Be Smart about your Kitchen Sink
You may never have thought about it, but the most used appliance in your kitchen is likely the sink—it’s where people spend 60 per cent of their time.
What To Look For In The Kitchen Sink (Besides the Dishes)
Here are four hints to help you select the correct sink:
1. Conquer space. You don’t want the sink to be so small as to be nearly useless or so big as to overpower the rest of the kitchen. Single basins give you more room, a double basin offers flexibility. Standard depth is 20 cm (eight inches) though it can range from 15.5 cm to 28 cm (six to 11 inches). If you use large or awkward cookware, select a sink to fit your needs. Deep bowls are handy for soaking pans and you’ll be less likely to splash, but they use more space and there’s less room underneath them. By contrast, ADA accessible sinks are no deeper than 14 cm (5.5 inches) deep to allow room underneath for a wheelchair and less height for a seated user.
2. Ergonomics and convenience. Make sure the sink is set at a height at which you’ll be comfortable when you’ve got a lot of dishes to wash. Consider whether you want a garbage disposal, as well as a hot water dispenser that can provide water up to 90 degrees Celsius for instant soups, sauces and hot drinks. Also, where should the drain go? Most are in the middle but one toward the back of the sink gives you more surface area and also moves plumbing out of the center of your cabinet to give you more room underneath.
3. Looking good. The right combination of sink and faucet creates an ambience that matches your home’s style.
4. Sturdy, reliable material. The most popular material for kitchen sinks today remains stainless steel. Because of its flexibility, stainless steel sinks are available in a wide variety of sizes, styles and types. Stainless steel is heat, stain and chip resistant. However, it can scratch and show fingerprints.
To help, one of the world’s leading providers of high-quality kitchen sinks and faucets developed a unique material innovation; a specially finished stainless steel surface that is scratch and fingerprint resistant and twice as strong as conventional stainless steel. Called Durinox, it was created using technology inspired by the aerospace industry.
Another material increasingly used in sinks is granite or quartz composite. These are made from crushed stone mixed with a resin filler, in an average ratio of 80 per cent stone to 20 per cent resin. This combination produces a material that shares aesthetic qualities with real granite or quartz without the maintenance and durability issues associated with solid stone sinks. It also allows for a range of colors so it can pair well with a variety of natural stone and granite countertops.
Composite sinks are tough and highly resistant to stains and scratching, and more durable than quartz. Leading granite composite sinks, such as silgranit, also from Blanco, boast heat resistance up to 280 C, exceptional cleanability with hydrophobic finishes, and resistance to household acids and alkali solutions. It comes in eight trendy colours: anthracite, biscotti, biscuit, café brown, cinder, metallic gray, truffle and white. (NAPSI)