Love runnels. I have them in my handhewn cherry counter.
Apparently there are standards as to depth, etc. But I did have some choices as to how many, how long, all the same or longer in the middle.

I am suprised that they arent as dirty as one might expect...

Thanks! I can't imagine that I wouldn't like them. I just want to see if someone has a negative that I haven't thought of.

I wanted them badly in order to do away with dish rack, but Im not getting them. I live in metro DC and could not find a fabricator who had the machinery (which I was told is about $500,000) to do them...meaning they could cut the grooves, but could not polish them and if the are not polished they are breeding grounds for bacteria. My contractor and the stone yard corroborated this. You see them a lot on soapstone, but soapstone is a different animal than granite.

Please let me know if they are polished....anyone else out there get polished runnels on granite for a similar price?

We have them in our (marble) counter.

We also have a dishdrain (a large, flat surface sloping down toward the sink). Our everpresent dishrack sits on the dishdrain. (I emptied the dishrack just for this picture. And yes, we're Japanese hence the Japanese sink bucket!)

We use the runnels (I call them petit runnels as we only have three and they aren't super-long) for draining produce. We knew that going in which is why we asked for shorter and fewer runnels and we were right! The runnels and dishdrain are super and zippo complaints chez nous about those (I can and do complain about other things!).

I think $300 for runnels is a s-t-e-a-l -- ours were more expensive (bc they are evidently uncommon 'round here). I would MUCH rather see efficient runnels in a counter than a towel or tray under a dishrack -- the runnels don't take function away from the counter (you can still put a chopping board atop them).

I dunno. In my current kitchen I have a dishrack with a sloping tray underneath (the type of setup sold together). I don't see me ever not doing a few dishes by hand, and all my pots and pans. Although I'm good about making sure extra water drains off, there's still a relentless buildup of brownish gunk. It's gross and I clean the drain tray often with bleach to get rid of it. Because my tray is white, I can see it easily. I would NOT want this stuff to be building up in runnels (if I had them) which I couldn't see.

"petit runnels"

I like that! Mine are only 8-10.5" long, ap. 3/8 deep, in a salvaged, epoxy resin lab-top. I really like them, as I don't put pans, large bowls, or skillets in the DW. They're polished to match the surface of the counter:

Here is a link that might be useful: Runnels process

A friend of mine has runnels in his kitchen, and it has happened a couple times that someone goes to put a glass down on the island and it catches the edge and spills. Could be a bit of drunkardness or design flaw, not sure which. Just a heads up if you plan on stacking dishes next to the sink. I find that you'll still need a rack as the runnels don't fully air out certain items either. Like posted above, they are much more suited to drying veggies or produce.

My walnut island counter was just installed yesterday. I opted to spend the additional $230 for runnels at the prep sink there to help with draining produce, etc.

I had mine dug at about 12" long. Sorry, no pics. Desktop computer still not hooked up.

I've only had runnels for about a week, so these are just first impressions, but I'm delighted! They do just what we had hoped: funnel all that water that splashes on the sides of the sink back into the sink. Come summer, we'll clean veggies from the garden and let them drain across the runnels, as rmkitchen mentions. I like the "look" as well. So with runnels, we have both function and form!

Having said that, however, our dish drainer is still in use. If I'm just washing pots/pans, they drain on the runnels just fine. But when washing cups, plates, knives and the like (we're sans dishwasher for yet another couple of days), the drainer provides a better landing spot because of having slots for plates, holders for utensils, and so forth. So, as you say, you'll probably continue to use your dish rack, but I wouldn't think you'd need to continue to use the towel. YMMV, of course.

Finally, as to size. Our fabricator said that he'd not done many, but had made shallow, narrow ones. So I searched for "runnels" on GardenWeb and came across a nice post from Florida Joshua. I figured that while I had granite and he works in soapstone, I couldn't go wrong using his dimensions (see below). The GW research also turned up posts from people saying that they liked wider, deeper runnels because they were easier to clean.

1/2'' wide
3/8-to-1/2'' deep at the sink
1/8'' deep at the beginning of the runnel to provide the necessary pitch for water to drain.
I had wanted 18'' long runnels because our granite has a lot of movement and I thought that shorter ones wouldn't look as good. In the end, they were 14" so they wouldn't come too close to a seam). I'm very happy with the look.

The fabricator did a wonderful job. He said it took all day to do them. From visiting his workspace, I know he does not have any half-million dollar machinery, but he is very careful. The runnels are as polished as the rest of the granite.

If I can find those earlier threads, I'll come back and post links.

LOVE them! I can't imagine how I lived without them, as I use them daily to allow washed fruits and veggies to drain, as well as larger pots and pans that don't go in the DW, and my morning coffee cup. For those who say they've had problems with wine glasses breaking, they must have had much wider space between runnels. I tried very hard to get one of my wine glasses to fall and they won't with the sizing of my runnels and here's a photo to show that.
I have a positive reveal around my sink and the water gently moves down the runnels to the side of the sink without even attempting to run off where it's not intended. They work wonderfully. I will never see my dish drainer again.

Hello,

Thank you all so much!

Kashmi - your kitchen was the one that I found on the internet when I was searching for "granite with runnels"! I sent your pic to my granite person to explain what I wanted. Thank you so much for the spec information, I will pass this along to my fabricator. Also good to know that your runnels are polished, I will ask about this as well.

Thanks again everyone!

Mom2Sethc: Glad the info was helpful. In making final decisions, the fabricator drew the outline of the sink on the granite and then we drew in each runnel (including the taper from shallow end to the sink). We started with the runnels more inset from the front and back of the sink, but decided we liked them closer to the front and back, so we redrew them. We fiddled with the spacing between, too, and decided that for the sink, six would look good. You might try that with your fabricator, too.

I really like the look of OldHouseGal's runnels. She has seven and because she has a farmhouse sink, hers start further back from the sink front. She also has what I've heard referred to as the "colonial style," in which the middle runnel is longer than the rest and the others taper in length from there on both sides.

The bottom line is that there are lots of ways to do runnels. You just need to play around with how they will look best with your granite, your sink, and how much room you have on either side of your sink.

You can also Google "sink runnels" using Google images and you'll see lots of options as well.

Good luck and be sure to post pictures when the work is finished.

Kashmi.....I am so jealous! You are lucky you found someone to do them by hand. I contacted several fabricators and only one would do them but not polish them. I went to the Marble Institute of America website (they set stone industry standards )and no mention of them anywhere. I think they are more commonplace in Europe.....so it may take awhile for them to gain popularity here and then fabricators will have to offer them.

Any fabricators or K D's care to weigh in on this?

I have runnels in my soapstone on both sides of the sink; long ones for the dish rack and short ones for produce. Just be sure your fabricator makes them wide enough. Ours aren't so they don't work quite as well as they should and they are harder to clean. :(

Cheri, may I ask how wide yours are? (I am planning on runnels, but don't want to make them too narrow.)

Mine are perfect sized for fingers and sponges to get into to wipe the water down- super easy to clean.

They are 5/8 inch wide at the sink and taper to 3/8 inch wide at the end.
They are 3/8 deep at the sink.

HTH!

Mine ended up being just a tad bigger than OldHouseGal's, but not that much different.

They are 7/8" wide at the sink.
They are 1/2" deep at the sink.
They taper back to about 3/8" wide at the end.

These aren't mine (stolen from Craft Art wood countertops website in their "Sneak Peek" pic section) but they are in a Sapele Mahogany wood countertop. Lovelovelove.

Here is a link that might be useful: fun pics of countertops still in the Craft Art wood shop