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jennlee2

Sink configurations - which one? Silgranit?

jennlee2
9 years ago

Hi! We're working on a kitchen remodel and it seems like every decision is so difficult for me!

Our kitchen designer is recommending a Silgranit sink and I've heard a lot of good things about them, and some bad, but I think I may be going with the Silgranit.

Then the choice of configurations. Currently we have a 50/50 2-bowl sink. I've always had this configuration of sink in every home I've had.

While we do have a dishwasher, I still wash some things by hand, and of course pots and things like that that don't fit too well in the dishwasher. Currently I use a dish drainer in one side of the sink, because while I don't mind washing a few dishes, I generally hate to dry them!

I also use that drainer to put plastic ware in to dry after it goes through the dishwasher (it never dries in there).

So I tend to think I will still want to be able to have a dish drainer in the sink. I don't like the idea of a dish drainer on the counter - either all the time, or trying to store it between uses. So it seems pretty clear I should do the 50/50, right?

But I see people posting about loving a single sink, or a small/large sink setup, or low divides. (The 50/50 sink divide is pretty high) and I wonder if I had another kind if I'd like it, and is it just because I've never had anything else that I feel like I have to stay the same?

And I'm also intrigued by a possible low divide and that only comes in a 1-3/4 configuration. The equal bowl divide is the traditional high divide.

Those with single or mixed size bowls, do you hand dry everything you hand wash? Do you have a drainer out on the counter? What do you do?

Any suggestions or things I should think about when making this decision?

An then I still don't know about the color, lol. Another decision!!!

Comments (18)

  • schicksal
    9 years ago

    I've had high 50/50 splits and low/lower side (80/20 with low or waterfall divide). The later were SO much more useful. You can put in baking sheets, pans, and things with handles so much more easily. No more having things poke up because of the center divider. It's awesome!

  • brightm
    9 years ago

    This is my first house with a single bowl. I handwash a lot.I dry on a mat on the counter. What I wash wouldn't probably fit well in a dish drainer anyway.

    I was concerned, but I'd NEVER go back to a 50/50. The biggest complaint I've had is that if I have something happening in the sink, I can't get to the drain like you could if, say, one side was filled with water. The other thing is, though this single bowl seemed large compared to a 50/50 and I just fill it a bit to start while washing, this single is tiny compared to most today. Without going to measure, it's about 24"w outside (overmount) and 19" inside. After I finish my cup of coffee, I'm about to wash my last dishes in that sink.

    We're putting in the Silgranit Diamond Super Single. It's sitting in my entryway. It's truly bigger than a baby bathtub. Of course the box is bigger with packing stuff, but it's frighteningly big to me at this point. It was DH's pick. However, I'm really excited about it too.

    I'm most excited about the offset drain. I love that it'll make more space under the sink (a benefit we didn't think of until reading more on here). I'm assuming I'll get a little dishpan so I can do a little bit of washing and still have access to the drain/sink. I expect I'll do much less hand washing with a new dishwasher.

    We considered some of the low divide, but between MIL's happiness with her large farm sink she put in her last kitchen and all the love on here for it, we went this way and I don't regret it yet.

    I keep reading that no one regrets putting in a big sink. :)

  • Fori
    9 years ago

    I've never had luck a dish rack in the sink--it seems like a good idea but our sink sees so much action, it would never work. Something would get splattered on those clean dishes.

    If you like to fill a basin for hand washing dirty china and sterling every so often, a dishpan is perfect.

    The in-sink dishrack I have would work on a single sink though and that's where I (briefly) used it. It's the type that is suspended from the top of the sink/counter. So you can still do that with a single.

    I like a good double sink, but I've never had the room to put in one big enough to hold the large items I have.

  • suzanne_sl
    9 years ago

    Like you, I had a double sink with the drainer sitting in one side. We've gone to a 32" single sink. Hand washed items go on a towel on the counter until dry and then put away. I don't love them on the counter, but I don't have room to deal with dish rack storage, so towel on the counter it is.

    Would do it again? Absolutely! Love that large sink with lots of room for large pots and pans. For hand washing, I usually fill whichever pot/bowl is largest and use it for a dish pan (don't have storage for one of those either).

  • PhoneLady
    9 years ago

    Never going back to a 50/50. Too restrictive in size and 2 drains require extra real estate under the sink. I now have Blanco Cascade Precis with integrated basket. Works great in our household. Occassional hand washing. Basket for draining washed veggies. Landing pad for hubby's travel mug.

    This is a popular topic, so If you really want your head to explode with information, you can use the the search function to find seemingly endless threads on the pros and cons of every type of sink imaginable .

  • Marc Johnson
    9 years ago

    PhoneLady - that's a great set-up. I tried convincing my husband to go that route and was roundly shot down, so he has his massive single bowl Silgranit Diamond waiting to be installed. I decided to pick my battles and let that one go :)

    Did you do a perfect flush mount on that or is there a reveal?

  • PhoneLady
    9 years ago

    I'd call that a flush mount with a zero reveal. We also had radius put on the granite for the sink opening.

    Sorry if I'm repeating myself here....so many posts about sinks, I forget what I posted where. Might be helpful to OP. Anyway, hubby and I were in total agreement about getting a large/small split to replace the 50/50.

    Just ready to order when we realized our base cabinet was smaller than we originally thought. We didn't want to do any cabinet cutting or other workarounds, so our only Blanco options were a 50/50 (NEVER) or this Precis which we'd hadn't even considered before.

    Turned out to be the luckiest break ever as we both love it. My husband has a smoker and he cleans all the racks, etc in the sink. In that 50/50 sink, I used to have to wipe down everything in a 10 foot radius when he was done - including the window. Bigger, deeper sink and high arc faucet: all winners.

  • PhoneLady
    9 years ago

    Actually it's an under mount sink. Were you referring to the reveal?

  • brightm
    9 years ago

    LOL Phonelady, I wondered what your husband was smoking in his pipe/cigarette/bong or whatever that required racks. THEN I realized you meant smoking meat. :) Yes, having the Cinder Silgranit is going to be great as DH is a smoker as well.

  • PhoneLady
    9 years ago

    Well if ya got em, smoke em........even if "em" are ribs!!!

  • nanj
    9 years ago

    PhoneLady, the photo makes it look like it is a two bowl sink with a low divide. Is it that or a single sink?

    I just looked it up and it is! Wow, a great set up.

  • PhoneLady
    9 years ago

    There is a division but not the same functionality as 2 bowls with a low divide. The raised platform where the basket sits won't hold water. It is notched so the water just runs throw the basket and right out to the drain.

  • Babka NorCal 9b
    9 years ago

    I guess it depends on how you use your sinks. I wash in one and rinse in the other. I have always had 50/50 sinks and wouldn't go any other way. I always have one side free for food prep. We do dishes twice a day (do breakfast pots and lunch pots/knives then do dinner pots/knives, and what doesn't go into the dishwasher, gets washed, put on the drainer next to the sink, dried, then put away. I don't like having clean or dirty dishes/pots/knives in the sink for very long. Plus I have a small kitchen and need all that counter top space for preparing dinner.

    With a big single, I would have to be putting things to be washed on one side so I could wash veggies, chicken, on the other side . I use a lot of things preparing food and don't open the dishwasher each time I use a bowl or spoon and I wait until all the work is done. Then my husband cleans up! (good)

    I don't bake much, so large cookie sheets are only occasionally a problem, but then I manage, as they don't need to be soaked just soaped and rinsed.

    I have a Silgranit double and I love it. Got it in 2007. No problems at all.

    -Babka

    This post was edited by Babka on Wed, Jul 16, 14 at 23:31

  • aliris19
    9 years ago

    I agree with Babka, this decision is highly dependent on your personal habits. We have that 80/20 waterfall silgranite. I love love love the silgranite, not so much the split-thing. I can't quite get it to work for me. I thought it was nifty but didn't quite think it through. If I had my druthers I'd get the large single bowl and be done with the fanciness. The basket that comes with that silgranite left the sink on day 2 I think and has been sitting in the corner on the counter collecting plastic bags to wash ever since.

    It's too small to be a fruit colander, but the holes are too big for that anyway: what's it for? What do you use it for? I wind up stacking hand-wash things in the ledge and DW stuff elsewhere. Not a good system.

    Truthfully, if I had to do it all all over again, I would put in two large single bowl silgranites. We have a deep Kraus aluminum sink for the second and it's nice too, just not big enough. I wash a lot of veggies and I could use more space for washing ... maybe that Kohler stages. I think I just wouldn't be satisfied until I got a wall lab sink is all it boils down to. ;)

  • PhoneLady
    9 years ago

    I do very little hand washing so it's a perfect dish drainer for me when I need one for wine glasses or the wooden handled steak knives.

    I have a small colander that suspends perfectly in the basket for when I drain pasta so it's not in my way in the sink.

    We put things in the basket to thaw. It's just hubby and me here. I agree it won't work for everybody. But, to me, it's my Goldilocks sink.......just right!

  • schicksal
    9 years ago

    Here's how ours came out. Same model of sink. FWIW I've taken to getting things dishwasher ready in the sink rather than actually washing them and drying there. It's so much easier to clean up the big stuff with this sink than the 50/50 splits I've owned in the past.

  • a2gemini
    9 years ago

    I also have the cascade.
    There are only 2 of us.
    I like the small raised platform to keep items out of the lower sink.
    I have the sink grid and the basket.
    I don't store either in the sink.

    My little almost worthless cabinet to the right of the sink turned into a gold mine.
    Shelf one holds my cutting boards.(and I have about a dozen!)
    Second shelf holds my basket and the bottom shelf houses my slicer.

    Everything I wash fits fine except the large riound Advantium trays. They fit but not totally flat- probably about a 30 degree angle - but mostly they go to the DW if more than hand wiping is needed.

    I don't hand wash much, so the sink tray is above the fridge.

    If I could have afforded it, I might have gone with a copper farmhouse sink like Poohpup - but don't think I would have done a farmhouse silgranite but maybe others would have.

    Mine is also a negative reveal, albeit slight.
    I didn't understand the ramifications at the time but DH had few opinions and wanted the negative.

    Bottom line - I am satisfied and would do it again but with a positive reveal

  • PhoneLady
    9 years ago

    a2gemini - you must have the Cascade Performa since you have a grid. I have the Cascade Precis and Blanco doesn't offer a grid for the Precis. That bummed me out originally but now I don't miss a grid one bit. I have a small cheap grid I got from Amazon for $10 for my last sink, and I keep it in a cabinet like you do for the rare occasion I want to use one.

    Does the negative reveal hamper your ability to get the grid in to the sink?