We are doing an updating of our kitchen that includes a Silestone
counter top and new sink. The counter top is plenty expensive enough,
so I do not want to buy more stainless sink than I need. As always,
when I don't know about a consumer product choice, I check Consumer
Reports. The last time they did kitchen sinks was in ~2002. They bought
a whole bunch of them of all types and prices. For the stainless set,
they found there was NO correlation between price/gauge and dent
resistence or resistence to scratching or noisiness. That's with 18 to
23 gauge steel. And the noise pads made no reliable difference in
noise, either. They ended up no even ranking the brands as there was no
correlation of anything with brand. This is NOT what the Home
depot/Lowes people say about gauge thickness, they always claim the
thicker gauge will scratch less which is ridiculous since scratches are
a function of hardness, not thickness. End of credibility for them.

This CR result is not what I expected, but I do like the result. Means
no point in blowing $500 and up on a sink when a $200 one will very
likley work as well in all regards. I never could understand why a
piece of press-formed stainless should cost the many, many hundreds of
dollars (even thousands) some of these things cost, anyway.

So, I've been checking e-Bay and the Italian C-Tech-I brand seems
attractive. I can pick up a nice one or two bowl undermount for about
$200. Other brands are close to $100.

Anyone care to offer an opinion on C-Tech-I sinks?

Thanks.

- GRL