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Remodeling kitchen now - need to select a sink - your thoughts ?

1K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  mikelm 
#1 ·
Hello All;

I am in the process of remodeling my kitchen now and I need to select a undermount sink to go under my Cambria countertop. I have been agonozing for quite a while about what type to get. I am used to a double bowl sink where each bowl is of equal size. But now, they have one large bowl and one small one, or even only one very large bowl. I have a dishwasher but find I'm washing oversized items in the sink now and then. What type of sink do you have and what is your workflow when using it ? Can you give me some examples of why I would want a sink with one larger bowl and one smaller bowl ? Or why would I want a very large single bowl ? In the past, I was used to washing in the left bowl and drying in the right bowl.

For those of you who have sinks of various types, what is your workflow and which do you perfer ?

Thanks for any insight you can provide to give me some thoughts on what route I may wish to go.

Tim
 
#3 ·
Personally, as a serious home cook and private chef, I like a large single bowl sink. I like the extra space for washing large pots and pans and it is more convenient to put lots of things in when needed. I've never been a fan of multiple bowl sinks because one or both of the bowls is usually too small. Often times the design of multiple bowl sinks verges on gimmicky and a lot of space is wasted. one or both of the bowls is compromised.

I'm meticulous about keeping my sink clean. I always scrub it down and rinse it out. I wash all of my fruits veggies etc in it and it's a priority to keep it clean.

As an architect and designer I usually recommend single bowl sinks to my clients. To me double bowl sinks are from a time past when we used to wash all of our dishes glasses etc by hand. Now with dishwashers we typically don't do that. I find it gross to have a sink bowl full of standing water. To me that just a soup of disgusting things swimming around having a bacteria orgy.

When possible I like to utilize a separate smaller sink in an island or another counter for washing food in. I do like to keep dirty dishes pots pans separate from clean food, but it's usually not an issue for me.

And for the love of good food, if you are doing a big island don't muck it up by plopping a big sink right in the middle of it! I've cooked in several very nice high end homes where the sink was smack dab in the middle of a beautiful island and it was such a pain to have to work around it. A small prep sink in one corner of the island is great, but not the main sink right in the middle.

Hope that helps, but it really comes down to how you like work in hour kitchen and how you use a sink. Cheers!!! mpp
 
#4 ·
Carvingtool makes a number of good points.A big bowl is nice for big pots. It's probably easier to keep sanitary that a double bowl.

Cook's Illustrted had a recent article on kitchen sanitation which claimed that your kitchen sink has more bacteria on it than your toilet bowl. Think about that for a while.

Another point for planning an undermount sink is the countertop material. The edge of the countertop will be exposed above the mounted sink, so forget plywood. Most any solid material will work - Corian, various artifical stone materials, or - best of all - real granite or marble will work fine.

A very important point is to mount the sink BEFORE you assemble the cabinet. It's no fun crawling into the cabinet, with the edge of the cabinet floor digging into your back, and trying to hold the sink in place with one hand and screwing on the clips with the other. Turn the counter over, place the sink, and let gravity be your friend, not your nemesis. After it's screwed down nice and tight, (you've already drilled the holes for the faucet, detergent pump, and any other accessories, right?) then turn the whole counter over and screw in down fron underneath.

Oh, and don't forget a good application of the best caulk you can obtain as you place the sink.

If I sound like a guy who's done several of these... I am

Have fun

Mike
 
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