Carrerahill Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 As per the title, just looking for a decent stainless 1.5 bowl kitchen sink, been looking at Franke and Blanco and Reginox, issue is many of them are online only, so I can't do the tap-tap test to see how solid they sell. It's for our new kitchen, I am not going to get to hung up on a sink so just want a decent sink, decent size, not one of the playhouse ones and wondered if any of you had recently bought a kitchen sink and did you feel it was well made and good value for money. I am on plumbworld.co.uk just now and liked the look of quite a few but very reluctant just to hit buy unseen. Taps too - kitchen lot wanted £279.00 for a mixer tap... It's a tap! Not where I spend money, good floors and doors and windows and finishes, but a bloody tap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassanclan Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/franke-renodanube-polished-stainless-steel-15-bowl-sink-tap-waste-kit-60-at-bqs-3406739 Saw this advert the other day 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 (edited) I have a SS Franke Mythos, which I like and have had for about 5 years. Retail about £600, but I looked around and paid £400. Came with nice metal drainer to go over half sink or half of main sink, plus a glass thing on runner - maybe for peeling etc. And a deep lip around the sink and drainer, which I value. I think one of your criteria should be a thickness of 0.9mm or 1mm not 0.7mm. I have an extendi-tap which is good - B&Q half price in a sale. I think solid taps are worth spending some on, as they get used so much. Ferdinand Edited February 17, 2020 by Ferdinand 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiBee Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 I can tell you what not to buy. We started our kitchen refurb to freshen the look as the house was up for sale. Fitted a s/s sink from toolstation and regretted it ever since. Its paper thin and easily marked. House is now not for sale and sink pees me off. I would not buy another without physically touching it. The Grohe tap she wanted came from screwfix (cheapest outlet and used topcashback too) Brushed finish instead of chrome so it doesnt show finger prints. Searched the internet for ages too and screwfix are only over the road from my work place? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrerahill Posted February 17, 2020 Author Share Posted February 17, 2020 3 hours ago, Ferdinand said: I have a SS Franke Mythos, which I like and have had for about 5 years. Retail about £600, but I looked around and paid £400. Came with nice metal drainer to go over half sink or half of main sink, plus a glass thing on runner - maybe for peeling etc. And a deep lip around the sink and drainer, which I value. I think one of your criteria should be a thickness of 0.9mm or 1mm not 0.7mm. I have an extendi-tap which is good - B&Q half price in a sale. I think solid taps are worth spending some on, as they get used so much. Ferdinand That sure is a nice sink! 0.9/1.0mm noted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrerahill Posted February 17, 2020 Author Share Posted February 17, 2020 2 hours ago, SiBee said: I can tell you what not to buy. We started our kitchen refurb to freshen the look as the house was up for sale. Fitted a s/s sink from toolstation and regretted it ever since. Its paper thin and easily marked. House is now not for sale and sink pees me off. I would not buy another without physically touching it. The Grohe tap she wanted came from screwfix (cheapest outlet and used topcashback too) Brushed finish instead of chrome so it doesnt show finger prints. Searched the internet for ages too and screwfix are only over the road from my work place? Thanks for that, I find that Toolstation appears to sell a lot of poor stuff and I only ever look for branded stuff if I do use them as sometimes they have stuff SF hasn't and they are 3 doors apart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roundtuit Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 We've got a Franke Maris 1.5 bowl. I like it; low profile mounting, clean lines, plenty big enough and not too pricey. It's not rock solid, but not too tinny either. We have a Franke Eiger silksteel mixer tap which toolstation were selling for less than £100 at the time, but I suspect that offer is long gone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simplysimon Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 how west of scotland are you? homebase irvine is closing down, prices reduced Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiBee Posted February 17, 2020 Share Posted February 17, 2020 Slightly off topic so sorry op but have modern sinks reduced in size? I fitted new worktops and cut out to fit the old ( approx 5 yr old) Franke corronite sink. It looked shabby so we decided to fit a new sink. The one I chose had more to do with being the closest match to the cut out size than anything else within a low budget. You would think they would all be a standard cut out size but that would make life too easy eh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryder72 Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 Cutout sizes are consistent within brands for same type of sinks. ie Franke or Blanco with have only 3 or 4 cutouts for all their steel sinks. A ceramic or composite sink may require a different cutout. But it almost certainly wont be the case that the cutouts across brands are the same. Why would they want to do that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 Why is the thickness a big issue? Is it "tap wobble"? This annoys me. In a previous house we had a cheap stainless steel sink and mixer tap. The tap came with two screw in solid copper tails, which when coupled to copper pipes made the tap very sturdy with no wobble. Every mixer tap I have seen for a long time now comes with flexi tails. They give no support whatsoever to the tap, so the sink flexes and the tap wobbles. I so much like the new granite worktop we have now. Even with flexi tails there is no "tap wobble" that now seems a feature of stainless steel sinks that you have to accept. Just how thick would a stainless sink have to be to completely stop "tap wobble"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 If you don't want wobble, fit a Tap Brace- either the plastic Franke doodah or one of the bigger brackets... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted February 18, 2020 Share Posted February 18, 2020 43 minutes ago, ProDave said: Why is the thickness a big issue? Is it "tap wobble"? This annoys me. In a previous house we had a cheap stainless steel sink and mixer tap. The tap came with two screw in solid copper tails, which when coupled to copper pipes made the tap very sturdy with no wobble. Every mixer tap I have seen for a long time now comes with flexi tails. They give no support whatsoever to the tap, so the sink flexes and the tap wobbles. I so much like the new granite worktop we have now. Even with flexi tails there is no "tap wobble" that now seems a feature of stainless steel sinks that you have to accept. Just how thick would a stainless sink have to be to completely stop "tap wobble"? i find that thinner sinks yield if leaned on. Suspect that thickness if an issue because people want cheap sinks ... may be a rental property thing maybe and cheapskate restorations . A driver on that may be that the deposit schemes in resolving disputes can assume shortish lifespans on eg a kitchen, so if T damages it after that the recovery of cash from the deposit may be very limited. So limited point in putting in eg high end stuff. As I go for long term and hopefully civilised tenants, if I buy from eg Howdens I always go about halfway up the range for both sinks and taps ... it is part of the thing about investing in the things that get used all the time to give it a quality feel as far as possible and so that it lasts for the long term and Ts stay. Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryder72 Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 On 18/02/2020 at 16:09, ProDave said: Why is the thickness a big issue? Is it "tap wobble"? This annoys me. In a previous house we had a cheap stainless steel sink and mixer tap. The tap came with two screw in solid copper tails, which when coupled to copper pipes made the tap very sturdy with no wobble. Every mixer tap I have seen for a long time now comes with flexi tails. They give no support whatsoever to the tap, so the sink flexes and the tap wobbles. I so much like the new granite worktop we have now. Even with flexi tails there is no "tap wobble" that now seems a feature of stainless steel sinks that you have to accept. Just how thick would a stainless sink have to be to completely stop "tap wobble"? Most good sink manufacturers offer a stabilizing bracket for use with steel sinks. They screw into the worktop and clamp around the tap to almost eliminate flex. Dont need thicker steel to do this. I once had 8mm steel plates punched with 35mm holes to try and eliminate wobble and even this didnt eliminate it so the answer is > 8mm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Thin sinks also have the issue that they flex just with finger pressure and therefore feel cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jez1978 Posted March 14, 2020 Share Posted March 14, 2020 Franke ascona is a decent sink for the money and it is available from screwfix (?) and has the added bonus of clipping straight in to cut out without the need for the shite clips that never go on properly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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