What is the best kitchen sink?
"The best is the one you like the best"
The best is subjective based on personal preference. Treat others as you want to be treated yourself is a nice phrase that is often said to children by parents. However, it is overly simplified. George Bernard Shaw remarked that "others may have different preferences," in which case treating another as you wish to be treated will still cause the other person to be unhappy. Married couples find this out quickly and develop perception to understand how the other will behave. In economics, this concept is called a utility function. Each person's utility function may have different parameters so may be different, but it is assumed that people want to maximise their utility, aka, their happiness.
What has all this econoimcs got to do with my kitchen sink?
When we decide what is the best, we want you to be cognizant that the best is subjective. However, we can do through the features that may help you decide which is best.
Undermount or overmount
Sinks are generally sold as undermount or overmount sinks. Undermount means that the sink is often glued to the underside of the worktop so that there is no lip on the top of the worktop and it appears that the worktop cut out is flush with the sink. The benefit of this is that water will not accumulate on the outside perimeter of the sink and on the worktop itself. When it does, you can easily wipe the excess water into the sink with a cloth.
Overmount means that the sink unit is placed on top of the kitchen worktop. What this means is that it the sink has a little lip around it on top of the kitchen counter and there is no chance that there is any leak of water from a shoddy seal or degradation over time into the area underneath the sink. The overmount sinks also tend to be cheaper and they are easier to fit as they simply lay on top of the cut out and then have silicone or another waterproof seal added around it connecting it to the worktop.
Stainless steel or ceramic
Some people prefer the white finish that a ceramic sink provides. Whilst there are advantages of a ceramic sink, the biggest disadvantage is that if a stray glass, plate or cup slips out of your hands while doing the washing up, the chances that it will crack when it makes contact with the sink are high. On the other hand, with steel sinks this rarely happens, however, on some of the cheaper steel sinks, the sink really does feel very low quality and weak.
Composite sink
Relatively new on the block, the alternative to steel and ceramic is a silgranit composite sink. These sinks come in various colours, such as black, cream, brown, etc, and have the advantage of being sturdy, non-porous, and unlike cheap plastic sinks, there is a solid feel. This means that if you inadvertantly drop a plate into the sink, it will not crack on contact, yet the sink will also feel high quality.
Some of the big brands for consideration can be found on Tapwarehouse.com or directly from the manufacturer websites.
When you need your kitchen sink installed, why not try getting a quote on Bluebadge.