Kitchen sink recommendations?

[Mike Abbott]

Hello all, Seeking the wisdom of this great list again...

I'm in need of a new kitchen sink + taps. Stainless steel being the material of choice.

I'm looking for a make that is good quality, but not over-the-top expensive.

Anyone any recommendations of good makes / brands to look at - or ones to avoid, particularly with reference to the longlivity (sp?) of the taps. My preference at this stage is for a monobloc mixer unit.

Thanks in advance,

Mike Abbott

[mike ring]

Mike Abbott wrote in news:BE341613.429E9% [e-mail]:

Stay away from Franke Fragranit, impossible to clean, always looks grubby, hard as old boots, anything that slips out of your hand will smash.

DAMHIK :-(

mike

[Mike]

Odd. That's what we have and would recommend were it not for his request for stainless steel. What cleanser are you using ?

[Mike Abbott]

in article cum203$qmd$ [e-mail], Mike at [e-mail] wrote on

12/2/05 11:03 pm:

Jumping back in here...

Stainless is the current preference because the sink we are scrapping (installed when we bought the house) was a white finish job - empty the dregs of your tea cup in it and it was soon a 'lovely' dirty brown colour.... The surface also chipped too easily - which is why it has now rusted through.

I've no idea how old this was, maybe the current versions are better.

Mike A.

[Paul King]

We've got a Franke S/S double sink with monobloc tap and 1 drainer board. Dunno how long its been installed (we've been here 4 years). Does what it says on the tin! The only prob I've had is that the ceramic inserts on the HW side of the tap leak. Replaced with new - still leak! If I was (re)designing the kitchen I wouldn't use monobloc taps.

[mike ring]

"Mike" wrote in news:cum203$qmd$ [e-mail]:

VEry little, and none of the *normal* cleaners, will touch it.

Barkeeps Friend is rubbish. So is that stuff that "really works" - forgotten it's name.

Astonish paste is good, but hard work.

Sillit Bang is pretty good, the reccommended way using descale is also good, but who needs to keep descaling sinks.

Melamine foam is also good, but impossibly pricey.

The lady at the supermarket says to keep a lemon handy and rub it over after every use - I haven't tried that yet.

ISTM that the sink needs to be cleaned *and* dried after *every* use.

Washing up, rinsing out a glass, washing hands, wringing out a sponge, etc etc... have you ever counted how many times a sink gets wet, if not dirty, during a day?

:-((

pikey mike

[Mike Abbott]

in article 1108258588.297fa6b43dd76dabad564f8ed66bb7d3@teranews, Paul King at [e-mail] wrote on 13/2/05 1:36 am:

Please tell me why. Just the bad experience with these, or is there something else?

Mike

[Brian Sharrock]

When I refurbished the kitchen; we trogged around all the 'sheds' including MFI, Magnet, john Lewis; etc, etc, .. I finished up purchasing off a web-site

Eventually I purchased not just a Franke sink but the 'Designer Kit' which at that time included the sink, taps, basket, colander, chopping board -and most importantly - a drain manifold! The drain manifold accepts umpteen (five?) 'drains'* and outputs one (u-bended) outlet to the world. It's a fantastic piece of precision plastic engineering (although you have to cut the pipes to length). I'd never have contemplated ordering such an item and would've gone off to the sheds and bought white bottles, and pipes and unions and elbows that'd have filled the cabinet below the sink. As it is; the Franks drain manifold is a joy to contemplate; it 'sits' snugly to the left** of the cabinet side leaving oodles of space of to the right and barely protruding below the sink's base. There's so much unobstructed volume that I was able to fit-in a three-drawer sliding unit behind the sink cabinet door. [OK, the drawers are IKEA plastic boxes!]. The point about this is to consider purchasing a 'Designer Kit' of the sink you choose - everything matches and fits together. BTW, the designer-kit off sinksdirect was cheaper than the sink-alone from MFI/John Lewis et.al.

[*Drains five: sink#1;sink#2, draining board; washing machine; dishwasher] ** Left could be Right - if 'Sir' dresses that way!

[Anna Kettle]

When I was last stainless steel sink hunting about 8 years ago there seemed to be two thicknesses avaliable. Which was necessary depended on the type of sink unit cos the actual sink itself was fine in thin mode but if the sink unit has a drainer part then it has to be made of thicker steel or it will eventually warp

Anna ~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[James Salisbury]

Try Astracast, Alto 1.25 bowl reversable. I seem to rember that it is over size and so can go where you may have had a plastic sink in the hole. One problem, you do need to put bleach down the overflow once a month or it stinks...

[stejonda]

In message , Brian Sharrock writes

Would this be Sinksdirect, Elizabeth Mill,Worrall Street,Congleton CW12

1DT Telephone [phone] ?

Their www-site seems to be down at the moment. :(

[Brian Sharrock]

Yes; that's be;-

Sinks Direct Elizabeth Mill, Worrall Street, Congleton, CW12 1DT

Tel: [phone]

Ctrl-C; Ctrl_V off their website at 10:20 14 feb ...

as I said ... worked for me :) BTW, it was the Franke Papillion that my wife wanted ... but I didn't find it on my quick perusal today ... :(

[Paul King]

Well, with the one we've got there's just too much to go wrong with it! Apart from the ceramic tap inserts constantly dripping (as described previously) there's O rings which wear as the whole tap assembly is swivelled from one sink to the other. It goes loose and flops about too much!

All in all, nice when new - a bugger a few years later :)

[Capitol]

Can't comment on the ceramic inserts, but if you load the O ring area with Castrol water pump grease (for cars), then IME the life is >20years!

Regards capitol

[Steph Peters]

It's been down for quite a while. I used it in the very early part of 2004 to find a sink I wanted. When we got scheduling of the kitchen refit sorted I tried to go back to buy the sink, in about October. No sign of the website then. Got my Schock from the importers in Preston instead.

-- If you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research. - Wilson Mizner Steph Peters delete invalid from [e-mail] Tatting, lace & stitching page

[jacob]

Best value for money is 2nd hand and scrap yards are full of good quality SS sinks - thanks to everybody changing from one twatty fashion to another like sheep to the slaughter; granite work tops being the latest and probably most short lived as everyone suddenly realises that they look seriously horrible! You might even get a commercial heavy duty quality which will last forever.

cheers

Jacob