Different types of kitchen sink pros and cons

A question about : Different types of kitchen sink pros and cons

We're having a new kitchen installed soon and would like advice on different sink shapes. I like the Belfast shape but the way they're fitted seems to leave a lot of gaps around the sides of the sink, but would putting sealant in these look scruffy? What have other users found?

Best answers:

• I have two observations about Belfast sinks. Firstly they often sit under the work surface & are often quite deep. This brings the bottom of the sink to the average chap's knee level. Rog will then have a great excuse for making Sally do the washing up (assuming Sally is shorter than Rog). Secondly I remember when I was young we used to visit my Gran's house, she had a Belfast sink & a wooden draining board. Being a young boy I could play for hours with the slimy gunge that collected where the two met.
  Stainless steel sinks are a wonderful invention, they are easy to keep clean, they don't chip or crack & if you drop a cup on them it bounces. I'm sure they'll catch on eventually.
• We removed a Belfast sink as it caused serious backache and the wooden drainer didn't bear thinking about. We did leave the one in the utility, it doesn't get used much and is useful because it is enormous
• I rather like the sit-on stainless steel sinks, the ones that replace the whole section of worktop with sink, preferably a double drainer for more space.
  The inset ones just seem a bad design, you lose sink space and you have a strip of worktop at the back that collects water and can rot, along with more joints that water can get into around the front.
• Despite Belfast sinks being currently fashionable, and would have been in keeping with our house, as others have said, they're very deep so being tall, both of us would have back ache using it. Never mind the chipping and breaking of things when dropped.
  We had some sort of weird blue plasticky sink in the old kitchen, and I had a cream one in a previous rented place. Both stained horrible and just never looked good.
  Parents have a stainless steel one and a half sink undermounted with their granite and we have a bog standard one and a half stainless steel overmounted on laminate. Only single drainer. Agree that the bit of worktop at the back is potential problem but this is what we have
• One thing that would put me off a house would be a Belfast Sink, for all the reasons given above. i really do not understand what some people see in them!
  I prefer a stainless steel sink. We have an inset 2 and 1/2 bowl + drainer Franke sink, now 27 years old and looks like a 5 year old.
  We have wooden worktops....beech....never had a problem with the bits behind or in front of the sink
• I don't like stainless steel because we live in a hard water area and no sooner have you cleaned it, it's covered in limescale again. We had white ceramic in our old house and when we change this kitchen I think we'll put in a 'granite' composite so it's a bit tougher than ceramic.
• Hi
  Hard water isn't an issue with a stainless steel sink with the right cleaning products. Blanco do a really good stainless steel cleaner for their sinks which removes all dirt / grime / limescale and leaves a kind of protective layer over the steel which makes water droplets 'beed' on it.
  If definitely not stainless steel then the Blanco Silgranite sinks are the next best thing and again use the Blanco Silgranite sink cleaner, its excellent.
  CK
• I've mentioned it recently but we have a Franke Fragranite white undermounted sink and it's brilliant
• I was thinking of having a stainless steel sink, when planning my new kitchen (the present brown sink is possibly hard fibreglass which was popular in the early 90s and gouged when our son dripped a sharp knife in it), but the kitchen centre reminded me that ss does quickly show water marks and is prone to scratching, so recommended a Franke Fragranite, which would match my induction hob (black).
  There was no sales pitch involved as he knew that my husband works for his supplier, so can buy cheaply direct.