Mine is 11" deep (including 1" countertop). I'm 5' tall and it doesn't bother me.

Mine is 9" and I wish it were deeper. I'm almost 5'3".

He must have a really nice sink. I could wash a cat in there.

We just put in a Rohl undercount fireclay sink that is 11" deep. I am 5' 10" so I know there is potential for a sore back, but it's worth it!! I love it so much and being able to bathe my 2 year old in it and see how much fun she has makes it totally worth it!!

10" and I'm also 5'. No issues at all...love having a deep sink

I went with a Franke Orca, which is not yet installed. I'm 5'5". It is 10" deep, however it also has stainless grid for the bottom which will bring raise it a bit and also integrated shelves with grids. Anyway, I'm so looking forward to this sink, which is large enough to have my large items lay flat inside.

Here is a link that might be useful: Example Orca sink with shelves

I think that, counter-intuitively, shorter people are better with a deeper sink than taller people.

The critical distance is how far down you have to reach to touch the bottom, and shorter people's arms start lower IYKWIM?

My very tall husband complains about the depth of our sink because he has to lean over slightly to scrub things on the bottom of it; whereas they seem to be quite close to my shorter arms. We plan to raise the bottom of the sink (and the adjacent counter about 2") in order to make this better for the taller person (who does dishes, bless his heart), while still OK for me.

L.

Our new kitchen has a more shallow sink than before I am loving it and how I stay drier. I am almost 5'5", so right in the middle and I think it is much easier than when I had a deeper sink. Our faucet is also not as high from the bottom due to the sink and and the faucet's lower profile. Combined, I can do dishes and not have a wet front on my clothes.

My husband and I are both tall (He washes a lot of dishes) so I am also concerned about depth of new sink that I'm in the process of searching for now. I'm 5ft8 and he is 6ft 2. Thanks for this thread.

We will have a laundry sink not too far away for anything that needs soaking in some kind of deep water.

We don't currently have a dishwasher so looking forward to getting one with the remodel. In the meantime, washing dishes at our old 8 to 9 inch deep sink has caused some back problems if I do too much. (unless I stoop over fair amount, I can't touch bottom of sink)

Meanwhile, finding a sink that is 7 inches deep has been difficult, especially since I want to be somewhat frugal.

Coupled with shallow depth, I also don't think I want a big one. Lots of work to do investigating this.

"Lots of work to do investigating this."

You are absolutely right elphaba. I am 5'8" and hand washing dishes is painful enough. I don't want the pain to be literal! The search is on!

I am 5'12" and have a 10" deep sink. Another ink would be okay, but the most important thing in my mind is having a faucet that has the right height to be able to wash pans and baking sheets under, the right reach so that you are not leaning in to be under the water stream and is far enough from the edge of the sink to not cause water to flow off your hands or dishes onto the counter, and a flow that doesn't hit bottom or your disposal guard and splash back. I've read some comments that the stream should be into the drain, but that doesn't work at all with rear or corner drains. Something near the center is a good starting point, remembering that you have to take into account the first 3 inches or so to get from the counter and into the sink.

I don't wash dishes with everything on the bottom of the sink, but everything does go under the water stream, so the fight faucet reach is more important than sink depth (well, to a point, at least).

Timely thread! I had a Blancowave undermount that is 10" deep. My back would ache terribly while washing dishes by hand. I am 5'6" and stooping that little bit strains the lower back. We are living in a temporary house during the build and the sink is 40 years old and maybe 7 inches deep. My back never hurts and we do all dishes by hand. On New Years Eve we had dinner at friends with a 10" deep sink. My back ached the rest of the night after washing stemware by hand. We are rethinking the sink depth. Love the deepness to hide dirty dishes, but I don't know it is worth an aching back.

What lascatx said. I was worried about the 10 deep sink but because of the Kohler Karbon and it's flexibility, no problem at all. It's better than I could have dreamed.

That should have read "another inch would be okay." We looked at one 12 inch deep sink, but I also wanted usable space under the sink. Ten has worked out perfectly.

I am almost 5'5", when I did Thanksgiving dishes at my mother's house (she does not have a DW) for what seemed like hours my back was killing me. She just got new granite and a deep stainless sink.

I'd much rather have a more shallow sink but they really are hard to find. I just had my granite put in and am really nervous about liking my new deep sink (Kohler Lakefield, it sure is pretty though). It was the only sink I could find that met all of the requirements for our plumbing, DH preferences, etc. The thing is I have a DW so I won't be doing any long stints at the sink for the most part.

Last June I was on vacation and the condo had a very deep sink with new granite and it hurt my back then as well so it wasn't just that one time. I remember thinking this is pretty neat having a deep sink but by the end of the week in the condo I wasn't liking it at all. YMMV! I don't really see the need for having such a deep sink... But then again, I don't have babies to wash and my Golden Retriever would not fit in my sink for a bath, lol.

I'm 5'6" and had read about deep sinks and backaches when I did my kitchen last year. I went with a 7 1/2" deep Elkay sink. With the 3cm granite, the bottom is just shy of 9 inches. If you will have an undermount sink, be sure to add the thickness of the granite for the total depth.

I'm 5'7" and have a Frank Orca fireclay sink. It's 10" deep. I also have a stainless grid on one side of the sink that has a depth of 5". When I hand wash items I put them on the grid. I do have a dishwasher so I don't do a whole ton of handwashing, mostly just big pots and pans and a few delicate items.

Lol...I am one of the crazies with a 12' sink...I adore this big ol' tub! When we have people over...I can put TONS of dirty dishes in there...nothing has to defile my countertops and I an enjoy my cocktail without worrying about the d@mn dishes! Plus...I am only 5'2" and my 6'4" dh has never washed a dish that I am aware of! :)

lascatx I'm laughing about the 5'12"! That's what my 15 y.o. daughter is.

phallky: what kind of floor does your son's kitchen have? If it is tile that could be part of the reason for your back ache.

I'm 5'11" with a 9.5" deep sink, undermounted under 3cm granite so it feels a bit deeper. The sink grid brings things in the sink up from the bottom about .5". However, my counters are 39" high, so the sink bottom is very comfortable for me. (In fact everything is more comfortable for me then in my old kitchen that had standard (short) 36" counters.)

I think it's great that you're considering things like sink depth and how your kitchen will feel for you, since "standards" (sink depth, counter height, etc.) don't work for everyone.

My sink is 10" deep, I am 4'11" and I don't know if it's the depth of the sink or the position of the faucet (I have a D shaped sink with the faucet in the right corner), but when I stand at the sink for any length of time, my back bothers me.

I never would have given sink depth so much thought if it had not been for using my son's. Nor did I know there are so many choices out there. My son has a new house with hardwood floors (which we have as well). I am hoping to find one in the 8" range.

I'm 4 11" as well with a 10" sink. Just got the sink and I love it. I can reach inside just fine to wash pots and pans. I have a tile floor and used to suffer from a lower backache every time I washed dishes. At Christmas I purchased a great floor mat that I found at Kohl's that is designed for the kitchen and is shock absorbant. It's also about 1/2" thick so it gives me just a little more height. It is very comfortable and I haven't had a backache while washing dishes since I bought it. I know there are others on the market, I highly recommend a "chef's" style floor mat.

We put in a Kraus 10 inch deep and I love it. I was at first afraid it might be too deep b/c I am only 5'2" but I love it!

It is great b/c I don't have to worry about water splashing out onto me all the time now when washing dishes. I used to always seem to get soaked with my last sink. I think the deep sink is great!

For those of you who have indicated like me that the deeper sink may cause you back pain, another cause of the back pain may be arthritis in conjunction with using the deeper sink.

Besides the fact that I'm rather tall, I really think this combination is what does me in. (I'm 65 but that doesn't mean one can't have arthritis at a lot younger age.)

I will be checking out local plumbing show rooms hopefully soon (and Home Depot and Lowe's and Sears Great Indoors) - maybe this is one item for some of us that might be best purchased after a hands on evaluation instead of online.

Because of a discussion on this subject with our architect I have come to realize that even though I'm 5, 5, my arms are short for my body, and therefor I have to bend to reach the bottom of any sink deeper than 7 inches. What to do, what to do.

my sink now is about 6.5 inches deep and I'm just 5'. I already have back problems and don't need any more pain. I looked and looked for a shallow sink I liked in the right color and double bowl w/o spending more than a few hundred. That only gave me a few options, so when I found one 8" deep on CL in the right color and a double bowl for 125.00 I snatched it up. I'm hoping it won't be too deep.

I'd like to lower the counter but don't think I can and fit a dw under it. Hopefully, with a dw I won't be hand washing as many dishes anyway.

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My next sink will not be as deep. I'm going to take the trend in the opposite direction.
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We had a long discussion of this about 2-3 yrs ago and there was input by older persons who find that ergonomic considerations trump fashion. I'd appreciate it if someone could find it and post the URL for the thread.

Ours will always be a working kitchen, not a showpony. I used to consider the kitchen my enemy. My body throbbed after a dinner party. Not so much any more. Some wonderful things:
1) gel mat underfoot plus prescription shoes--no more barefeet allowed!
2) stools
3) pull-out cutting boards almost 2 inches lower than the countertops
4) putting a plastic dishpan inside the 8-inch deep sink to raise the bottom of the working sink even higher when my back begins to ache--dishpan sits sideways between the center divider of my Kohler double sink and the side divider of the sink about 2 inches above bottom of real sink. (Can't fill this thing too full--gravity will pull it down if it's filled to brim. Then I have to just put shims underneath the dishpan--a cake pan upside down or four marg containers, for example.)

My body is much happier now. The shoes have a rocker bottom so only 2/3 of the sole of foot is bearing weight at any one time. Not only are my feet happier, but my back is much happier. I no longer groan when bending to unload dishwasher.

As for depth of sink, I would never want one more than 8 inches deep. People who are buying deeper sinks for camouflaging of the cooking mess during meals would wisely consider using a dishpan and some stilts to hold it up when they actually work at such a sink. Plan this from the beginning--where to store the dishpan.

I'm 65 yrs old.

maybe if you are taller, you can still have a deep sink if you raise your counters a couple of inches?

We custom ordered our sink to both get the features we wanted and to make sure the depth was no deeper 28" off the floor (8" deep from the top of the counter).

After washing dishes in it for a few weeks (we don't yet have our dishwasher functional), I now wish we'd gone even shallower, 7 or 6.5 inches.

DH is 6 foot 3 and I am 5 foot 7. We went with 8 inches and have been happy. During reno, we stayed at a friend's house with an 11 inch deep sink and hated it-- splashing water and hard on our backs. I recommend asking your friends and experimenting at different people's houses (few people object if you ask to wash dishes for them sometime!). The problems emerge pretty quickly.

If we'd been confident we wouldn't be moving, I'd have gone for higher-than-normal cabinets and counters and sink in light of our heights, but we weren't totally sure and I feared for resale.

Another consideration in ergonomics is how far away the sink is. An apron sink can be closer by quite a bit. Many sinks set in stone seem to have a really wide piece in front that puts the sink further back.

I had one that was about 12". I thought it was too deep because I got a sore back from it but it turned out it was too large in that it put the faucet way back and it left me stretching. A longer faucet spout fixed that.

I love my 10" deep sink, but at 5'7" it's too deep for me to do a lot of dishes comfortably. My DW is currently out of commission, so I've been washing dishes by hand and draining them in the DW. The sink is a single--I use a large mixing bowl or a pot set on an inverted plastic container to raise it ap. 2 1/2"--just enough to relieve the back strain. When I've finished, I rinse the plastic container and drain it in with the clean dishes. It's stored underneath the sink.

If you like a deep sink full of suds, this may not work for you, but the benefits of having a deep, single bowl (that will easily hold a half-bushel of apples or tomatoes) are worth it to me.

I am 5'10" and have a deep sink. Yes, if i scrub and scrub and scrub something while it is at the bottom of the sink, my back will hurt from the leaning over.

Simple solution for me is to take it out of the sink and scrub it on the counter next to the sink. Doesn't anyone else do this? Much better leverage for scrubbing anyway!

I have a 9" deep Franke sink that is undermounted so it is actually 10" deep when the counter is factored in. It has a grid shelf that sits 4" from the top of the sink and 5" from the counter top. I am 5'6" and DH, who does most of the hand washing, is 5'10". We would not trade this sink! The shelf feature comes in handy virtually daily. We use it to rinse and dry fruits and veggies, it's at a better height than the counter to peel veggies, I turn tofu upside down on it to drain, the list could go on forever.

FWIW, we also have the Franke tri flo faucet, which we like, and the soap pump, which we hate. The pump never pumped properly, always leaked and/or dripped and was a pain to refill.