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Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ

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How to judge the quality of stainless steel sinks?

Is 18/10 the standard "stainless steel" or should there be more information? I am trying to find the most durable kitchen sink -- less stain, less scratching, maintaining a shine. One manufacturer lists 18/10 stainless steel -20 gauge and the other simply says stainless steel, 18 gauge but does not specify if the steel is 18/10. How do I compare these products?

Donna Chizen
home owner - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
August 2, 2011

Hi, Donna. It is difficult to judge the quality of a consumer item from its specs. A company will promote its positive features and understate its negative ones, or not give you the information at all.

To my knowledge there is no "standard" grade of stainless steel sinks. 18/10 is a very good type of stainless steel in theory, probably the best, but judging by the many threads on line here complaining of flatware rusting, I think there is more to rolling quality stainless steel than just the nominal composition. But 20-gauge is really thin! 16-gauge is 1/16" of an inch think, .0625", 18-gauge is .0500, and 20-gauge is only .0375" thick. I could be wrong, but I'd be too afraid of such a spindly kitchen sink readily denting from pots and pans to buy one.

Manufacturers will only stop making things thinner and cheaper when we stop buying them -- not that I can talk. I just redid my bathroom and made the mistake of buying top of the line plumbing fixtures and matching accessories from a catalog. The material is so thin that I could mail the $100 24" towel bar back to the manufacturer with my complaint letter without exceeding the one-ounce limit for a 44-cent stamp :-)

The well-known brands seem to offer only paper-thin stuff. I think that the only place you can buy quality from anymore is small manufacturers who aren't big enough to have bean-counters and cost reduction engineers :-)

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
August 2, 2011

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