The 1810 Company sinks

[iggymama]

Please does anyone have any experience of these sinks? I am hoping some of our professional designer members may be able to comment on the quality. How do they compare with Blanco?


Thanks in advance hope someone can help as Google is not throwing up anything of interest.

[kmdesign]

Stick with Franke or Blanco. I810 is just not in the same league. And remember if you have an undermount sink with stone/granite worktops they are virtually impossible to replace if anything goes wrong so you could be in for a very expensive mistake.

What you get with Franke/Blanco is higher gauge steel, Higher chrome content (what main stainless steel stainless) and better dimensional accuracy.

[iggymama]

Thank you very much kmd. I think it will end up being a Blanco, I am lusting after a huge 40 x 70 cm single bowl which franks do not make for top mounting.

Please can I ask if you consider the hand finished claron to be worth the extra over the machine made andano? I realize the corner radius is not so tight on the andano but wonder if the claron really is that much better for being hand finished.

[kmdesign]

iggymama - Simple answer is no.

Blanco charge what they do for Claron because they can. Yes its hand finished but not by billionaires. The Supra, Andano, Xerox are just as good. Its just that there isnt really a clear competitor to Blanco on the Claron sink. 10 years ago they were charging ridiculous amounts for the Xerox till others entered the field and then prices fell.

[iggymama]

Thanks for your reply kmd. I am now convinced the andano will offer me best bang for my buck in a quality sink.


Now the worktops are a whole other thread, I want quality laminate but really not liking anything offered by Duropal or Getalit.......

[kmdesign]

What kitchen are you having. If German, most suppliers will offer a good selection of worktops and you arent tied to the usual suspects (Axiom, Duropal, Getalit). German manfacturers source from Duropal, Getalit, Lechner, Abet, Resopal but also have finished designed for themselves.

[iggymama]

I am planning to use IKEA cabinets and spend a bit more for things like a good sink, high quality spray tap (kwc, mgs or dornbracht) a wide induction hob and powerful extractor hood.

I would really love granite but cannot spend a whole year's salary just on the worktops so will have to settle on a laminate. I have had Duropal before and been pleased, have heard that Getalit was good but their choices are very disappointing. I have read a few comments that Axiom and Prima are not such good quality.

Here in the Welsh valleys I don't think there would be any German kitchen showrooms, Howdens is about as good as it gets. Do you know of any websites that may sell the German laminates online without having to buy the whole kitchen from them please?

[kmdesign]

Cant help you there I am afraid.

[FionaJ78]

I think you are being misled by the KM design comment. 1810 Sinks are the same thickness (gauge) as Blanco and Franke, and also the same chrome content.

They supply a lot of the big house builders Berkeley Homes, Cala, Crest. I am sure they wouldn't specify the product if it was inferior.

They don't have the same overheads as the other 2 brands mentioned, that's why they are typically at least 30% cheaper.

[kmdesign]

FionaJ78 - I am sorry I have to disagree with you. Have a good look at the edge detail and underside of a zero radius 1810 sink and you will see its not finished to the same standard at Blanco and Franke. Can you show me there 1810 states the chrome content on their website. I havent found it and I dont believe they use 18/10 steel for their sinks.

Either way, selling to a mass housebuilder is no guarantee of quality. The main buying criteria for them is cost. Quality doesnt really figure high on housebuilders priority lost.

Yes 1810 dont have the overheads as Blanco and Franke but that doesnt automatically make it a good product.

Toddie8181 - As regards Z - clipping a sink to a solid worktop, there is no mention of sealing to waterproof the join. Have you tried cutting out a well silicones sink?

[FionaJ78]

I disagree, In my opinion the 1810 sinks are very well finished underneath with a powder coating, and as good as the other brands mentioned. But at the end of the day its personal choice and the purchaser should look at both and make up their own mind. As far as I know the steel is 18/10 and I guess the company name is a good clue to that, but again ask them to confirm it. The house builders mentioned are selling £1m plus apartments so I guess they are very keen on quality, as well as price. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, my suggestion go into a showroom and look at them all, its a kitchen sink at the end of the day.!!!!

[FionaJ78]

I disagree, In my opinion the 1810 sinks are very well finished underneath with a powder coating, and as good as the other brands mentioned. But at the end of the day its personal choice and the purchaser should look at both and make up their own mind. As far as I know the steel is 18/10 and I guess the company name is a good clue to that, but again ask them to confirm it. The house builders mentioned are selling £1m plus apartments so I guess they are very keen on quality, as well as price. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, my suggestion go into a showroom and look at them all, its a kitchen sink at the end of the day.!!!!

[Poppydog70]

We find 1810 sinks to be in most ways superior to the current two main names out there,the style and flexibility are major design points for our discerning customers. They are a newish company but value customer care and service, plus it comes with all the plumbing kits to make it work straight away. I can't recommend them highly enough. Quality in my opinion is as good if not better than other well known brands,we have supplied around 40 kitchens at the mid to upper end of the market with no issues at all

[Beachster]

Wow, this is an interesting article! A little bit personal between monkey and smasher but very interesting to me as I was actually searching for poor quality Blanco sinks! The reason being I had a very similar problem which after much arguing and investigation turned out to be my builder at fault not the sink. So I understand why monkey must feel aggrieved but the sink isn't at fault here. Once you got my attention I couldn't believe the similarities although not exactly the same but not far off.
You see I left my builders alone to finish the kitchen and came back to a similar looking sink, long story short, the culprit was a metal bucket and builders sand! As the builders generally use anywhere to store things, let's be honest there's our level of tidy and then there's building site tidy (miles apart) now for the technical bit the sharp sand over time, I was away for just over a week, will react with the steel as will certain metal objects the sand reaction depends on the salt content and the metal reaction is what they call galvanic (I had to Google it) and it certainly looks as if you've suffered something very similar cheeky monkey.
You see a bucket of clean water as you say would not cause that level of pitting rust in only 24 hrs as you suggest, to do that the steel would have to be nearly pure iron. Also looking at your pics the rusting would concentrate where the water would collect e.g. around the waste, in the corners/edges and in the drainage channels. But in your pics there is little or no rust in those areas. This would suggest a liquid suspension could be the cause, for example when you clean plastering tools the splashes of dirty water would not drain out if not flushed so they would collect in spots and over time could react. Any metal tools stored in that sink even over a weekend could begin to rust and in turn damage the sink. The levels of tarnish around the rust spots actually points towards galvanic reaction of dissimilar metals, so that could be the cause perhaps, especially as one photo shows a number of vertical lines on the vertical side of the sink and we all know that, thanks to gravity, clean water does not stay vertical very long .
Like I said I'm just trying to add a rational rather than emotional explanation from experience, you said yourself the second sink was fine, a bad batch of steel would more likely affect the whole stock not just one sink as these are bulk purchased and to give some credit to smasher, stainless steel is not a surface finish like powder coating, enamel or chrome is throughout the entire sink, so cleaning it probably would have done the trick, Blanco did mine it came up like new and meant I didn't have to rip apart the build to replace the sink.
Did you witness the water test and return the next day? Coz methinks someone might be telling you porkies to conver their guilty behind. In my opinion of course I can't speak for customer service but it does look like 1810 didn't sell you a dud sink. I'm certainly going to give them a go and ill report back here if I find any problems and if smasher helps sort it or not.

[ExConstance]

I've just ordered an 1810 sink for my new kitchen, we were offered several Franke ones as alternatives but my kitchen designer said 1810 were better. It is a large 1.5 bowl sink with plain drainer ( hate under mounts)

[Pers2]

I've been following this, just wondering why these pictures from cheekymonkey have been uploaded as photos on the companies search result. If I were 1810 I would copy them ( before he realises the implications) and search for any other deliberate acts of defamation/libel. Also if you record conversations you 'll have slander too. There is no protection for US based people/companies if they are deliberately trying to ruin the reputation of a UK business they can be prosecuted.

[Pers2]

Try Twitter, I recommend taking screen shots before posts are removed. PM me if you want the link