As far as I'm concerned there is no pro to a built in soap dispenser..
Another hole in your countertop is just that.. A possible leak area for water to get through.. Why drill holes that really aren't necceassry..
Counter space is still used up, weather you keep your soap bottle on the counter or that built in soap dispenser.
Hate them..

Love our Grohe built in dispenser!

Love.

The dispensers are handy and easier to access than handling a bottle when your hands really need soap ! (like after cutting up a chicken)
Just measure how much soap the dispenser holds so you know how high to refill it or use a tube from the dispenser directly to the soap bottle stored under the sink.

I cannot think of a con of having one.

No cons. Love, love, love, love, love. Adore not having a cluttery, wet, and slimy soap bottle scooting around behind the sink making yet more thing that has to be picked up, wiped off, and wiped under when cleaning counters. Oh, and I hate having to refill counter models or buy new so often. With a NeverMT and a soap dispenser, you're set for many, many months

Love my Elkay soap dispenser. It's been in for about a month now. I went on breezygirl's and others recommendations. Glad I did! No problems, so far. I have my main sink in the island and I didn't want to see the bottle of dish liquid on my counter all the time. Never had one before. THANKS GW faithfuls!!!

The only con to having the pump that I can see is if you like a dish soap bottle, as a counter accessory. I don't mean that sarcastically either. Lately, I've realized that the designers of the bottles are missing the mark with me, which makes me think I am not their target audience? When I go to buy dish soap absolutely none of the bottles appeal to me. A weird thing to think about, but I do think about it, probably because Dawn keeps noting that their's is a New Design! I think if I went to Whole Foods, instead of Walmart, I'd probably be able to find a bottle that spoke to me. : )

I rather like switching out bottles now and again, so I could go either way. Might get bored with a built-in soap dispenser. The small pleasures in life.

love. A soap bottle is not decor, to me. Clutter.

Just ordered a soap dispenser (it is going in the hole formerly occupied by filter faucet) so I guess I have joined the pro-soap-dispenser camp.

But the one thing I think I might not like-- with a separate bottle you can lift it up and squirt directly into what you're cleaning, no matter where in the sink that is.

Anyone with a soap dispenser miss being able to do this?

Love mine! I opted to do dish soap in the dispenser and let it do double duty--1/2 pump for hand washing, 3-4 pumps for running a sink full of sudsy water for dishwashing. One word of caution if you opt to do the same--don't use the Dawn Power Soak detergent to wash your hands (its the one that advertises an overnight soak in just 5 minutes)--it will rip up your hands in a heartbeat. I even had a nice decorated bottle that I would pour the dish soap into to have out on the counter in the last house, but I happily said bye-bye to it in the new house. Dispenser is very convenient and keeps the counter looking uncluttered.

To answer Sayde's question-no I don't miss it. To me, even my 33" wide single bowl sink is not very big so no big deal to move a pot under the dispenser. Truth be told, most of the time I pump the soap on my hand and run the water over my hand as I fill the pot (or whatever it is I'm trying to fill with sudsy water including the sink!)

Hope this helps!

These were the answers I got when I asked this last year - there may be some different people answering. I ended up just putting the bottle under the counter, and I'm happy with that.

Here is a link that might be useful: soap dispensers redux

If I want soap in the far side of the sink, I pump some into a glass and hold it under the spray, then dump it where I want.

Another dispenser lover here, for all the reasons mentioned. The ONLY con was refilling it, which was a pain to do from underneath as required by my model. Thanks to these forums, I learned about the Never MT and now that sole con is gone for good. LOVE!

Love here too. I can't even wrap my head around someone not wanting one.

Love my Waterstone soap dispenser! It looks nice and my OCD DH makes much less of a mess! I am experimenting with the double duty trick but hand soap is more critical than dish soap!

I too cannot think of a con - nor would I be happy w/o mine. I also wanted one in my bathroom sink - but, the guy forgot to put it in grrr. I don't like things on my counters nor like opening my cabinets w/dirty "paws".

I'm in a minority here, but I have had one for more than 10 years and have never used it. Not sure why. I was thinking about not installing it this remodel, but husband uses it all the time. I prefer the no-touch pretty dispenser on the counter. After reading everyone's opinion I am going to install it since it came with the faucet and this one fills from the top which is much better than crawling behind a deep sink to access it.

I want 1, connected to a 10 gallon tank of soap! Wow I'm domesticated...

Love mine---had it in the kitchen for over twenty years and added it to bathrooms, as well. Would never go back. The only con I can think of is that I really didn't like having to refill the soap dispenser. However, I learned about the Never-MT here and have installed them on ALL soap dispensers.

Also, I keep dish soap in my kitchen soap dispenser and use it both for dishes and hands, so no need for anything else on the counter.

I have one at both sinks with NeverMTs and love them. I also have a decorative oil bottle filled with dish soap at the main sink because I use it too. Just depends on what I'm doing but I really like having both. If I had to choose, I'd go with the built in dispenser.

I've never understood people who say they have to crawl under the counter to change out the soap. I'm pretty sure all of them are meant to refilled from the top by just lifting out the soap dispenser. Am I wrong?

No, Pooh. Not all SDs are made that way. I think more and more are top fill nowadays though.

Feel I must present the con case, just for balance. Can't leave Renoguy41 to carry the banner alone.

I chose not to get one because I didn't want another thing to clean around. I hated cleaning around the old faucet and side spray with a toothbrush. I went to a single handle faucet, so I have only one thing to clean around. Admittedly, I haven't needed a toothbrush yet. "Something more to clean around" seems to be the main con reason I've seen.

I also considered how I use the dish soap, and I prefer being able to squirt the bottle either into the sink or onto a particularly greasy item. I don't want to have to use an intermediary to move the soap from dispenser to wherever. My DH, who washes dishes by putting the soap on the sponge, would probably have liked a dispenser. It would be nice to have hand soap in a dispenser, but not nice enough to want to clean around it.

Interestingly, when I was shopping for the kitchen, two different professionals - a KD at Ferguson and the wife of the granite fabricator, who also sold Blanco faucets - told me they had had a soap dispenser, didn't like it, and wouldn't get one again. I think they both had problems with theirs.

We are having a soap dispenser installed. I am going to use it for hand soap, and keep the dish soap under the cabinet.

I have 2 delta soap dispensers in my new kitchen. I like the look better than bottles of dawn. In my old kitchen, I had a decorative separate soap dispenser (not integrated) and it rusted. Then I was back to the Dawn bottle.

If I had to do it again, I would get the built in dispenser with a longer spout that would protrude into my sink a bit more (or have the hole in my countertop drilled closer to the sink).

More support for Ginny20 and Renoguy41! I like to squirt soap into pots and pans and it looks to me like the vast majority of soap dispensers would just barely make the edge of the sink. Also, most of the ones I've used (not very many) drip after the pump thingy goes back up. Maybe some of you have diluted your soap or just have better dispensers and this doesn't happen.

Pro - handy
Con - one more thing that can break down, one more thing to clean around.
I have never kept detergent on the counter, always under the sink in the cab.

No built ins in my kitchen. I bought 2 decorative(but simple) glass soap dispensers.. one for dishwashing soap, 1 for hand lotion. They look pretty, I don't have to look at a bottle of Dawn & I still get the ease of soap dispenser with one hand.

After reading all this, there is only one legitimate con that I can think of, IMHO. That is if you have soapstone counters and like to keep a patina. The area around the dispenser is almost always stripped of the patina and requires constant touch-ups. That's how "clean" it is.

If that doesn't apply, then there's no reason not to install one.

I have decided not to put in the soap dispenser. Thanks for all your input! I also learned about never MT - which I am sharing with everyone! lol - even tho I have chosen not to go that way. I also like to be able to squirt directly into the greasy pans while running hot hot water into it. And I am embarrassed to admit this - but for my hand soap - I dilute the softsoap with some water - because with my water softener, I would be under the water forever rinsing off - and I tend to wash my hands often in the kitchen while working. I use two smallish (about 6-8 oz?) matching clear plastic bottles with white pumps (perhaps originally from Dial? had removed the labels long ago) and the clear one is hand, the green or blue is dish. It has been working for us and if I can only get more meticulous about neatness it might bother me when I have the new kitchen.

Have had one now for about two weeks and have gone from being skeptical to liking it. I only got it because I had the hole -- decided not to replace the under sink filter unit and got a Mavea pitcher instead.

I used to have soap in a pretty glass dispenser -- slipped out of wet hands and broke. So went to the Caldrea plastic bottle which still was a little messy.

FWIW I have hand lotion in the RH Vintage dispenser-- the chrome top with the little globe is a very good match with the Rohl bridge faucet. I keep dishwasher powder in the matching RH canister -- much easier than going under the sink to get it.

Happy thus far with the Rohl soap dispenser.

I can't think of a single con...love them! All the ones I've had refill from the top. I put them in my master bath remodel also. We wash our hands with the dish soap, works great. I don't find it difficult to clean around or anything. If I need an extra squirt of soap right on something specific I grab the soap bottle from under the sink. Built-in soap dispensers top my list of kitchen conveniences. I always found it hard to dispense soap out of a bottle with one hand the way I can with a soap dispenser, but maybe that's just me...

If it was up to me there would be no faucet in my house that didn't have a built-in soap dispenser next to it :)

A minor con is that you do have to pump the dispenser. Of course, you have to do that with a normal countertop dispenser too. You can get a countertop motion sensor dispenser but I haven't seen one as an in-counter model.

I had gotten a motion sensor soap dispenser to deal with "chicken hands" and it turned out that DH adores it. He has alot of arthritis in his hands and wrists so being able to just wave his hand to get soap was such a relief to him.

We now have these dispensers (simplehuman NFI) at all sinks. Thank goodness Costco started carrying rechargeable AA batteries!

YMMV but just thought I'd point out something that I hadn't seen mentioned in the thread.

cheers

Had two. Hated the pumping, constant wiping, clogging and difficulty filling. Replaced the second one, finally, with a undersink water filter which is a better use of the opening for me.

Don't love the soap bottles either. Recently purchased the small Simplehuman motion-activated soap dispenser which looks fine and is one of the most convenient and brilliant inventions ever. It doesn't get gunky because no touching required.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sensor Pump