They are prone to spotting, especially if you have hard water. I usually use a microfiber cloth with hot water and it leaves them dry enough with no spotting. I also use the new Swiffer dusting spray to make them really polish up nicely from time to time.

I have Cambrian Black on my island. It is a brushed or antiqued finish. It does not water spot. It is not hard to clean. It is not picky about how I clean it. If anything, it might hide a bit too much. ;-)

tonyg3-

it will depend on the species of Black Granite that you use...
AND
the type of finish that you choose - polished, honed, leathered, antiqued, etc

IF you are talking about Absolute Black - yes it will show just about
every speck of dust, water spotting, finger prints, Cocoa Puff milk, etc....

Other true Black Graniites - like Galaxy & Cambrian - will be easier
on your cleaning schedule...

One thing that has become really popular lately, is the desire of folks to
use Absolute Black - HONED in their kitchens.

I USED to be dead set against this notion due to a very bad experience
I had had, when I Fabricated 4 Honed AB kitchens for a builder - all
at the same time (my first encounter doing AB-Honed). The stone showed
every finger print and oil smudge.... I had to tear out and re-do
all 4 kitchens for the builder - not at my expense thank goodness...

But that experience about 10 years ago set me on a crusade to warn people
about what they were getting themselves into if they went with AB Honed -
That was- until a fellow GW'r shared
what they used o make their AB Honed look great and NOT show the oil spots and
finger prints. They used this stuff from Target - called "Method" Granite cleaner..

I do NOT sell Method mind you - I just have heard that it works to help
"season" AB Honed to the point where it will NOT show finger prints and other
things as easy as un-treated AB Honed will......

I have not tried Method out myself yet (to see how it works) but a number of folks
now are using it on honed AB, and they are having great results! I am
planning on doing a podcast that will be up on my educational web site:
Natural Stone 101.com - so watch for it in the near future...... like towards
the end of July 09.

Anyways - I hope that helps you

kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: Method Granite Cleaner

I have uba tuba with a huge window which tends to illuminate spots, crumbs, etc. Microfiber cloths are my best friend. I am a coutertop wiper, though, LOL--it is not a problem for me :)

We have Atlantic Black honed granite in our kitchen. The installer sealed the granite after installation with 2 applications. We have found though that leaving a wet glass on the granite will cause a ring and metal pans will transfer a metal mark. We've only had the granite for about 3 months. I am going to call the granite installer out to buff out the marks and reseal. Perhaps the sealer they used was not the right type for the granite.

We have Volga Blue granite which gives the general appearance of black granite. We did not need to seal ours. It is very easy to keep clean with clean dish soap water. I occasionally use the alcohol and water mixture to clean them. The only thing that bothers me, is the black caulk around the stainless steel sink. I clean the caulk but cannot visually observe that it is clean.

We have a dark black granite in our current home. I don't know what it is as it was here when we moved in. I do not like it at all. Previous granites that I"ve had have been so much better for not showing crumbs, streaks and water spots. I have soft Culligan water and I still have issues. If I want it to look nice, I need to use a granite cleaner/polisher and microfiber. Just a wet washcloth always leaves streaks.

We have polished AB Premium & my experience, unlike Kevin's, is that it's pretty easy to keep clean...yes there are water spots, but they're not that obvious and if fingerprints get on it and you look at it at the right angle you can see them, but in general it's been easy to keep & look clean. Dust might be a issue if you don't wipe down your countertops every day to two, but ours are wiped down every day so it's never been an issue. Our sink is in front of a large bay down the countertop and for some reason we actually seem to less on that counter...not sure why as I would have expected the opposite! (With one exception....we have a strange rainbow affect around our faucets & SDs & the tops of the sinks....I have no idea what it is and the sunlight does make it more noticeable...I think it's something the granite installers did, but they refused to do acknowledge it was a problem...)

I get a lot of ooos & ahhs over my counters...even when they're not the cleanest. We love our counters and would definitely do it over if we had a chance...ummmmm unless we had a kitchen that would work w/soapstone...I love the look & feel of oiled black soapstone w/white veins!

Interesting timing...I'm going through a HUGE problem with my absolute black granite right now. It happened after the very first time that I entertained too- I noticed that there were water rings all over the counter...granted, I did not wipe off the counter right after the party, partly because I thought that the absolute black wasn't as tempermental, but I did not expect water rings everywhere. My installer is coming out with a poultice, to try and get rid of the rings. I think it really depends on the quality of the granite and the sealer whether or not the granite shows the water spots, as many people on this site have said that they do not have any problems with their AB granite. The cleaning is easy, I used the method cleaner that Kevin mentioned, but the AB does show EVERYTHING! If I had it to do over again, I don't think I would get it...luckily, it's only on my island.

I have AB and it does not need to be sealed. AB is one of the denser stones that do not need sealing...as a matter of fact, if you seal it you'll be asking for trouble.

Check StoneGirl's comments about this on another thread (shopped for granite yesterday! Have several questions...)

• Posted by stonegirl (My Page) on Sun, Jun 21, 09 at 13:41

  ...Sealing dense stones could lead to nasty results, such as streaking and ghost etching, so DO NOT go by the motto of "seal it anyway, it could not hurt". Rather test your stone for absorption by dripping water on it to see if it darkens any. If the water has no effect on the stone, sealing it is unnecessary. ...

Here is a link that might be useful: Thread: shopped for granite yesterday! Have several questions...

Another person here with Volga blue, and though there are often streaks, etc when I just wipe stuff up without cleaning well, it is pretty hard to see unless I am really picky. One small problem I had was ants! We got some in the kitchen, and it was harder to tell right away because their trail was invisible along the dark granite......hopefully not a repeatable issue, but was a little frustrating none the less.

I've been lurking here for some weeks, and first want to thank everyone for the help I've gotten so far. On the black granite, we're now at the same point in the selection process, and I'm wondering what you decided to do. Our kitchen people kindly got us a large square of unsealed honed absolute black granite to play with. We have been testing it in the kitchen: standing an olive oil bottle in a pool of olive oil overnight, smearing the granite with food substances, leaving moist water glasses, etc. Every mark has come off with no problem using a little soap (Dawn) and a paper towel, sometimes followed by a microfiber cloth. They insist that honed AB granite should NOT be sealed, by the way; maybe the sealing explains some of the unhappy experiences reported? I'm perplexed why some of the posts I'm seeing are so different from the experience I've been having.

I have honed Jet Mist. When it was installed, they sealed it. The next day I left a bottle of olive oil on the counter for a little while and it left a mark. The fabricator came out the next day and applied acetone and got out the mark. Then he resealed. But then I heard about using an enhancer on the stone, which darkens it (which I wanted) and also seals it. I applied the enhancer on a remnant piece and it did, indeed, darken it beautifully. I put olive oil, lemon juice, water, etc. on it, and it didn't stain at all. I asked the fabricator to come out and apply the enhancer. He came, used acetone to remove the previously applied sealer, and applied the enhancer. My stone looks gorgeous now, but it is still showing some water rings. I think perhaps he didn't remove all of the previous sealer before applying the enhancer and that's why my counters/island are not behaving like the test piece, which never had sealer applied. So, my advice would be to have DuPont Stonetech Enhancer Pro applied to UNSEALED honed black granite. It will make it nice and black and also seal it well.

I am living in my second kitchen with back absolute granite. I am in my current kitchen now for 6 year. I have never sealed it and I clean it every night after dinner with Windex (I was told not to use Windex on my granite). I have not had any problems with dust or water spots, My countertops are always spot free, streak free, and shiny. Just the way I like them.