Good quality kitchen sink on a budget
 

We're doing up our kitchen next week (units remaining, but worktops,
tiling, walls + sink being redone) and we're having some difficulty
sorting out the sink. Our budget for a sink was originally about £50 up
to maybe about £80.

After looking at these sinks in B&Q/Homebase etc, I realised just how
flexible some of these were - even from respected brands such as Franke.
The drainer can often flex a lot when putting your hand in the middle
of it, and monobloc mixer taps with long spouts flex like crazy when you
move them. I've since realised that without plumbing in the tap, you
won't have terrific strength to the tap - hence I'll probably try to use
copper pipes rather than flexible tap connectors.

Our current sink is an old stainless steel single bowl + drainer with
mixer tap using 2 holes. This doesn't really flex in the drainer,
doesn't at all on the tap, but is quite scratched and doesn't drain
properly causing scale marks - therefore we can't re-use it.

Anyway - we've since upped our budget to more like £150, maybe a tad
more. I've seen the Blanco Median-XL sink which seems to fit our
requirements on dimensions of the bowl (an additional small bowl would
be nice, however these seem reduce the size of the main bowl too much as
they all seem to be aimed at fitting the bowls within a single 600mm
cupboard).

Getting to my point - is there any way to know what thickness steel is
used in these sinks? The Blanco one is listed as "18/10 Premium Steel"
which clears up the type of steel, but not the thickness. Blanco
themselves say:

Q1: What qualities should I look for in a stainless steel sink?

A: Check on the quality. Premium quality stainless steel is always
18/10, because this represents the addition of chrome and nickel to the
steel, which guarantees best performance, corrosion resistance and
durability.

Q2: Why is weight important?

A: You will find that more steel has been used in the manufacture of a
heavier gauge sink, with resulting increase in quality and durability. A
lightweight sink is often made from thin steel to achieve cost savings.

Q3: What is the “flex” test?

A: Quality sinks made of thicker stainless steel will resist movement of
the drainer if pressure is exerted by hand.


Has anyone got experience with Blanco sinks, and can advise what their
quality is like? Additionally can anyone recommend a good, reasonably
stiff/thick SS sink with approx 40x40cm bowl which is around £150?

Thanks

David

"David Hearn" wrote in message
...
We're doing up our kitchen next week (units remaining, but worktops,
tiling, walls + sink being redone) and we're having some difficulty
sorting out the sink. Our budget for a sink was originally about £50 up
to maybe about £80.

After looking at these sinks in B&Q/Homebase etc, I realised just how
flexible some of these were - even from respected brands such as Franke.
The drainer can often flex a lot when putting your hand in the middle
of it, and monobloc mixer taps with long spouts flex like crazy when you
move them. I've since realised that without plumbing in the tap, you
won't have terrific strength to the tap - hence I'll probably try to use
copper pipes rather than flexible tap connectors.

Have you tried the Ikea range of sinks?

Robin Mayes wrote:
"David Hearn" wrote in message
...

We're doing up our kitchen next week (units remaining, but worktops,
tiling, walls + sink being redone) and we're having some difficulty
sorting out the sink. Our budget for a sink was originally about £50 up
to maybe about £80.

After looking at these sinks in B&Q/Homebase etc, I realised just how
flexible some of these were - even from respected brands such as Franke.
The drainer can often flex a lot when putting your hand in the middle
of it, and monobloc mixer taps with long spouts flex like crazy when you
move them. I've since realised that without plumbing in the tap, you
won't have terrific strength to the tap - hence I'll probably try to use
copper pipes rather than flexible tap connectors.


Have you tried the Ikea range of sinks?

Nope - although after your suggestion I looked at their website. Only 2
are of the style we want, and both appear to be too small a bowl for
what we're after. Their prices seem good though. Any idea of how thick
the metal is?

D

In article ,
David Hearn writes:
Robin Mayes wrote:
"David Hearn" wrote in message
...

We're doing up our kitchen next week (units remaining, but worktops,
tiling, walls + sink being redone) and we're having some difficulty
sorting out the sink. Our budget for a sink was originally about £50 up
to maybe about £80.

After looking at these sinks in B&Q/Homebase etc, I realised just how
flexible some of these were - even from respected brands such as Franke.
The drainer can often flex a lot when putting your hand in the middle
of it, and monobloc mixer taps with long spouts flex like crazy when you
move them. I've since realised that without plumbing in the tap, you
won't have terrific strength to the tap - hence I'll probably try to use
copper pipes rather than flexible tap connectors.

Mount the tap in the worktop behind the sink, rather than through
the sink itself. This will mean mounting the sink as far forward
as you can in the worktop.

Have you tried the Ikea range of sinks?

Nope - although after your suggestion I looked at their website. Only 2
are of the style we want, and both appear to be too small a bowl for
what we're after. Their prices seem good though. Any idea of how thick
the metal is?

I have a single drainer 1.5 bowl stainless steel IKEA sink and
it seems fine.

The IKEA sinks have nicely designed low profile rims compared
with other ones I looked at. Also, you collect them from the
warehouse where they haven't had customers jumping up and down
on them unlike B&Q, Wickes, etc.

--
Andrew Gabriel

David Hearn wrote:
Robin Mayes wrote:
Have you tried the Ikea range of sinks?

.. Any idea of how thick
the metal is?

not very


--
David Clark

$message_body_include ="PLES RING IF AN RNSR IS REQIRD"

Have you considered Franke?

***** expensive but not as expensive as Blanco. Ours has a very big
(useful) single bowl (square with rounded corners actually) rather than
several ridiculously small bowl-ettes and veg prep areas. It is
undermounted in an Askilan worktop so debris can be swept straight into
the sink for easy collection. Draining groves are cut into the worktop.

SWMBO dropped a *very* heavy glasss vase into it and dented the sink
only slightly. It would have been better to have broken the vase but
the dent is very small when you consider that the vase is 16" high and
diameter of about 6" and made of 1" thick glass.


Richard

--
Real email address is RJSavage at BIGFOOT dot COM