black/grey granite/composite sinks

[farmbelle]

I've currently got a rangemaster stainless steel inset sink and i HATE it. Redid the kitchen last year and everyone sensible told me to get stainless steel inset as its the most practical - and its my biggest regret. Have granite tops so my only choice is to stick with inset, and the kitchen is grey/black so the white ceramic type wouldn't work.

have read varying reviews about the granite sinks, seems the older ones were terrible but newer better, does anyone have any thoughts?

I don’t understand why you would want to change it. We had a composite sink guaranteed for 25 years and it was soon discoloured and scratched. Couldn’t wait to get rid of it which I had to wait to do until we changed our kitchen.

Now have black granite with stainless steel Inset and dont regret it for a minute. Takes everything you can throw at it. I would never have any sink except for stainless steel as I wouldn’t want to chip the granite with the roasting trays or damage it with bleach etc when cleaning the plug area.

can i ask what brand that was?

the stainless steel just always looks shabby, doesn't matter how much i clean it/wipe it down it always looks water stained and shabby. its scratched beyond belief after 1 year of light work and just drags the whole kitchen down! i seem to be the only person who dislikes stainless steel but honestly its been a real let down - it just looks terrible

I can't cope with stainless steel sinks either. In a hard water area you spend a lifetime of work just trying to keep on top of the limescale.

We are going for light grey composite sink from a butler sink. It is probably highly impractical but it will look lovely!

I have had stainless steel and hated it. I also had grey granite. It looked dull and stained easily. Now have white porcelain and love it, so ready to keep clean. I'm in a hard water area and it always looks bright and shiny!

I live in a hard water area and every sink material seems to have downsides. I think Stainless is the best of a bad bunch; it looks crap until I clean it (Viakal weekly, flash with bleach more often) and wipe the dry sink with baby oil. Stays decent looking for longer than any other product. I loathed grey composite, beige composite and dark granite. White ceramic looks ok in the bathroom but my friend keeps chipping hers with heavy pans.

trump can i ask why you hated the grey and black sinks? was it the limescale?

white ceramic wouldn't really go in my kitchen as its all black/grey, but i have seen the black ceramic sinks - very shiny tho! is granite/composite as 'chippy' as ceramic? never actually seen a granite composite sink in real life so hard to know what they are like from pictures.

Yes the limescale which then stains with tea coffee, shows even more on a coloured sink than on stainless. Everything apart from stainless eventually had little chips around the plug.

I have a black composite sink and have had in for about 4 years now. we live in a fairly soft water area but have to say have been very pleased with it so far. it had lasted well and doesn't really show up marks or stains. I don't really do anything special to keep it clean. it was from Howdens I think

I had this sink put in a year ago and it has held up beautifully. I still absolutely love it.
It sits in a carrera quartz work top

www.tapsuk.com/schock-waterfall-d150-1-5-bowl-granite-carbonium-black-kitchen-sink-waste-p17657/s17698?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=schock-waterfall-d150-1-5-bowl-granite-carbonium-black-kitchen-sink-a-watd150ca&utm_campaign=product%2Blisting%2Bads&gclid=Cj0KCQiAk-7jBRD9ARIsAEy8mh4FEL37DQpC1CvDMUxm-i9f61rhYOYd3N7fQKuhgqZ9BXDAm657rdYaAmb5EALw_wcB

And I have a photo of it in place. Given my time again, I would absolutely choose this sink as I really like it.

I also hate stainless with a passions we are on our second house with black composite undermount sinks and I will love them until the day I die. They just look so much smarter and require so much less maintenance than either stainless or porcelain.

Sorry for all the typos above! Autocorrect is really messing with me today. 🙈

This is what my sinks look like.

linguaphile that does look nice what worktop do you have there? Do you find composite sinks scratch? Are you in a hard water area? Thanks

It’s a quartz worktop. I’ve never noticed scratching, at least nothing that has ever caught my eye. We live in a very hard water area, and although in this house we have a filtration system that takes care of the limescale, our previous house did not have a filter and the sink fared just as well there. In fact, it was the sink at the old house that made me decide to get these in our current house!

I wonder if there are variations in quality amongst composite sinks, and that’s why some have had bad experiences?

Mine is also hard water area.
I have a softener but not to the kitchen sink and it comes up beautifully very easily with just a wipe down.

You may have a point there with the quality, I guess you get what you pay for! Where is yours from?

i think I'm convinced! I've been staring at composite sinks online now for days (#imcool) and want to make the change

does anyone know HOW i change an inset sink if the cut out size is different by a few mm?

Not much help but I HATE stainless steel sinks, massive regret.

I have a black granite sink and it has had everything chucked at it and is indestructible and easy to clean.

my current sink cut out in the granite top is 10mm smaller than what we need for the new sink.... really don't want to have to pay someone to come and recut the granite but really want to change the sink! don't know what to do!

Can you just do an undermount if it’s just a few
mm?? Or is the granite rough where it’s cut for the inset sink?

rough granite plus its too big for an undermount i think - the gap is 960mm....good thought tho!

Ah shame! I’m out of suggestions. 😕

My Frankee sink....A pain. Originally white one stained badly in thi s hard water area in Hertfordshire - it was actually faulty too as distorted. Franke replaced it with a black one. Much better with hard water staining. No chips BUT do not let any bit of bleach anywhere near it!!! The main problem with these Franke sinks is that the overflow tube fills with black rubbish and smells. I squirt bleach very carefully down the overflow hole preventing any going onto the black surface. There is not sensible way to clean the overflow tube which is corrugated without disconnecting the pipe. Again - bad design by some bloke at Franke. Maybe no-one else in the universe does any hand washing or any hand washing up. If you don't use the sink much except to wash your hands it will remain perfect!