We have experimentally investigated interactions between impurities and hydrodynamic solitons in a shallow water trough subject to vertical vibration. The impurities are minor convex and concave defects located on the bottom of the trough, slightly varying the water depth. The experiments show that a shallow impurity will attract breathers and kinks while a deep one will repel them. These observations are consistent with the theoretical prediction proposed in the continuous Frankel-Kontorova model with impurities and can also be explained in the view of energy absorption.