<p>Stainless, Acrylic, Granite or something else. What experiences have you had with each. Pros, cons, advice welcomed. How about faucets?</p>
<p>A lot of this is a matter of preference. The tidiest looking sink is Corian with a Corian counter. It can be completely seamless looking, no rims to get dirty or be hard to clean. I had a porcelain coated white sink which got marks from my pots. I think undermount is the best if you don’t like Corian (I don’t, but I do love the sinks!) I like a single lever faucet. My Mom had an expensive one with the hose that comes out the spout with a spray, but I’ve gotten so use to not having a spray, I don’t know if I’d bother. It was really expensive and had to be replaced after a few years.</p>
<p>Stainless scratches, and shows water spots. Still would not trade it in. Another thing to think about is depth and how wide to get in those big platters. I have a Grohe faucet, it is stainless steel, and I really like it.</p>
<p>mathmom, I agree - Corian sinks are the best! I think one can have granite countertops with an undermount Corian sink. White (but not snow white) is the best color, IMO. My friend has a black sink made of some composite material, and it shows every speck of dirt and water spots, just like a black car would. Stainless steel scratches, and enamel chips. Single-lever faucet is the best way to go.</p>
<p>We are a bit rabid about sinks. Prefer stainless, but that is not what we are rabid about.</p>
<p><em>Deep</em>, really deep, is our mantra. AT LEAST 11" deep. With a high profile faucet, single lever faucet. You can put big deep pots in there and fill. You can hide a ton of dirty dishes :eek:. </p>
<p>We happened to be house guests of someone who had such a sink just before we built a house. We followed her lead and have had such a sink ever since.</p>
<p>Water doesn’t splash up onto your counter.</p>
<p>Double sinks - yuk, yuk, double yuk. Neither side ever has enough width or depth.</p>
<p>Agree wholeheartedly on undermount - for the look and for ease of cleaning.</p>
<p>We loved our Grohe pull-out faucet. We have a Moen one now; way cheaper and looks good and does the same job.</p>
<p>I always thought that CC covered every topic but the kitchen sink…but now, well…it has that too! :D</p>
<p>now wait a minute…we LIKE double sinks. I guess it’s a matter of preference.
We have stainless, and they’re both deep. One is quite large - the other small. I got a custom metal dish drainer to keep in the small one on the right (I hate the look of drainer racks on my nice new granite counter and like to wash and drain few things). Because the sinks are deep, you can’t see the items in the drainer. Nice idea…and it’s worked for us.
We have a good stainless steel cleaner and use it once a week to keep the sinks looking good.</p>
<p>I’m with toneranger on the double sinks: I think they’re great. I have much the same setup - very, very deep/wide on the left; shallower and smaller on the right, with a small dish drainer in that one.
We have a high profile, single-lever faucet (with the hose that comes directly out of the faucet, when you want it to) with a spray switch, which I also love - you can switch back and forth between spray and stream, whether you pull it out as a hose or not.
The sinks are undermount, but we went with cast-iron, in a creamy off-white.
I love my sinks! :D</p>
<p>Sad to say corian can crack over time — that 10 year warranty seems to be the time frame. At first I loved the seamlessness of the corian but now will have to redo as hairline cracks are beginning in the sink. Stainless or porcelain will last indefinitely.</p>
<p>Count me in with the deep, undermount, double-sink stainless brigade. Yes, it scratches, but so what? I don’t spend much time looking at the sink when I’m not washing dishes! </p>
<p>One question: with a Corian sink, do dishes or glasses break more easily if you drop them?</p>
<p>Corian owner here! I still love the look of my kitchen, but the sink did develop tiny cracks. Who knew you couldn’t drain the steaming hot spaghetti water down the sink? And yes, the warranty has expired.</p>
<p>My Corian seamless sink is going strong after 12 years, no cracks; we always run cold water when draining the hot water. A bleach mild abrasive (soft scrub/comet) easily removes coffee/tea stains.</p>
<p>I have lived in a number of places where I did not choose the sink, and they were all stainless steel. I picked out one sink, and it was enamel over cast iron, and it chipped when pots dinged it. I have stainless steel now, and I use a stainless steel cleaner on it which works nicely. It also has a steel rack which keeps the bottom from getting scratched. It is nice and deep and large which is good.</p>
<p>I must be unlucky, because in every kitchen tread, I have stories of problems with my stuff (and it was not cheap stuff). I had the Grohe faucet with spray, and it broke. I replaced it with a Moen, less money, which also had problems, but did not totally break. I like the idea of such a faucet. I also like the idea of an instant hot water dispenser, and I have not had luck with those either: leaks, doesn’t heat…</p>
<p>anothermom, I have an instant hot, but if I had the counter space I would just get an electric tea kettle, the water is hotter and it works very quickly and is cheaper than the instant hot- 190F is still not hot enough for proper hot tea</p>
<p>I love stainless, too, I have had all sorts, but love my stainless and don’t actually recall (even in commercial sinks) any significant scratches??</p>
<p>We LOVE our stainless kitchen sink. The most important feature to us is that it be deep enough for our largest pots and pans. We also have stainless steel countertops/drainboard connected to the sink (it’s all one piece). It is very easy to care for and was here when we bought our home. If we were going to redo the sink, we’d put it in again. We have corian for the stove and kitchen bar & my mom has it for her bathroom sink. We find it more challenging to care for & fragile than stainless steel. We love being able to put VERY HOT things on the stainless without worrying.</p>
<p>White, ceramic over cast iron. </p>
<p>I have had this sink: [url=<a href=“http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/detail.jsp?from=thumb&frm=null&module=Kitchen+Sinks&item=316002&prod_num=5986-2U§ion=1&category=5&resultPage=0-362380689]KOHLER:”>http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/detail.jsp?from=thumb&frm=null&module=Kitchen+Sinks&item=316002&prod_num=5986-2U§ion=1&category=5&resultPage=0-362380689]KOHLER:</a> K-5986-2U: Entr</p>
<p>I have all you stainless-steel-sink-lovers beat! I bought a new 8-foot stainless steel surgical scrub sink (with built-in backsplash and two drains) from the Habitat for Humanity resale store for…drumroll…$45. It had been purchased for installation in a new hospital but for some reason they didn’t end up using it. Since we were in the process of planning our little house, we found a way to fit it in. It stretches almost the whole width of the window side of the kitchen. It is large enough to put the draining dishrack inside the sink on one side, load dirty dishes on the other, and wash things in the middle. We paired it with a simple wall-hung grohe faucet with a tall spout. All our faucets are 10-year-old Grohes and love them all. (And since we bought their most basic model, they were not expensive.)</p>
<p>I agree, deep sinks are a must. I prefer a single big bowl, but if you get double than the uneven sizes are better than not. My Mom’s Corian sink was still going strong after 16 years. The faucet that broke was a Grohe I think and $400. :eek:</p>
<p>I have a cheap stainless steel sink in my hideous kitchen and haven’t noticed any scratches, but maybe that’s because it’s practically the best looking thing in my kitchen!</p>
<p>My advice is to throw out everything but ~</p>
<p>Stainless steel (dual) undermount here. Sinks are cheap, faucets are expensive! Got great faucet prices on the internet. (faucetdirect)</p>
<p>We have white enamel over cast iron, too. It gets gray marks from every pot or pan that passes anywhere nearby. Scrubbing them off with abrasive cleansers over the years has left it with a dull matte finish on the bottom. Hopefully some day soon I will start to see black cast iron shining through and can justify getting a bigger, deeper one.<br>
We keep OxyClean mixed up in a spray bottle and if you squirt that on tea and wine stains (preferably just after you wash the dishes so the sink is hot) it usually does the job.</p>