Some are definitely better than others. The one I have in my tiny basement kitchen is not very good. I bought an Elkay for my main kitchen and I love it.

I did make sure that mine fills from the top (basement dispenser fills from the bottom and it's a pain.)

I was hesitant to put this one in because of my bad experience, but I love this one and use it all the time with no issues. It's nice to keep one more thing off the counter.

The soap dispensers are a good idea in stone, we have ours in soap stone.

The top just easily pulls off and you refill from the top, and there are many other soap dispensers that can replace if need be.
Most of the dispensers are plastic underneath the counter, the tops are either metal/brass or plastic, I do like the brass feel and heft.
For me, I wouldn't like the bottled soap dispensers after having the installed ones.

We recently got a Delta pulldown faucet (Ashton) and installed the soap dispenser that came with it. We like it - it does look less cluttered than a separate soap dispenser on the counter. You can fill it from the top. We use ours for dish soap and haven't had to refill it that often.

Here's a photo of ours:

I use mine for dish soap too. It refills from the top. Just be careful not to overfill because it's messy to clean up! But I love it in the granite.

I had one in my last house and it was always getting clogged, I know we replaced it at least twice with a better one, but it never seemed to work right. I don't remember what kinds.. That home was built in 2000... When we built our new home 2007-08, I passed on the in counter soap dispenser.

We have the Delta Leland. I love it. Less clutter on the counter top, easy to fill.

I think that some people use "Never-MT" with their soap dispensers. That's my plan anyway.

I'm having one installed in my granite today! I had one in my last kitchen as well. I've never had a problem with them. My new faucet didn't come with a soap dispenser, but I got one separately. And it can be filled from below or above. Although filling from above, like another poster mentioned, can be a mess if you fill it too much.I'm going to look into the Never MT-lots of GW'er have mentioned it and it seems like a great idea.

We use a Never-MT with our Grohe dispenser (it is a top-filling dispenser, so it wouldn't have been too much of a hassle to fill anyway, just would need to refill it a lot more often than we do with the Never-MT).

Hated keeping a bottle of dish soap on the counter in the old kitchen; it was always getting knocked over or knocked into the sink, and we had to lay it on its side, or try to prop it upside down as the bottle got low.

I put a soap dispenser in at both sinks in the kitchen, and both are filled with dish soap. I used a clear, organic (Sam's club) type that seems to be thinner and maybe that's why it hasn't had a problem with clogging. I used the Never MT (I think it was all of 8 bucks to purchase online), and finished the kitchen in Februrary of 2010 and I'm still using the same bottle of dish soap that I first installed, admittedly it's club-sized, so huge. I love having the soap dispenser drilled in and not reaching under the sink for the dish soap each time I need it, I usually just squirt it directly into the pan I'm cleaning or onto the nylon scrubber. This dish soap is mild enough to use as a hand soap, too, so it keeps the sink area very uncluttered. I put two different brands of soap dispensers in, one's a Grohe, and one's a KWC, I slightly prefer the KWC, it seems to spring back a little better, but both work fine.

My OCD DH loves it! He washes his hands so much that they crack...

Waterstone PLP and recommended soap.

It has a 12 oz container and is filled from the top. I planned on getting a Never MT - but wasn't willing to pay the shipping ($10 for one plus $8 shipping) but if we go in together, we can buy 3, get one free if they are still offering it and the shipping should be less combined.

Now, if only we knew where each of us lives. Most have figured out my location...

We have one for hand soap at our prep sink and used the Never-MT so it doesn't need to be filled. We just buy a big bottle of soap to put under the sink and put the tube from the Never-MT into it. It helps to remove a little soap from the bottle and put a little water in to make it a bit more liquid and easy to move through the tube.

We like it on the prep sink because that's on the island where a bottle would be in the way and get moved around. At the main sink for the dish soap, we prefer a bottle which can be used to squirt soap wherever we want it.

I'd never heard of the Never-MT. Thanks!

when I was making the same decision, I took a poll on GW. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the old thread, so here's a synopsis of what I learned.
1 - It depends how you use your dish soap. I usually squirt the soap into a sink of water or into a pot or pan. If you do this, you probably want a movable dispenser. I ended up just keeping the bottle of dish soap under the counter. Sayde bought a pretty dispenser to hold her dish soap. Many other people squirt onto the sponge. If you do this, then a fixed soap dispenser is good.
2- It depends what you want to put in it. I have friends who have two dispensers in their granite: one for dish soap and one for hand lotion. Some people put hand soap in the fixed dispenser and keep the dish soap in a separate container.
3 -There's also the question of how many protuberances you are willing to clean around.

If you weigh these three considerations, you can usually figure out if you'd like one.

I skipped putting the soap dispenser in. I don't see how it would be less clutter on the counter. I look at it as something more to clean around...something to collect grunge at the base. I'd rather have a pretty glass bottle on top of the counter that I can pick up and clean under...or put under the cabinet completely.

For me, fewer gadgets are better.

I've had my Grohe soap dispenser installed in my granite for 7 years, and it looks and performs like the day it was installed. Love it! It is definitely less clutter and lower profile than a soap bottle. It won't knock over like a soap bottle can and drip all over the place. I can easily squirt the soap from the dispenser into the sink, or into pans for soaking, or directly onto a sponge. The under-counter bottle holds a good amount, so I don't feel like I am refilling often, and have never seen the need for a NeverMT. Refill takes about 1 minute - pull up the pump, pour the soap into the dispenser, put back the pump.

Although Slonewby called a soap dispenser a "gadget", I would not classify it as such. It's a plastic bottle with a pump. How is that a gadget? Also, mine has never "collected grunge at the base", though I have certainly had separate soap bottles that get sticky with dripped soap, which is another reason I prefer a soap dispenser in the counter to a separate soap bottle. Also I do not find the separate soap bottle looks appealing if the soap gets low in the bottle. I spent a lot of time and money to make my kitchen look pretty, and the soap bottle doesn't do it for me.

Kris_ma makes a good point - some liquid soaps can clog a soap dispenser. I switched a couple of years ago to Seventh Generation, and it is thinner than my old Palmolive (also it doesn't have any added fragrance, thank goodness). The old Palmolive would on occasion clog the dispenser. To fix, I just dipped the pump in a glass of hot water, pumped the hot water a couple of times and cleared the clog. After I switched to a thinner liquid soap than Palmolive, I have not once had a clog.

We have Delta Addison pulldown faucets in the kitchen and the Allora in the laundry. We opted for the in granite soap dispensers and I'm so glad we did. We keep Dawn dishwashing detergent in them--1/2 pump for hand washing and 3-4 for dishwashing. There is less clutter, the soap is always at the ready and even though I had pretty dispenser bottle in our previous home for dish soap and hand soap, the in granite-dispenser is way less messy--and certainly no grunge around it. The things I learned while soap dispenser shopping:

1) Make sure the pump fits your hand, especially if you plan to pump single handed--thumb on top of pump, palm of same hand underneath. DH uses one hand on top of pump and the other hand underneath, but I'm a single handed kind of girl. One of the finalists we chose was eliminated because the dispenser tube part was too long and would overshoot my hand.

2) Make sure the size and proportion of the dispenser match the size and proportion of your faucet. We ended up opting for the LuxArt brand of soap dispensers for this reason--I didn't care for the one that came with the Addison, I liked the Victorian better, but it the diameter seemed out of proportion to the faucet; Luxart had a similar one to the Victorian only slightly smaller in diameter.

3) If there is a display model, ask if you can test it out. What you are looking for here is #1 above and the amount of liquid dispensed with a single pump. Some pumps dispense a pitiful amount of liquid with each pump.

4) Select the location that works for you. Don't let the granite guys or your spouse (unless they're the main cook/cleanup person) dictate which side the dispenser goes on. When we had ours drilled, the granite guys and DH wanted to put the dispenser to the right of the faucet. To me that crowded the right side as the faucet controls are on that side and odds are I'd be turning the water on with my right hand as I pumped soap with my left (I'm right handed BTW).

5) Make sure you have the option to fill from the top--you simply pull the top out and refill. Working under the sink in tight quarters to unscrew, fill and rescrew the bottle into place is a PIA.

Hope this helps!

akchicago....to clarify...anything with some sort of mechanism (spring, pump type devices included) that can fail, I consider a gadget. I use an antique italian bottle with a simple spout for soap...or a lovely bronze colored dispenser that matches my hardware/faucet.

I think it's just a personal preference whether or not you want a built in soap dispenser. I've heard many people have had problems with them and, since I was having to drill an extra hole in granite, I opted not.

Soap dispensers always look like they are so short that the soap barely misses the edge of the sink. I am also a squirt-dish-soap-into-the-sink-or-pot, so I want mine to be moveable. But the moveable one at our rental is very inefficient at pumping the soap out - too thick? - so there is always a drip from the pump end after putting it back on the counter, getting blue globs of soap on the counter.

I will probably get a small cheapo squeezable kind and just put it under the sink when done washing dishes.

Slonewby - I see what you are saying. I think I've been spending too much time on the Appliances Forum with its induction tops, steam ovens, speed ovens, fridges that connect to the internet, dishwashers that open by themselves, etc. So a soap dispenser looks quaintly non-gadgety by comparison!

I'm not crazy about the look of the dispenser, but it's definitely a personal preference. The simpler, the fewer gadgets, the fewer holes-- the better for me. Our KD must have asked me a million times whether I was sure I didn't want one. So I know I'm in the minority.

Julliet11, LOVE your backsplash! Yes, it's been a year, and we still don't have a BS!

We opted to forego the dispenser. I love my stand alone one. Especially since I can just pick it up, to clean under it. :)

All personal prefferance.

Another vote for the built in dispenser and Never MT. Ours is a cheapo, but works well enough. Maybe there are better ones. Ours doesn't squirt far into the basin, it dribbles onto the edge of the marble and down the side of the sink, but since I know that I always squirt it onto a dish cloth (or scrubbie, etc.) I like it much better than having a separate bottle on top of the sink.

We have 5 holes in the marble, three for the faucet, one for liquid detergent, one for a sprayer.

akchicago....I wouldn't even know what half of those things ARE over on that forum! I can see how a soap pump would pale in comparison when speaking gadgetry! lol

Sas95...I'm right in there with you in the minority~

I agree that the soap dispensers could be a great thing in the sink. Just not for me~

I love my soap dispensers. I have had one at my kitchen sink for over twenty years. During that time, I did find the job of refilling a bit annoying and sometimes messy if I wasn't careful, but I still loved it. Then I found out about Never-MT at this site, and that completely eliminated my only complaint. When we put in new countertops in our master bath, I put a soap dispenser next to each sink, with Never-MTs for both. Whenever we get around to a facelift on the other upstairs bath, I will put the soap dispensers at each sink there, as well. The only reason I don't have a soap dispenser in my powder room downstairs is that I have a pedestal sink there.

Oh, and at the kitchen sink I keep a mild dishwashing liquid in mine and use it both for dishes and hands.

Thanks for all the great feedback. I think we will put the dispensers that came with our Delta faucets at the kitchen and laundry sinks, but not at the prep. And I am considering one for the master vanity. Never-MT sounds very appealing!

Our kitchen sink is divided, and we are both right handed. I think the dispenser should go to the right side of the faucet near the sink corner (no strainer/basket there). Hope that's a good spot.

I'm going to show my inexperience, and ask, what is Never-MT?

We decided not to put one in. I wanted as few holes in the granite as possible. Besides, I wash dishes on the left side of the sink, rinse in the right, and put the dishes to dry on the right side of the counter. My DH insists on washing dishes on the right, rinsing on the left, then moving the dishes back to the right counter to dry. So one dispenser wouldn't work for us, as he probably does the dishes 50% of the time. I got a nice looking bath soap pump dispenser and have it sitting on the counter. It works for us.

Drewem, here is a link explaining Never-MT:

http://custominserts-store.stores.yahoo.net/nevsoapandlo.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Never MT

Thank you! Does it really work, or is it junk? It sure looks interesting! Not that I have the soap dispenser yet...it's coming though.

It is not junk at all!! I have the Never MT and I think it's awesome that I don't have to fill the little soap dispenser anymore. I used to have one that I filled from the top, and I would always overfill it. I have a Delta as well, but I don't know the name. I don't do a lot of handwashing, so I may not use the dish soap as much as most people, but I didn't have to replace my big bottle of soap for almost a year!! I highly recommend it.

When I first started visiting this site many years ago to research for my house/kitchen, the Never MT was on everyone's must have list! ;)

Lori

I have the same dispenser as Juliet. We had put in new faucets and had the extra hole so decided to put the soap dispenser in... well as it turned out there is a air vent tube in the way underneath the counter and the bottle would not screw on.. So I took the pump part to Home Depot and bought 3 feet of clear tubing that fit over the small tube attached to the the pump. If I remember right it was just about the same size as the little tube so I put the end of the clear tubing in boiling water for a minute or so to soften it and it slipped right onto the tubing on the pump. Drop the 3 feet of tubing thru the opening and snap the pump back on. I had been to Sam's and bought the biggest bottle of Liquid Dawn they had. Cut the bottom of the 3 foot of tubing so it would go to the bottom of the bottle of dawn, cut it on the slant so it will not go flush up against the bottle and cause a suction. You will have to make a hole in the cap of the Dawn for the tubing to go thru but it was easy to do. Run the tubing thru the cap, screw the cap back on the Dawn and there you go. You will not have to worry about refilling a bottle and the big bottle of Dawn will last a long time. I did not have to thin it any, it pumps out fine. For hand soap I like Bath and Body Works hand soaps and now they have the pretty chrome looking covers with designs that slip over the bottles.

A Never-MT is basically the same as what dbfirewife constructed plus a valve that keeps the soap from slipping back down the tube so that you don't have to pump to prime it when it has been sitting unsued for a while.

I agree with slonewby. As an interior designer of 16 years, I have only ever been requested to include a soap dispenser maybe 3 times. They are dated, often get clogged, and are just another area to clean. I see no issue with a separate soap bottle on a tray or under the sink. This post is over ten years old, so I'm curious the feedback in 2023 about dispensers. My guess is it is a dated item no longer desirable.

Our new soapstone countertop installed last month was done WITHOUT a built-in soap dispenser. The one in the old granite countertop from 20+ years ago was aggravating to fill (always overflowed) and the spilled dishsoap permanently discolored the granite in its vicinity. I like much better the nice stainless one now sitting on the counter that I got from Simplehuman!

All of my pretty glass soap dispensers kept getting broken by others so I did the matching built-in one in my renovation (with a Never MT) for the clean-up sink. Very happy so far! I was also worried that something sitting on the marble (a bottle or tray) would end up leaving a mark after a while. Maybe it looks dated but it makes me happy.

Still loving my in-counter soap dispensers after 15 years! I have two -- one at my prep sink and one at my cleanup sink. They don't clog and are much easier to clean than soap containers sitting on the counter dripping and causing soap scum & water stains. The spouts on ours are long enough that they extend far enough into the sink so there's no soap "spill", unlike what we have in the Powder Room -- I'm really tired of cleaning up the soap around the soap bottle in the PR. I even started putting it on a glass platform, but it still gets messy!

BTW...we also use the Never-MT at both sinks in the Kitchen.

With marble, I can see a countertop dispenser possibly presenting problems. I have heard that one needs to be careful with the kind of soap used around marble in any case?

I’ve heard that too. After some research, I decided on plain Palmolive. Just the classic one.

@catspa_zone9sunset14 and @blueskysunnyday with marble, an in-counter dispenser is better. If instead you have a bottle on the counter, or on a tray on the counter, the bottle and/or tray will stain the marble. We have seen photos of that on this forum a number of times, and I think @Joseph Corlett, LLC has posted photos of that happening.

I actually would not use Palmolive with a marble counter. It is green, and it would be better to use a dish soap that is uncolored, such as Seventh Generation. Also, Palmolive tends to be thicker than other dish soaps which may clog a soap dispenser pump whether in-counter or with a bottle.

"This post is over ten years old, so I'm curious the feedback in 2023 about dispensers. My guess is it is a dated item no longer desirable."

@Trademark Design the choice of an built-in soap dispenser or soap bottle on the counter is about which function type you prefer. It has nothing to do with being dated or not. In any case, I have yet to see kitchen designers Mick de Giulio, Martyn Lawrence Bullard, Plain English, DeVol, Matthew Quinn, or any other top designer use a bottle on the counter. Having said that, I like soap bottles. I also like in-counter dispensers. Neither is dated. People like one type of soap dispenser or the other.

@M Miller, I based my research on the pH of the soaps. I guess green soap sitting there for a long time could cause a green stain, but I was more worried about finding a soap I could splash around without etching.

Regarding Palmolive -- the "original" is thinner. Most Palmolives are concentrated, but the Original is not.

Pictures of kitchens by top designers are staged and cleaned up. In real life, owners have soap bottle on the counter, stowed away under the sink for the photo session.

Yes, that is when there is no in-counter soap dispenser installed. I meant that I see in-counter soap dispensers installed in kitchens by high-end designers. I am sure they also design kitchens without them, but @Trademark Design commented that in-counter soap dispensers are dated and rarely requested, and that is not correct.

I wouldn’t say it’s incorrect @M Miller: I would say it depends on location and age of client. Most of my work is in Toronto or the metropolitan areas >50kms outside. Again, very rarely in 16 years am I asked about this. Was curious since this was an old post.

Want to protect your top from the damage the soap hiding on the bottom of your bottle does? Simple. Use a bright red mat. It works great; expecially on dark engineered stone.