Anyone with a silgranit sink, how has it held up as far as chipping, staining, stratches? Easy to clean? Color staying true? What's the skinny on these sinks? As far as price goes, these seem to be substantially less $$ than either a Rohl fireclay or Kohler cast iron sink, but how dow they hold up over time? I'm considering an undermount, so I want to be VERY sure of my sink choice. TIA!

Oh, and if you have any pictures, I would very much appreciate it!

With that said, I have read nothing but excellent reviews and forum posts on the Silgranit. I drooled over several of them while trying to decide and it was quite easy to clean up. :-)

Go to the Blanco site for more photos of it.

Jodi-

The sink gets abused in my house, and still looks new. No chips, stains, marks of any kind. When I think about it, about once a week, I give it a quick swipe with a dish cloth. No other care necessary. I do have soft water, which prevents spots.

As to the potential for spots or hard water deposits around faucets, those will happen on any sink if you leave pools of water to dry. If you have this sort of build up in your current sink, you will have it in your new sink, regardless of what material you choose. White will show deposits less than darker colors.

So welcome to the world of silgranit and others like it. I love my silgranit biscuit colored sink. It appears to be quite chip resistant, but if it did, the color is homogeneous through the whole thing, and there would be no color change. I haven't heard of these scratching, mine has no scratches (5 months old). As for finish, these sinks have a matte finish, they are not shiny. This was a big bonus for me, and it glows next to my soapstone without being glossy. When I was researching these, some people posted they have a plasticky look at first and then it goes away. Not sure how to describe this, but it's true. If you seem to notice that in a display, don't worry, it's not like that in real life. I think the reason is that these are thinner and more lightweight than you'd expect them to be. In the box, it seems less substantial than a really thick fire clay sink. Once it is undermounted, you don't know how thick it is and it seems much more substantial. They are very strong, and the thickness doesn't imply weakness.

Along the lines of keeping clean and avoiding those grey lines, you will want a new sink grate with your new sink. I thought it was a luxury indulgence, but now I can't imagine living without one! the pots actually don't touch and drag on the bottom, they are on the ss grate. It looks great, and it allows clean up to be even faster. My sink never seems to look dirty even if it does have dishes in it. There are no stains, no spots. By 5 months, my previous Kohler cast iron sink already had knife scratches galore. By two years of age, it was completely scratched and required more and more scrubbing to keep clean.

Hope this helps,
J

Thank you!

We have hard water here with no real problems. I have been known to leave things in the sink overnight w/o issue...wipes right up, honest! I have heard to oil it if it starts to dull, but I have not needed to...only been in for a couple of months now. (with toddlers throwing things in there that have made me cringe, but the sink has been fine through it all.)

HTH!

JoAnn

Blanco is standing behind their product and is supposed to send me a new one but it will be extremely hard to get this undermounted sink out and a new one in.

Still they are awesome sinks and even with this added hassle I would pick them if doing it all over again - just be super picky about checking them (run a fingernail around and feel for cracks).

My one word of warning - make sure whomever is installing it knows how to work with it. I ended up going through three sinks in 24 hours! First the counters guys were under-mounting the sink and it slipped from one's hands. The corner of the sink hit the plumbing and a big hunk broke off. The counter guy said he had seen this happen before with Blanco sinks.

Anyway, no big deal, the counter guys paid for a new one. Once that was installed my GC came to install my faucet. He started to drill through the sink and another hunk fell off!

Long story short... Drill any holes BEFORE the sink is installed, only at the pre-scored areas. (Because the sink was already installed under the counter, my GC couldn't see these.) Also, be careful at installation because the corners appear to be vulnerable.

Even with the complications we had, I would install this sink again in a heartbeat.

Nicole

I'm planing on getting the 'bisque' just because I think pale colors hide water marks better, but ease of cleaning seems to be the #1 feature people love about this sink.

I think the salesman/owner in question probaly takes any complaint about silgranit as confirming what he already suspected, but assumes problems with other sinks are exceptions to the rule.

There was another thread a few months back where a couple of bad experiences were reported, so problems [as with anything] are possible.

But statistically, most people seem so pleased with these sinks I'm still giving them a go. If there is a large number of dissatisfied owners, I sure wish they'd pipe up before I order, though!

[IMG]http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa314/lwink_photos/LindasKitch en016.jpg[/IMG]

I have read a few "my contractor doesn't like, or "my salesman dislikes" comments, but not from owners. There are plenty of negative comments and discussion regarding various appliances and brands, so I don't really think there are hidden silgranit-owner-haters.

Our Biscuit silgranit sink has been in since June or July, and it is absolutely dreamy. Never looks grungy. We do not have hard water, but I don't think that would show much, and the sink is not designed to have water pooling to make deposits.

Go for it.

Sue

Sue

I have Swanstone and really, really do not like it. Coffee stains it, tea stains it, tomato-based food stain it. Yes, Soft Scrub with bleach cleans it, but you have to either scrub it with a Scotchbrite pad or let the Soft Scrub sit for a while in order to whiten the sink.

Nan

Laurie

And a swipe with Barkeepers's fiend...Voila! Like new.

Only complaint I've read is that one person felt the Bisquit color looked "dingy". There are flecks of grey in it and I could see where that might look "off" with some pure or clear counter colors. Do check the color tone against your counter. The Metalic Gray is a nice alternative if the Bisquit looks "off" with your counter.

Great sink.

Trust me, you won't regret buying it!

Here's a pic. Keep in mind this is our kitchen in its current "before" state, with faux slate laminate countertops and very ugly original backsplash. This photo was taken just after I washed some dishes which is why it looks wet!

We had a cast iron sink before and it was chipped and looked completely awful in no time.

However, we did have transportation damage on several super singles before receiving one usable. Blanco was very responsive to the issues.

For those who did a 24" drop-in Silgranite sink, did you use the pre-drilled hole on the right side, or did you somehow cork that and put your faucet in the back middle? Our sink will be under our kitchen window, and I'm nervous about putting the faucet off to the side like that.

Are you able to put any pictures in?

TIA - Cate

Sooooo, if like my mother (and me) you respond to visuals and/or shame, go light and rinse/wipe when the sink tells you. If you maintain self directed cleaning routines, and don't need your sink challenging those, then go dark.

That's my theory for today, and I'm sticking to it.

I think the dark sinks hide stains, show crumbs and water marks, light sinks hide water marks, show stains [though I think it's supposed to take a lot to actually stain them].

I'm committed to this type of sink, but have no idea which color I want. Is the silgranite 'anthracite' the one with sparklie bits mixed in? I've seen that in some cab displays, and its not for me...

Also, does Silgranit make vanity tops with integrated sinks (one piece)? Shower or bath tub surrounds?

Thanks.

(BTW, we borrowed the samples from Expo with their blessing and brought them to the slab yard to figure out our color. I'd strongly recommend doing that.)

TIA!

Kelleg - unfortunately they haven't shown any pics of the French Vanilla yet. Sorry!

jb

thanks

You need to consider the difference in depth for YOU reaching the bottom of the sink if you undermount -- don't end up with a sink where you feel like the reach is always uncomfortable for you.

Mine is white (not horrid to keep clean) and I love the finish (not shiny).

As far as cleaning the sink goes, you do have to be careful with pots and pans because they will leave a grey mark if they rub on the sides of the sink. I have found that a Magic Eraser works pretty well on those marks, and, every couple of months I fill the sinks with warm water and a couple of capfulls of bleach. I let it sit until the water cools off, then, while the sinks are draining, I scrub them with a scrubber sponge. That gets them pretty clean. I do wish that I had purchased a good quality stainless steel sink when we did our kitchen re-model in 2005 instead of the Silgranit sink.

We've had our Silgranit sink installed almost 2 years. Love it. It looks like the day it was installed, and we have not been careful whatsoever. The easiest sink I have ever had. Would never go back to stainless steel.

And in our island, the granite is honed Antique Brown and the café brown sink looks to be about the same very dark matte color. There are no flecks of metal in the brown sinks. I bought sink grids for both sinks, but seem to use it regularly in the large single prep sink only for rinsing veggies and fruit.