I went with white cast iron Kohler executive chef. The appliances are stainless and soapstone counters. I've had stainless sinks before and wanted something different this time and glad I did.

I have a white Kohler cast iron sink right now. It does stain very easily and gets black marks from pots and pans. I use Barkeeper's Friend to remove them, but it's still a pain to have to scrub my sink all the time to keep it looking nice.

I originally planned to get a stainless sink, but I really don't want to have to constantly shine my sink to remove the water spots.

I decided on a white fireclay sink. I'm hoping it won't scratch as easily as my cast iron.

Every kitchen sink in every house I have owned has had a white cast iron sink and they've all be in a PITA to keep clean. (Current one is Kohler.) The glaze inevitably deteriorates, the sink stains and pot marks are a fact of life. I will be getting a stainless steel sink. If it gets looking dull, then I'll break out some buffing/ polishing compounds and shine it up.

Do other people have cast iron sinks that get black marks from pots and pans? I didn't think that was supposed to happen...

I was also concerned about staining and scratches associated with the cast iron sinks but wanted an old world feel so I went with a fireclay sink and am very happy thus far. The fireclay sinks are supposed to be very resistant to stains and scratches. So far I've found this to be quite true.

Stainless gets dull and shows water spots. White cast iron gets pot marks and after a couple of years starts to stain when the glaze wears. Fireclay is better then ironstone, and people speak very highly of Silgranite on this forum.

Before setting your sites on the stainless or cast iron sinks, you may want to do a search and read about Silgranit Sinks by Blanco, because in "Sink Land" they are the best thing since sliced bread!

Basically, they are made of 80% granite and are stain, scratch, dent and heat resistant. Through the months I have often seen posts about these sinks and just assumed because they were going into high end kitchens that they were expensive. However, now that we're updating our kitchen with new counters, sinks and so on, I decided to look into their affordability and was pleasantly suprised to find out they are actually very reasonably priced. I just ordered mine last week, and can't wait!

They come in several colors, white, grey, dark cafe brown, biscuit and black, which is most popular. Here is the manufacturer's website, and as I said earlier, I encourage you to do a search and read the posts from other members. www.blanco.com

Yes, check out Silgranit. Seems like a good option for a light colored sink. I've read lots of great feedback on this forum.

Here's another vote against white cast iron. My Mom had one and hated it for the same reasons as the other posters above. Even though it was undamaged, she replaced it with ss.

I had white cast iron and hated it. Stained, cracked, rusted and just horrible. My vote for replacement was stainless but Hubby didn't want one. We stumbled upon Silgranit and decided to go with that. We've abused that thing and absolutely no staining. It's been in since late January and still looks brand-new.

I have had Kohler white cast iron sinks for the last 25 years. I just redid my kitchen and am getting them again. My old sinks held up very well. True pots did scuff them but the marks came off with Vim and if they got stained I would pour some bleach onto paper towels and let it sit there for a couple of minutes. My sinks did not lose their shine and were in very good condition after so many years. I only hope that my new sinks will hold up as well as the old ones.

I got a Kohler cast iron and love it. No pot marks so far, but it's only been in use for a few weeks. I plan on getting a grid for the bottom to pretty much eliminate any pot mark risk.

I chose a Fireclay sink and LOVE it. But you MUST get a grid. That's the key. The grid keeps everything from marking the bottom. I liked it so much I got another for our outside BBQ kitchen. I live in L.A. so the elements aren't harsh but still, it's outside and holding up great after 3 years of BBQ use and cleaning. Against my better judgement, I'm installing a stainless sink now in a "prep" area. I want a tray sink and it only comes in stainless but I am nervous about it. I'm hoping since the sink is so shallow it won't look as bad as my cleanup sinks always have. If you want white, I would choose Fireclay before Cast Iron. Good luck!

Great thread. I have a 30 year old cast iron sink -- it stains, but I bleach it. I like it, and don't like stainless -- neither the sound or the feel. I was planning to get another cast iron (large single this time), but read that the new ones are not as robust as the old ones. Is this true?

But after reading her and elsewhere on GW think I will go with the Rohl Allia Fireclay. Thanks again everyone for the pointers!

I have a white kohler cast iron in my present house. It's not too bad to keep clean. I use bon ami cleaner on it and it cleans up really nicely. It does have some deep scratches from heavy pans, but it's still pretty good.

DH built the current place we live in (before I met him) and he had a blue fixation. Our sink is a cobalt blue double-cast iron. I hate it.
The shine has worn off (and kohler insists that's just the way they wear) and in my next home, I plan on something different.
I think even if stainless wears, the patina is gorgeous.
The cast iron just looks worn and dirty at our house.

If I get stainless counters, I will go for integrated stainless sink. If we go wood, I will get a silgranit.

To be honest, I've never noticed pot marks on the bottom of my sink. It's the ones on the divide, rim & sides that really annoy me.

I have the blanco silgranit in biscuit (an off-white) and absolutely love it! It's the best thing in my kitchen IMHO and has no issues with staining even with lots of coffee, berries and tomato sauce residue. I was so happy that there was an alternative to stainless and cast iron. I found that the GW'ers on this forum really knew what they were talking about. No one I knew had ever heard of one.

Pot marks on the divide - Solution: SmartDivide. If you set the pot on there guess they would still show up, but I don't do that.

Pot marks on the sides - Solution: Get a bigger sink! :) Mine is huge and it seems nothing ever gets near the side.

Love my 60+ years old cast iron tub and still loving my less than 2 month old sink. So much so that I'm in no rush to finish installing the dishwasher. 8 months of dishes in the bathroom sink has taught me to appreciate the luxury of doing dishes in a real sink.

After going around in circles and coming very close to getting the Silgranit, I decided to stick with white Kohler. Here's my question: where's the best place to get one, meaning best price?

How crazy is this --keeping your 30 year old sink? Cast iron. Drop in. It does have one or two tiny nicks and sometimes I wish it were a single rather than a double, but I feel kind of attached to it. Crazy to keep it? It's "practically" vintage! If we were to use butcher block couhters, would a drop in be better than an undermount, or not?

fern4: why are you sticking with the white Kohler?

I'm ashamed to say it, but the radon/granite scare has gotten to me, and I might be backing out of silgranit and am looking for other options.

uh oh, according to this video entitled "Granite and Potatoes" we'd better throw out all our Idahos! =)

Here is a link that might be useful: Granite and Potatoes

I have always had Kohler white cast iron for years and got another one. I love them, a few marks don't bother me, certainly better that the SS I had in one house. I have the grids for my new sink.

Sayde, yes, a drop-in would be much more practical for wooden counters, because then you wouldn't have to seal the edges over the undermount. Those edges are very porous in wood, plus harder to get perfectly smooth in butcherblock. But I've seen it done both ways. I assume it would just take a heck of a nice finish job to protect those edges.

Thanks circuspeanut.

We currently have BB and ceramic tile on the counters, and the old CI sink and strangely as my thinking "evolves?" I seem to be coming back to what I already have-- CI and BB.

Somanyquestions -- I like the contrast of a white sink with black soapstone and frankly I just like the old-fashioned look of a drop in cast iron sink. I like that big roll of white enamel that's hard to clean over!

The silgranit sinks are beautiful, I will admit, and probably a lot easier to keep looking clean.

As for the radon issue, I know quite a bit about both radon and radiation. In fact, I recently installed a pretty significant radon mitigation system in my house. And I would be concerned about adding something (e.g., a "hot" granite) that would add to radon levels. But frankly I doubt that a sink made up of ground up granite and plastic (my idea of what silgranit is!) is going to be any kind of problem. And, I doubt much of the granite is either. Of course, the fact that say over 99 percent of granite is not a problem does not prove that the other remaining percentage is also not a problem. The world is not black or white; it's more complicated. I'm banking on the idea that most granite is not a problem and that the silgranit sinks are made of some sort of run-of-the-mill stone. Of course, time and time again we find out that corporations have not considered the health impacts of various materials that are used in our houses and put into our food.

I'm not sure why most people on this forum either fall into "the sky is falling" category of worrying that all granite is dangerous OR the people who are just nasty and think that worrying about radon is stupid. If you don't think that smoking is good for your health because statistically speaking a large portion of cigarette smokers will get lung cancer, you wouldn't want to expose yourself to radon either. On the other hand, if you think that "nobody has ever proved" that an individual person contracted lung cancer from smoking or any kind of cancer from any kind of radiation (nuclear weapons testing, nuclear power emissions, medical) because you refuse to look at the epidemiological (population-based) evidence then you're just a hopeless anti-science person. Why the anti-science people have to be so nasty is really beyond me to understand.

I made the mistake of putting a Blanco Silgranit sink into my kitchen. It has been less than a year and it has many dents or chips on the bottom with just regular use. I contacted Blanco and their response was that dents happen and I should always keep a rack in the bottom of my sink. These sinks are a mistake in a kitchen if you are actually going to use it. I will be switching to cast iron or stainless soon.

@christineryan - interesting first post to resurrect a 12-year-old thread. What color is your Blanco Silgranit sink?