Kraus is a well-respected brand here on the forum. I personally do not like stainless sinks. Tinny, loud, scratches, and those never ending water spots. I have two Blanco silgranits in metallic gray. I don't have to deal with any of the negatives of stainless, and they are easy to keep clean. I sometimes forget to actually break out the scrubby and BKF. If you check around the forum, you'll find dozens of posts from happy silgranit owners singing their praises.

My guess is that you can find any brand of sink or faucet cheaper online than at your cab shop if you look around.

Love our silgranite but replaced the strainer with a brass strainer as word from many sources was the standard strainer was not very good.

Take this with a grain of salt. Consumer reports did not like the silgranite as they cracked it dropping pans in it.

But I bet if you dropped the same pan on a granite counter top it would crack also...

I agree with the above posters. We had stainless steel sink before, and were about to buy a Kraus stainless sink, but then I read about Silgranit sinks on this forum. We've had our Silgranit Super Single sink in anthracite (black) for a year and a half, we are not careful with it, and it looks like the day it was installed. I would never go back to stainless. The silgranit never shows water stains, does not scratch, and bye-bye to stainless steel's dull film (never going back to a double bowl either, but that's another thread). I had to laugh at Consumer Reports that A2gemini mentioned. Yes, they dropped a heavy pan from a height onto the sink. Had they done that to a stainless sink, it would have dented, had they done that to an enameled cast iron sink, it would have chipped off the enamel, had they done it to a counter, it would have chipped or cracked. Consumer Reports never likes anything that is newer than 10 years, and goes out of its way to "prove" those dang newfangled things aren't as good as the old standby.

We chose the silgranit anthracite color cause it looks really good against our granite, and the contrast with our chrome Kraus faucet KPF-1602 makes the faucet sparkle. So, I prefer the dark colors of anthracite and cafe brown, but that is individual preference.

Regarding buying a sink online, it is really important to buy a Silgranit sink from a reputable seller who is an authorized dealer for Blanco. When we do hear of cracks in Silgranit sinks, it almost always occurs during shipping. We bought ours from qualitybath (learned about on this forum), and it came tripled-packed, completely inert in its packaging. We bought our Kraus faucet from expressdecor, and it was also expertly packed; expressdecor usually has coupon discounts from 5-15% so make sure you check that out on their homepage.

I have the Silgranite in Biscotti and couldn't be happier. It never looks dirty and cleans up with soap and water. In four months, I had one blackberry stain that wiped out with a little baking soda and a sponge. No scouring required.

I've had my Kraus sink and faucet installed for about a week and so far so good. Loving it! Good luck with your decision.

I bought our Kraus sink and Delta Leland faucet from Faucet Direct about a year ago. They had great service and good pricing. DH was opposed to anything but a stainless sink, so I can't give any advice on the silgranite. Our Kraus sink is performing well and came with the grates which I really like. We did install it with Kohler drain flanges, which several people here recommended.

Good luck with your search.

We purchased our Silgranit Super Single sink in anthracite off Amazon about 14 months ago and it shipped perfectly and we love it! Cleans up super easy and we do not baby it at all either with three kids 3, 5, and 12 throwing stuff in the sink on a daily basis.

I really considered Silgranit but just couldn't pull the trigger. I couldn't stand the thought of putting something that looks so artificial in my beautiful natural stone countertop. I went with stainless. Of course, if I could have bent my budget any further i would have loved stone or copper!

Thank you for the information...
I'm really leaning toward the silgranite. The salesman showed me a strainer that matched the biscotti silgranite. It is plastic so I'm not sure about using it verses the stainless strainer. It looked nice with it but I'm not sure how well it would hold up. What are your thoughts on that?
Thanks again

I have GD at each of my metallic silgranits so drain area is stainless. I think it looks great, especially since my faucets are chrome. HTH.