for drying dishes. I like this one by Laidawoo because it's a great size to sit on the kitchen counter next to the sink. The rubber backing on this is thick and does a good job of holding the mat in place. I mistakenly first thought that the mat itself would be dry within moments, but then realized that its function is to dry the object that has been placed upon it. In the third photo you can see (on the right) remnants of where I placed my right hand to dry. It was still wet after about 30 seconds. Then I placed my soaking wet left hand on the mat and held it there for about 10 seconds. In the fourth photo you can see that my hand is dry, with the exception of the joints that didn't actually touch the stone. This is proof to me that the stone works.

It's very heavy almost like a heavy cutting board with a removable vinyl material cover that can be cleaned and sanitized. It's a decent size and fits our standard sink sized drying rack on it perfectly. I love the fact that it isn't fabric as I don't believe those are ever sanitary and it's easy to clean. It's nice and heavy so it doesn't move around and I like the way it looks and performs in my kitchen. As far as I can tell this isn't an absorbant mat but it also seems to wick water away somehow. I got this as a Vine member so I can't speak to value except it was retailed rather high. I think if you don't need to replace this for a couple years that would make the price reasonable.