Advice needed on kitchen sinks

[ItsAllAboutTheBaseNoGerbils]

New kitchen coming .... need to make decision on the sink. Love the contemporary look with the sink made out of the same stuff as the worktop. This means the sink interior has sharp interior corners, as opposed to soft curves that the stainless steel option would have.

I am worried that the sharp corners will be a dirt trap and hard to clean. Anyone out there with experience of ‘sharp cornered’ sinks? Will it be a PITA ? Will I regret it?

Will it be a PITA ? Will I regret it?

Yes. And yes. Incredibly difficult to clean. What material is it made from? Quartz? It will require pretty much daily bleach cleaning as it is porous and stains badly. Not really an issue but sharp corners are very difficult to get into so I personally wouldn’t. Have you looked at silgranit? It also needs bleaching but is practically unbreakable, comes in multiple colours and also variants with softer internal curves. We sell the Blanco Rotan almost weekly at work, if you want to see an example.

We went for stainless steel because it’s more durable and easier to clean. BIL does kitchens professionally - he said the sort you’re talking about are used for photos because they look nice, but in the real world he’d always go for steel.

We have a stainless steel work top and sink, it's lovely,

its a Neolith top (a synthetic stone), very tough and fairly stain proof. it is supposed to be a lot better than quartz for cleaning etc, so i am less worried about it as the material in a sink, my concern is more for the ease of cleaning the shape.

We have the option of a full neolith sink, or a stainless steel bottom with neolith sides both of which will have sharp corners. Or we could go full stainless steel, which we can have with softer corners.

My head says go with the full stainless steel. My eyes want the neolith!

Bad idea unless you plan to only look at it and not use it

We have stainless steel sinks for this reason. Anything other than stainless or porcelain is a bugger to keep clean, and I smashed and chipped loads of things in a Belfast sink.

Stainless steel has lasted for a reason.

When we rented a house it had some fancy looking smooth sink. That ended up stained and slimy unless constantly bleached.
I told my MIL this when they were getting a new kitchen. She still got one. And she turned around and said I was right and she absolutely regrets it.

In our house now we redid whole kitchen (boy did it need it) and no hesitation in getting a stainless steel sink.

no no no to square internal corners. Stupid art student idea with no place in the real world. Will be filthy and uncleanable in a week.

also check that the tap does NOT have an aerator. These are for people too stupid not to waste water, apparently the idea is that they make it look like there is more water than there is. In fact they do waste water as it splatters everywhere. Get a screwfix cheapie with no aerator or rip out the one you have.

we are about to go order our new kitchen and ive gone for stainless steel durable easy clean and lasts forever

We have just ordered a solid surface work top and Franke stainless steel undermount sink. Can’t go wrong with that really. DD has composite sinks in her bathrooms and they are difficult to keep clean even with rounded corners. SS is better in the kitchen. Definitely.

That neolith sink looks like it was dreamed up by someone with no idea what a sink is for. It is bound to get stained and the sharp corners will be uncleanable. Have some other attractive feature in the kitchen but don't saddle yourself with an impractical sink.

thankyou mumsnet. you have helped me avoid much pain and cleaning.

I am going with the stainless steel version!

Excellent decision. Enjoy your new kitchen.