I don't have personal experience w/Kraus. However, we also thought some of the "name brand" sinks were priced too high and went with a more reasonable one...Ticor. Many, many people here have Ticor sinks and are very pleased with them. The majority are 16-gauge (generally better than 18- and 20-gauge), 18/10 chromium/nickel stainless steel, have sound deadening padding, have a brushed finish, and include a strainer and sink grid for each bowl. There's also a custom cutting board for many of the sinks available for a very reasonable price if purchased w/the sink. (The cutting board is new...it wasn't available when I bought my sink. The price isn't so reasonable if you purchase it separately...which is why I don't have one!)

Here's mine and a link to it on GalaxyToolSupply.com.

BTW...the "easy maintenance corners" are the rounded corners. The "zero-radius" sinks are the ones with the "sharp" corners.

Here is a link that might be useful: Galaxy Tool Supply: Ticor S405D Undermount 16 G SS Double-Bowl Kitchen Sink

With limited use, kitchen not yet completed - I've got the Kraus sink - and so far LOVE THE SINK!
Beautiful, large, shiny, appears good quality - and yes a good value too. I've got faucet with side spray which comes in handy for rinsing down sides. Also comes with grid which complements the look and keeps from scratching.
Overall I think it's a great choice!

Your specs describe my sink exactly. We got the Ticor S112 from Galaxy three years ago, and we've been extremely pleased with it. I notice it now comes with a cutting board in addition to the grid that we got.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ticor S112

Thanks for the speedy replies!! Yes, that Ticor sounds interesting and is even better priced than the Kraus. Glad I checked before ordering -- I'll do a little more research into the two. Thanks again.

My sink was just installed about 10 days ago. I love it, looks great.
Galaxy was great to work with. The sink was on backorder but it came in when he said they expected them and he made sure it left the warehouse the same day, as I was tight on time.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ticor S3510 from Galaxy

Bishop8 - we were going to get that same Kraus sink, but ended up changing to a different material (Silgranit instead of stainless steel). But before we changed to Silgranit, we thought that the Kraus had everything we were looking for on our checklist: great size, rectangular shape, small radius corners (we didn't want zero radius corners, i.e. 90-degree sharp corners, but only wanted the tiniest curve corners possible which this Kraus has), offset drain, 16 gauge thickness, and the great reviews it got on Overstock.com. We were going to buy it at expressdecor.com because it offered the best price, which is 5% discount off the price you linked to. I know 5% isn't much, but every dollar counts! We did end up ordering our faucet from expressdecor, and received it very quickly and beautifully packed, so I can vouch for the website.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kraus 30-inch Sink at Expressdecor

Another vote for a Ticor "low radius" (not zero radius) from Galaxy. We had the same criteria as you and that's what we went with. No complaints at all and it includes the grids and a nice basket strainer.

I ordered that exact Kraus sink and it is set to arrive Wednesday. It seems great and you can't beat the price!

I bought this exact sink (I think it's the same minus the free grid) from Overstock, I decided to try it because of the high number of reviewers and the nearly 5 of 5 star rating by the reviewers. It's been a great sink -- love it. The construction people oohed and aaahed over it too -- especially when I told them the price.

Here's the link to get more input/reviews on the sink: http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Kraus-30-inch-Undermount-Single-Bowl-Stainless-Steel-Kitchen-Sink/3381330/product.html

Kris

Here is a link that might be useful: sink with 42 reviews at Overstock

Thanks all, looks like I'm looking at either the Kraus or Ticor. As I'm probably going to try and buy everything for our kitchen and baths all together, selection at the place I end up purchasing from will probably dicatate what I get.

alwaysfixin, can I ask why you went with the Silgranit? I started looking into it and it sounds like a REALLY neat product. It's pretty modern, but the grey version may be an acceptable compromise. Still kind of new for me. Being made mostly of granite, I wonder if you have to seal it.

Have you looked at MRDirect? They have some great prices.

I have the following sink and really love it: http://mrdirectint.com/sinksandfaucets/3018-stainless-steel-kitchen-sink-p-319N.html

Bishop8 - I don't want to hijack this thread to another topic, but since you asked, and you're the OP....well, as I mentioned we were all set to buy the Kraus SS sink (and we did buy a Kraus faucet which is great). Then we started talking about the old stainless steel sink we were removing with this kitchen reno. It always had water spots and looked dingy, except for a few minutes immediately after cleaning. I had read on this forum all the enthusiastic posts about Silgranit. Really, I searched all the silgranit threads on the Gardenweb, and never found one negative post. So we took the leap to something different and unfamiliar.

We did go to a showroom that had several colors on display. We went back and forth over the Cafe Brown color and the Anthracite color, and ended up with the Anthracite which went best with our granite. You mentioned the grey color, but honestly, the grey wasn't our taste. We love the dark richness of the brown or black. The specific sink we chose was the Blancoprecis Super Single which has the rectangular shape we wanted, the right dimensions (30" wide interior, 32" wide exterior), and the offset drain.

I don't know if one can be "in love" with something like a sink, but I am in love with our silgranit sink. It never shows anything. Sometimes I clean it cause I feel I should, but it doesn't look like it needs it. No more water spots and dinginess of the old sink. No more scratches either, since it is as hard as, well, granite. It's quiet. It can withstand temperatures up to 536 degrees, so no worries about putting a hot pot in it. In answer to your question, it does not need to be sealed.

I am sorry to be so enthusiastic since this thread is about stainless steel sinks, and that's what I always had, and still think SS is a great option.

BTW, we bought the Silgranit sink online from homeandstone, as recommended by others on this forum. The local stores selling it were much higher priced. If you buy a silgranit sink online, it is important you buy it from a seller who will pack the sink really well, which homeandstone did. There have been stories about other sellers who don't. Homeandstone's price was competitive (about $360, free shipping), and we received the sink 2 or 3 days after ordering.

I also wanted to add, about your comment about buying everything from one place - I think you would do better not to confine yourself to one store/website, or even two. Different stores are able to offer better prices on different things, or may have most of the brands you want, but not all. I think I ordered from about 8 different places, maybe more. I bought based on price, free shipping, the seller's rating (go to resellerratings.com to see ratings, and also ask or search this forum), recommendations from this forum, and whether the item was on backorder or not. I think you are actually making your life more difficult by confining your purchases all together from one place.

We've had our MRDirect sink for over a year and are very happy with it.

Thanks for the advice! Being from Canada, though, my choices are actually quite limited in terms of which US companies will ship at a reasonable cost. Shockingly, even with shipping/duties/taxes, the savings can be quite significant for us Canucks!

My rationale for buying all from one place - likely somewhere like faucetdirect - is specifically to get additional savings. I'm fairly confident I can get them to price match specific items which might be lower elsewhere, and I'd also expect to get another 5-10% discount for the volume purchase (full home reno, so kitchen and 5 bathrooms). At least I think so -- we'll see.

Thanks again everyone!

@bishop8
I am in the same situation and have the same requirements as you listed a couple years ago. Did you get KHU100 sink? Or Ticor?
I have been wondering if Ticor is UPC certificated.

I have been buying sinks over the years as Iam a builder, and a friend of mine who owns a granite shop turned me on to a company that sells sinks, they have a big selection, and also carry different brands. DNCSINKS.com. They also sell on ebay