Number of sink bowls?

[hemulen27]

Hello,

I'm planning a new kitchen which, amongst other stuff, will involve buying a new sink. The trouble is, I'm not sure if it would be best to go for a larger single bowled sink or for the one and a half bowl option. Does anyone here have any strong feelings/recommendations either way?

At the moment I'm washing dishes by hand, which is easier with the 1.5 option but in the new kitchen I'll have a dishwasher, so I should only occasionally have to wash things by hand and by definition, they'll probably be large things such as grill pans and oven bits that won't fit in the dishwasher. That makes me think the single bowl might be best but I can't help thinking that there are probably other occasions when having two bowls available would be useful...

If I was to go for a 1.5 model, I'm considering getting this one:

had a look at a few other Franke models on the site, the main bowl on this one is actually the same size as some of the singles, so does this seem like a good compromise option?

Cheers

Helen

[Andrew Gabriel]

Definately suggest one and a half bowl option. You can still pour something nasty down the sink when one bowl is in use.

1/3rd of that price. The IKEA ones had a very nice low profile edge compared with others I saw (can't recall if I looked at a Franke).

Other suggestion I make is to mount the tap in the worktop behind the sink, rather than in the sink itself. It makes the tap much more rigid.

[John]

We have a Frankie 1.5 although ours has a separate drain for the draining area. Advantage is that wet pots can drain without going into the middle sink. We don't use the middle much!

In article , [e-mail] writes

[Mary Fisher]

I can't see the point in a 1.5 - but I use abowl in my large sink. Thatmeans that I don't use huge amounts ofwater and ifanythingneedspouringdown thesink when I'm washing up thee'sno problem.

Two sinks, of whatever size, need twice the cleaningand are not usually as capacious as one sometimes needs.That is, as I sometimes need - for large items.

Mary

[Dorothy Bradbury]

Just a note... o Low profile lips are great re aesthetics

---- Franke come to mind here o Low profile are a pain re splashing water

---- because it will permanently end up up all over the worktops & floor o Low profile don't hold anything within them

---- any high water level, spills, dishes all slide over the lip

So if going for low profile... o Ensure any worktops have laminate rolled under the edge

---- otherwise they will expand & shed due to moisture under-run

---- modern laminates do, just something to be sure of o Use a proper height tap

---- so you can get a cordless kettle under it, milk bottles under it

---- not with the sink empty, but with the sinks full to the top

Yes Franke are nice - and you do want 1.5 bowl option.

Installation notes... o Ensure the overflow is connected correctly & watertight

---- or you get small but continuous water damage to the surface below o Ensure the sink sits down on the worktop & seals

---- particularly at the rear, because otherwise water ingress occurs o Ensure the tile-to-worktop area behind the sink is properly sealed

---- it will be regularly splashed, many sealing strips are poor o Measure the supplied plastic bowls & note their part numbers

---- many Franke use odd sized bowls re no others will fit :-)

---- either re physical size or curvature - Franke are 55-70ukp/set

All pretty obvious, but low height taps are a right pain with a Franke. High profile sinks can look quite ugly & cheap, but more practical :-)

As for longevity the Franke ones are decent thickness, high grade, and will last a lot longer than anything not built out of granite :-)

[rrh]

The wife asked for one of these when I redid our kitchen last year. This model was the only such I could find anywhere. As long as you get the full accessory pack you can use it in effect as a two-bowl sink most of the time but just lift the plastic bowl and stainless stell frame out when you want one single large basin:

[Brian Sharrock]

Concur! You can also 'rinse' with the 1/2 bowl while hot sudsy water remains in the large bowl. I utilise the

1/2 bowl when hand-washing fragile stemmed wine-glasses.

My experience is that one 'needs' to finish-off many things after the dishwasher. It's never hard work, but I don't know who that girl is on the dishwasher tablet adverts who puts a manky casserole dish into the dishwasher and extracts a gleaming mirror finsh squeaky clean dish!

For washing oven racks etc, I 've finished up buying a Lakeland Plastics big blue 'oven rack washing bowl'. Lakeland sized it after a customer-survey into 'how big is your widest grill pan/oven rack?' exercise. It mostly sits out in the garage being deployed when needed. I just plonk it on top of the sink under the taps and discharge the water into the sink. In other words - you don't necessarily need to size the sink to accomodate the largest item you're likely to wash.

Whatever you decide; make certain that the tap design permits you to get a finger cum cleaner around the base of the pillar -and behind! One installation -since discarded- had the tap controls right at the bottom of the pillar - it was impossible to clean. Water drip would evaporate leaving a limescale deposit. I used to soak it with vinegar, limescale remover whatever .... the replacement has the taps above the pillar base enabling a scourer to get right around the pillar /sink interface.

HTH

[Lobster]

I can't see the point of a 1.5 bowled one myself: if you wash up using a plastic washig up bowl inside the sink, you can still pour slops etc down the sink outside the washing up bowl if you need to!

One time when I do think it would be a really good idea is if you have a waste disposal gobbler thingy installed below the half-sink, though. I always thought that was the main reason for the half-sink?

David

[hemulen27]

Thanks for the input (and to everyone else who replied) but I can't get on with plastic washing up bowls - I usually find that they take up so much of the sink that it's impossible to empty nasty stuff down the outside without some of it going in the washing up water and rinsing is a nightmare, too, as the run-off inevitably goes into the bowl (unless you're more careful than I care to be when doing the washing up), meaning that the washing water gets too diluted to finish a load without having to empty and top it up again. I also hate the way the bowl hangs around the place when not in use, getting in the way when you're trying to drain spuds, etc.

Besides, didn't that E-Coli professor person (Hugh Pennington?) come out a few years ago, saying they were breeding grounds for nasty bugs? Or was that just if you didn't rinse your dishes after washing them?

Saying all that, I did like Brian's tip about getting an extra big plastic bowl for the occasional monster items - I think I had heard something about the Lakeland one but I thought it would be too big to fit under standard taps and you would end up either emptying it over the kitchen floor when trying to empty it, or having to use it in the back garden.

Cheers

Helen

[hemulen27]

Well, I don't have much personal experience of different manufacturers but, having read some previous threads here on the subject, I thought the consensus was that Ikea sinks were OK but if you wanted something substantial that would last for years, it was worth spending a bit extra and going for a brand like Franke. I hate building work, so this kitchen needs to last for the forseeable but I'm open to ideas that save me money if I don't need to spend it!

Anything will be an improvement on the horrible white (originally, although it's actually mostly dark brown now) monstrosity I've got at the moment, which was inherited from the previous owners. It seems to be made from some kind of totally inappropriate material - a rough white plastic that is impervious to cleaning materials yet scratches easily and indelibly stains at the slightest hint of a teabag!

Cheers

Helen

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've not seen any such comments about Ikea sinks. It was was of the first bits of my refurbushment, and has since been used for repeatedly washing up all my plastering, rendering, and painting tools (which usually sit in it drying until next use), and it still cleans up good as new. I'm very pleased with it.

On reflection, I would not have bought an Ikea tap though. The spout design is crap.

[Geoffrey]

Plastic washing up bowls scratch the sink

[Lobster]

?? more than all the metal washing-up bouncing round in the bottom of the sink?

David

[Mungo]

I'd plump for the 1.5 bowl. There's no compunction on having to use the

0.5, and you can just add an inner bowl into the sink as others have written. Smaller main bowl though.

Facilities I'd be interested in include one of those "rinsing" spray taps, or perhaps even a third tap that could be thermostatically set to a particular temperature.

Mungo

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

Whatever else you do when you buy a new kichen sink, take a marble with you and check it rolls towards the outlet wherever you leave it. 'Puddles' that don't drain properly leave a mess and irritate me!

FWIW, I am happy with my Blanco 1.5 bowl sink.

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

Lobster typed

It's not the plastic itself. If, for example, you wash muddy spuds in a plastic bowl and then wash out the bowl, soil and grit will line the sink and get ground into the sink surface when the washing-up bowl is next filled.

[Mary Fisher]

Well, perhaps, but does it matter?

Mary

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , [e-mail] writes

useful if you plan to fit a waste disposal unit (which I did.) Otherwise, it's a waste of space apart from the need to rise things occasionally. The sink is okay otherwise; solid, usual good Franke quality. The first one arrived with a very small dent in the main bowl; the supplier immediately and cheerfully changed it out.

Consider whether the Franke chopping board would be useful. With having a dishwasher, I don't use the draining board, so the chopping board would have been useful to me so I could stand an appliance on it.

[Geoffrey]

[Helen Deborah Vecht]

"Mary Fisher" typed

Maybe it does to others...