Looking for input on choice of kitchen sink: cast iron or stainless steel. I want cast iron, the wife wants SS. Pros and cons on both would be appreciated.
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
By considering things like energy-efficient mechanicals, window orientation, and renewable energy sources, homes can be evaluated to meet the energy codes. Here's what the IRC has to say.
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
Its a matter of choice is all...SS is very cold looking and iron clad has more warmth. Aint no pros or cons IMHO....enamal chips although I havent had one chip ever and SS dents if you drop a cast iron sink on it.
Be well
Namaste
Andy
It's not who's right, it's who's left ~ http://CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM
I just replaced a SS sink. I have read that a brushed or satin finish hides scratches. A mirror finish shows scraches easily. Many newer sinks are deeper and are useful in filling or washing large pots and pans.
Avoid cheap either way and flip a coin.
Seriously... if you get a quality unit you will avoid most of the complaints usually heard on either type.
Kohler CI is the very best. Spend at least $200 on SS to get a good one.
I'm preferential to SS, they hold up well to heavy use and work with any kitchen decor.
definitely spend the extra $$ for a heavy guage unit, even better the kind that have rubberized coatings on the underside (prevents the 'bell' effect of of water and dishes hitting a metal vessel). I don't know about $200, in my neck of the woods you can easily spend $400-500 for a nice SS sink.
$200 is on the very low end of decent quality. I should have said it is the minimum to spend for a decent sink.
All above comments on the money. DO NOT buy enamel on steel. Chips very easily and is just plain cheap crap at any price, including Americast.
Ken Hill
I've had both, prefer SS myself but it is a matter of preference. We use our kitchen sink very hard and have had chips and scratches in enamel. My current sink is a brushed SS which I like very much. Steel wool isn't good for either kind of sink.
"A completed home is a listed home."
Edited 8/26/2002 2:51:13 PM ET by Lisa L
If your pots are aluminum or aluminum-bottomed, they will leave gray marks on the enamel sink that are damned hard to remove. After I washed the dishes, I had to scour the sink. Now I have stainless steel, which cleans up with just a little swipe of the sponge. Unfortunately I have in the meantime graduated to chief cook, so other family flunkies get the benefits of easy sink clean-up.
Anyone had any experience with soapstone sinks?
I am the oposite. I have an nice Kholer cast iron. I use Bar Keepers friend and it cleans up very easy.
All of the SS that I have used have been in appartments and the like where they where real cheap. Was afraid that I would put my hand through the things.
Cast iron sinks are the solution to the molecular disintegration of any glass item accidentally bumpted into one. I have actually had to count the remaining glasses to figure out what I just reduced into 1/4" glass chips. Our new sink is an Elkay heavy duty SS, much more forgiving on the clumsy (such as myself). I haven't figured out how to dent it yet, but I've tried. I don't personally notice the scratches, this is a work area, not a sterile room, and any scratches are small enough and numerous enough to blend together. The focus of the kitchen is the woodwork, not the sink anyway. My vote is SS.
Edited 8/26/2002 4:02:04 PM ET by WFLATHER
the heavy guage SS in a brushed finish is very durable, easy to maintain and looks the same in 10 or 15 years..
the CI tends to look dated .. unless you stick to WHITE , which shows a lot of scratches easily...
for the long pull, I'm partial to SS..Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
I have a white cast-iron farmhouse sink. I use a rack to protect the bottom of it when I am washing dishes. After four years of light use, there's not a mark to be found on it. My house is ~100 years old, and I don't think stainless would look appropriate. All that being said, I grew up in a house with an SS sink and found it extremely durable and easy to maintain.
Best is kohler cast iron with their pepper and salt finish. For a year or so before making this choice, my wife and I checked out our friends sinks whenever we visited. Most of them were white CI and all were stained to some degree. SS units dent and are noisy (had one for about ten years).
The pepper and salt finish sort of complements the color of smoothtop stoves and hides any staining. One warning though, bring the big checkbook, this is kohlers premium finish, and worth every penny.
I recently had a chance to see the inside of the first house I bought and fixed up in Takoma Park MD 35 years ago. In the kitchen, the site-built knotty-pine cupboards looked yellowed/mellowed, the formica counter kind of scratched up but okay, and the $29 SS sink had faint scuffs and stains, more or less like it looked since it was a week old. I've never used any other kind, though I'm paying $49-59 these days. They are less loud if you hang a heavy disposer from them for ballast and slap a bunch of duct tape on the bottom to dampen vibrations. The cheapest SS sinks are such an improvement over the chipping/staining porcelain we had before, I can't see spending hundreds more for brand-name porcelain we hope is "new and improved."
Another vote for SS. I once broke my uncles old lemoge platter that he inherited from his grandmother in a Kohler cast-iron sink - and I was being really careful. Thank god my wife managed to glue it back together with a kind of crazy glue and baking soda. It's been about six years and it is still together. I don't go near that sink anymore!
It depends on what your views of a kitchen. For my lifestyle, two working parents and three kids, it's function before form. The kitchen is like a workshop - comfortable, and easy to work in. I do not have the inclination to be careful with a cast iron sink. If I had my way, I'd get rid of the wood cabinet doors and replace them with metal white boards - so you could scribble messages, stick a recipes or kids art work on it with a magnet.
paul
Thanks for all the input everyone. This is a remodel of a bad remodel in a 1939 Tudor, trying to make it more of a period kitchen. Decision on sink still hasn't been made, but the cabinet maker is running behind so we stiil have a little time. More input is still welcome.
One other thing to consider is that kitchen sinks don't have overflow holes. If you are talking or thinking about a double sink, this could be a factor. As far as I can tell, SS sinks have the dividing dam at the same height as the rim. Porcelein sinks seem to have this dividing bar maybe an inch lower so I you accidentally plug up one side and turn the water on and go off to do something important which will only take a second, then the overflow will just flow over the spilllway and into the other sink and down the drain.
-Peter
You answered your own question. "The wife wants SS". I am on my second Kohler CI with a disposer and a rubber liner on the bottom. Why the choice? The wife wants CI. Extra large and deep. Whatever you get make sure you get the larger than standard size, you'll be glad you did.
Tom
A thicker gauge stainless steel sink with a membrane laminated underneath.
Get one that is 8" or deeper.
You will break many more glass and chinaware in a cast iron sink then in a stainless one.
Yes, the cheap stainless sinks that sound like an empty gas can isn't worth the trouble.
One thing about cast iron is they don't make the drumming noise when water is running.
Re: Cast Iron vs Stainless.
Like a few of the others, I prefer Kohler's Cast Iron. When you turn on the waste disposal mounted in the basin all you hear is the purrrrr of the motor. Not a hollow tin sound reverberating through the stainless.
Also like one of the other responders, I shelled out a couple dollars more and bought the Kohler rubberized wire mats that keeps things off the bottom of the sink...no breakage here. Also, materials that are recommended for cleaning the ceramic cook tops on stoves are safe and effective in cleaning a cast iron sink.
Our home is 70 some odd years old. And like you we wanted to maintain the integrity of our kitchen remodel...stainless by that very consideration was out!
No-one has mentioned getting a sink of either sort with a built in draining board. It's one thing that I find incongruous in North American kitchens-- seldom anywhere to stack the washed pots, pans and dishes so that the drips have somewhere logical to drain, like into the sink and down the plug hole. There should be examples of the common styles of kitchen sinks found elsewhere at this link. Slainte, RJ.
http://www.kitchen-sinks.co.uk/acatalog/In_sinks_Select_Stainless_Steel__14.html RJFurniture
Just an aside but a contractor I worked around would save any of the roof membrane, ice shield or bituthane, left over and cut them into pieces about 1' square. These he would plaster onto the underside of sinks and tubs. This seemed to dampen the tinny sound of more inexpensive fixtures. Even cheap ones in spec houses sounded quite substantial once treated this way. He also claimed it also helped hold the heat longer for those long soaks. It seemed, IMHO, a good use of scrap materials.
Thanks, RJ; I'm also in favor of drainboards, or, in my case, tile counters slightly sloped toward the sink. Very helpful. They were SOP in the teens and 20's when homes in my neighborhood were built. Probably not as practical in modern kitchens which I'm not as fond of as those old fashioned types.
OK, I think I have found a compromise for you. All the warmth and period style of cast iron, all the durability of SS. You just need to win the lottery...
http://www.sinkworks.com/
"A completed home is a listed home."
Edited 8/29/2002 12:36:32 AM ET by Lisa L
I don't even have to look at the price to know that would blow the budget big time. Nice product tho'.
I guess it's been said already, but you already know that if the wife wants SS, SS it will be, unless you are the one doing all the kitchen duties.
Or
You could craft it yourself from concrete and spend the bucks you pretend to save on taking her out to dinner so she won't have to use it.Excellence is its own reward!
Hey! I've actually done a few in concrete...intergrated in a cctop. What a pain to make. Ironically, stainless, CI, and soapstone are all less expensive. Let the trendy buyer beware!<g>
Notice that I said "pretend to save"Excellence is its own reward!
Here Here !!!!
If you get something she doesnt want it will be YOUR fault !!!! I cant believe how easy this answer really is . Im saying this because my wife wanted a cast iron and I bought a stainless . She brings it up reguarly . And yes , she hates me now . I wish I would have had the foresight . But you can still be saved from all the abuse .
If you act now !!!!
Tim Mooney
These are foundational issues that go back to the first cave, the first fire, and the first marital spat.
If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happyExcellence is its own reward!
Tim, go get the cast. Life is too short.Half of good living is staying out of bad situations.
I saw a hand finished welded SS or nickel sink in a previous FHB which had a trade mark S shaped divide between the double sink. To me that's the ultimate, optional distressed finish. Must have if you can afford. Do you recall the made?
Tom
Normel -
After many years of SS I have a Kohler Mayfield CI, single bowl. There are pros and cons. I hate the look of SS, especially in a drop-in. The enamel is nice-looking, but you have to be careful, especially with a drop-in (as opposed to undermount) because it is relatively easy to clonk a pot on the rim (3/4" raise) as you move it to the sink. The marks from aluminum pots can be removed, and can be avoided fairly easily (assuming you have a disposer) by setting the pot in the disposer opening and letting it 'rotate' there while you wash. Another consideration with a CI drop in is that the bottom of the rim isn't perfectly finished or absolutely flat so you have to caulk a bit.
I use a product called 'Gel Gloss' which smells of turpentine but is a miracle product as far as I'm concerned for counters, fiberglass, sinks and chrome.
T. Jeffery Clarke
No mention yet of solid surface materials...
I'm thinking of corian or equivalent, with integral basin and countertop (no seams). Or a corian undermount with a different countertop material.
I wonder if you couldn't get the white porcelain look, without the glass breaking characteristics of CI.
This isn't a cheap option, and I guess there could be staining issues that other materials don't have.
My inlaws have a white corian counter/integral sink that fits in aesthetically well with their 1800's victorian house.
Good points all around.
In my own house, we installed a larger, single tub Kohler cast iron drop-in. Looked great, just what I and the wifey wanted. The first time she washed the Al pot lids...oy!
Yeah, you can treat, you can scrub...but only for so long.
We soon replaced the CI with an undermount Franke stainless. Very, very nice sink. With stainless I do think it wise to pay a little more for a better quality stainless, for a thicker gauge, for a better quality brushed finish, and for a good quality sound insulative coating on the bottom of the sink.
Someone asked about soapstone...I've had two installed, but never lived with one. I appreciate the aesthetic.
If you're going for "historical" then CI may be the proper choice. If you're going for practical, bulletproof, and something less likely to cause glass or ceramic to shatter, I think stainless is the better option.
I think that I have seen the perfect solution to this sink quandary. A client of mine who has built an ancient log home interior inside a modern frame shell also had their matching ancient looking sinks custom made. They were all hand carved out of half sections of mahogany logs. Very rustic looking but also extremely well finished. It appears that each adz like slice has been individually sanded to retain it's shape but also given a beautiful finish. These sinks are relatively soft so they should not be a hazard to glasses, and being fairly thick wood, should be very sound absorbent. I do not have any idea what the finish is or how they keep them clean.
These sinks are just ideal and the design has been proven over millenniums, much longer than CI or that relatively new kid on the block, stainless. I believe that they do have one small drawback for the average family, they are a bit spendy, but not out of reach for the average contractor. A handy guy with some carving tools could make a few of them over the winter, and save himself a bundle.
Just think of it, sinks today, a bathtub tomorrow. Watch out for splinters.