Pros and Cons of different types of sink?

[User1055]

I'm hoping to get a new kitchen and so I popped to a showroom on the way home from work today. They had quite a variety of sink types - stainless steel, ceramic, composite, butler, single bowl, double bowl, one and a half bowl, etc! It was overwhelming as it hadn't even crossed my mind that there were so many options! I have a VERY small kitchen, so that will impact my choices.

So what are the pros and cons of the styles/sizes and the different materials please?

You can rub vegetable oil into your black sinks to take the dullness of them. I'm never getting another one though.
I'm thinking of stainless steel this time, is there a certain "grade" or thickness of steel I should be looking for? Shiny or brushed? Thanks

In our previous ceramic sink some saucepans seem to mark it. They would leave a grey mark. We now have brushed stainless steel (rather than shiny) so you scrub with a scotch pad if necessary, and it is very practical.

I have never needed to scrub a sink. Just leave a paste of dishwasher powder and hot water for 30 seconds and it’s like new. Wash it down and it’s fine. We have perfect sinks with this method!

@sluj
Buy a good make of sink. Buy deep enough ones. Franke and others have accessories too. Blanco, Franke, Carron, are all good makes.

My Mum doesn't like stainless steel sinks and has had every bloody sink going nearly and has given up and gone for a steel one. None of the composites live up to expectations, they stain, one had a weird surface that was difficult to clean, hot pans permanently mark them. Dad chipped the Belfast with a cast iron pan.
I've always gone for steel, purely as I like steel in a kitchen, there is a brief period where they get the first few scratches and look a bit crappy, then it blends in and they look fine. We've lived in hard and soft water areas, hard water the water spots need buffing with a dry microfibre cloth, don't let the timescale build up - can't comprehend spending 60mins cleaning one 🤷.

Buy a good make of sink. Buy deep enough ones. Franke and others have accessories too. Blanco, Franke, Carron, are all good makes.

Mum had a Blanco composite with a rubbish bin thing, the chute on the bin rusted horribly and stained the composite. It was grim.
We had a Franke steel sink that was years old, it had begun leaking as the weld had failed between the rim and the bowl. Went to B&Q to look for a new one, the assistant mentioned that Franke sinks have really decent warranties. So on the off chance I contacted Franke, I took photos and still had the receipt. They couriered me a new sink without quibbling! I was totally shocked. Really excellent customer service.

Thank you, everyone. Some useful views. I think I'm erring towards either a large single bowl or a one and a half bowl brushed steel one and will be rigorous with tackling the watermarks and limescale regularly so it won't build up.
I have collected a few brochures and browsed various companies' websites and the next step is to visit their showrooms and see more in real life.

Have had stone/ceramic sinks in rented properties, I love the look, but hate the fact that if you drop stuff in it it's often curtains for the pot or a chip in the sink.
I have a sort of plastic-y moulded drop-in sink now, no idea what it is, prob. 1980s vintage. Yucky creamy-grey colour, horrible to clean, and clearly has marks from hot pans on it.
New sink (ready to go in when plumbing is done) is stainless steel, a 'sit-on' type, which I prefer, as it can be a larger bowl, and no joints to leak around the bowl, and a tall upstand as part of the whole thing to stop water getting everywhere. Single big sink, double-drainer, with drainers which slope properly rather than flat.

Stainless steel - hands down the easiest material to take care of, will not crack or stain. It scratches a bit I suppose but as a pp says after a few weeks it’s scratched evenly everywhere and just looks brushed.

One large sink and one titchy

The large one is big enough for oven trays etc
The titchy one means I can tip dregs in there when the large is in use. Also useful for leaving things defrosting or drying.

If you're feeling really flush, these people will make one to order to whatever size and shape and combination you want- they will even help you design it. Ours was my one extravagance for the kitchen, as we used old units and are doing all the fitting and decorating ourselves. It was expensive, and took a while, but the quality now it's here is absolutely fantastic. Every weld has been polished smooth, no nasty crimped together bits or folds, and really good thick steel. www.dsmstainlessproducts.co.uk/

@CasperGutman

It used to take me an hour every evening to properly maintain my steel sink.

OMFG, are you actually expecting people to believe that you spent SIXTY MINUTES "maintaining" your sink EVERY EVENING? How could you have found time between vacuuming the entire house eighteen times a day?!

Limescale is one thing - when we lived in a hard water area this was something that annoyed me, but five minutes of cleaning every day or two would keep it looking just fine.

Scratches are another thing: for me, they're just not an issue. Stainless steel sinks are supposed to get scratched. To my mind, they look at their worst when they're a week old, as they're mostly shiny but some scratched areas. Once the whole surface is similarly scratched they develop more of a brushed/matt look which keeps looking good.

My parents recently had a new kitchen, and kept the same stainless steel sink they've had for thirty years now. Good quality stainless steel sinks are bombproof as far as I can tell.

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

@minipie do you have the name/link of your 1.5 sink? Does it have a drainer?

I'm after the holy grail of a brushed stainless steel 1.5 bowl sink where the main bowl is big enough to soak oven trays etc flat, with a small second bowl to tip out dregs/rinse veg etc, PLUS a decent-sized draining board inbuilt (don't want grooves in my work-top I don't think). Can't find it anywhere!

It’s by Blanco and is the 550/200.

No drainer as it is undermounted. We just stick a tea cloth on the worksurface as a drainer.

You can however buy separate undermounted stainless steel drainers - I am not sure if Blanco makes one but Franke definitely does

You could also look at a brand 1810 who do a similar size sink (one v large one tiny) and they have something called a “mobile drainer” which you can sit to the side of the sink or remove when not needed

We currently have a double undercounted Belfast and while I like the idea, I’m looking to change with the new kitchen.

The sealant around the undermount is gross and nothing seems to clean it, does that happen with steel undermount too?
Otherwise I’ll have the top fitted option and live with it, doesn’t look as good though.

I really like the Franke one with the chopping boards in the side, wonder how practical it really is though?

I’ll have a dishwasher and hardly ever wash anything by hand so nor worried that much about the tiny sink.

Also, will have a big one in the utility, don’t know what yet, a big single steel maybe?

I have a plumbed in drainer on my Franke sink in my laundry. I don’t have a drainer in the kitchen. Total waste of space. I have found two large sinks with draining in one of them to be a far more useful solution. Draining boards have one use. Sinks with a chopping board top or crockery drainer in the sink are far more versatile. Franke and Blanco have high quality sinks.

@LittleOverWhelmed - that is lovely. Like the fact that the draining board is not stainless steel.

@TizerorFizz

I have a plumbed in drainer on my Franke sink in my laundry. I don’t have a drainer in the kitchen. Total waste of space. I have found two large sinks with draining in one of them to be a far more useful solution. Draining boards have one use. Sinks with a chopping board top or crockery drainer in the sink are far more versatile. Franke and Blanco have high quality sinks.

Not necessarily a waste of space. When we had a small double galley, we had a draining board over the washing machine. Draining board over the dishwasher is another common arrangement. A second sink would have eaten into what little cupboard space we had.

Ceramic's a bit marmite but it makes me weirdly happy. You can get them with built in drainers as well as the butler style ones, though our latest is a simple 60cm ceramic Ikea one.

Draining board instead of work too isn’t what I would do either. I like as much work top as possible and the biggest sinks possible. A grooved plank of stainless steel has fewer uses in a small space. The Franke rollemat is a better solution as temporary drainage.

I have an absolutely massive single bowl stainless steel sink in my kitchen, and I love it. It was a last minute switch away from a 1.5 bowl one because I realised we never used the half bowl for anything, it was just wasted space. Its the biggest one that DIY kitchens sell that fits a 600mm base, and it's great - everything fits in it.

My DD does have a smell side sink but she has a waste disposal attached to it. In a flat it means she puts waste down it and it makes life easier. You have the chopping board over the main sink and push waste over into the smell sink and whizz it away. It means waste and work space are separated. I have the same here at my house except my double sinks are both big.

Smell ??? Small sink….