Benefits of Buying a Kitchen Sink Made of Thicker Steel
Benefits of Buying a Kitchen Sink Made of Thicker Steel
Stainless steel is the best material to use in the production of kitchen sinks. This low-carbon steel contains 10.5% chromium and other elements such as nickel, titanium, copper, and molybdenum. Thus, it’s a combination of different metals and elements that make a kitchen sink durable and tougher.
Another reason to buy a Stainless Steel kitchen sink made of thicker steel is that it complements the other kitchen materials, which makes the ambience look pretty. Moreover, these sinks are highly corrosion and bacteria resistant. Despite all of its advantages, steel sinks are the least expensive option.
Handmade vs Pressed Sinks
Sinks that are made in thicker steel are usually handmade stainless steel kitchen sinks where the sheets of steel are folded and welded and then polished out to get you a nice kitchen sink, the other way kitchen sinks are made is via a hydraulic press where a sheet of steel is stamped and stretched out to form the shape of a kitchen sink.
So the key difference in terms of thickness is that one will have have the same thickness from the base of the sink all the way to edge of the lips, whereas a pressed sink will be thin around the base because it's been stretched out.
You would generally see pressed sinks at 0.8mm to 1.0mm thickness 304 Stainless Steel, and hand made sinks at 1.0mm to 1.2mm thickness whereas Buildmat made kitchen sinks are 1.5mm to ensure that there is that extra sturdiness all around and it also allows us to create large bowl sinks.
The Thickness of the Steel (Gauge)
Before we discuss the benefits of buying a kitchen sink with thicker steel, you must get familiar with some basics. Kitchen sinks come with various thicknesses or gauge, depending on the layer of sheets of stainless steel used in the manufacturing. The stainless steel gauge is a technical term for thickness, here in Australia we commonly use mm but when talking amongst factories and manufacturers we would need to refer to the steel's gauge.
What Is a Good Gauge for a Stainless Steel Sink?
Gauge is the thickness of the metal used in the process. Note that unlike traditional scales, higher gauge numbers indicate thinner sheets of metal. Hence, the smaller the gauge, the thicker the material; a 16 gauge stainless steel is more durable compared to a 22 gauge steel.
Benefits of Kitchen Sink Made of Thicker Steel
Stainless steel is the best material to use in the household because of its various characteristics. Let’s learn about the benefits of kitchen sink made of thicker steel.
Highly Durable
The sinks made of thicker steels are highly durable. It is best to opt for 1.2mm or 1.5mm stainless steel sinks. They are resistant to dents and dings; thus, even if you accidentally drop the pointy edge of a knife into the stainless steel sink, you don’t have to worry about the piercing in the metal sheet.
Lower Noise
Experts believe that thicker stainless steel contributes to noise reduction from items dropped into the sink or garbage disposals. Generally, manufacturers incorporate soundproofing items and insulation on the underside of your kitchen sink with pads or coating that helps to absorb the sounds. This helps to make your sink quieter and easy to deal with. Traditionally sinks are made by a machine press and the steel is thin, if you can recall using a sink where you drop your knife and fork in and it echoes that's because of the vibrations of the sink echoing.
Susceptibility to Bowing and Denting
Heavier sinks can help you prevent bowing and denting. The thicker steel sink has relatively better damping and denting characteristics because of its mass. But if you purchase a thin sink, you can face denting and bowing problems. Even after a year, you will end up with lots of marks of knives, forks, and other kitchen items.
Perfect Size
Every person wants their kitchen sink big enough, which can make their cleaning process easy. Some may need a bigger kitchen sink if they have a large family. It also depends on the kitchen space and the interior. Thicker sinks are available in many sizes, and you can buy one according to your needs.
They come in single bowl sinks or double bowl sinks and can also be custom made but these will require a long time frame of planning (3 to 6 months)
Cost-Effective
You may always search for a kitchen sink that is durable, cost-effective, perfect size, noiseless, and denting-resistant. However, it’s challenging for people to get all these properties in a single sink. But you can find these characteristics in 16 and 18 gauge stainless steel sinks. They are also available at an affordable price.
If you want to purchase a sink made of thicker steel, go with a 1.5mm thick Stainless Steel. 1.2mm gauge is also great for kitchen use, and you can also opt for it. Moreover, 1.5mm gauge is the standard thickness of stainless steel for the household’s kitchen sink.
Lightweight
Your kitchen deserves a sink with a lower number gauge, i.e., a sink made of thicker steel. But at the same time, it should be lightweight. As you have learned that 1.5mm or 1.2mm gauge sinks are thicker enough to use in kitchens, but do you know they are also light in weight, surprised? If you don’t want to purchase the 1.5mm or 1.2mm gauge sinks, you can also find a kitchen sink made of stainless steel ranging from 1.5 gauge (thicker) to 0.8mm (thin).
We consider this lightweight because when you compare it to matte black or white granite sinks or fireclay sinks that are in the market, they can weigh up to 100kg so they should have custom-built support to hold the weight of the sink and the water it is expected to hold which most people forget when installing their kitchen.
Which Types of Sinks Should I Buy In Thicker Steel
Whether you're considering installing your sink as an undermount sink, top mount sink, drop-in sink or inset sink you should always consider installing a 1.5mm thick steel sturdy and durable sink.
Both Kitchen and Laundry sinks have their fair share of knocks and abuse, in one room it's to help you prepare your cooking and wash up after meals, whereas the other is for you to clean your laundry or soak your dirty clothes, so both rooms deserve to have a high-quality sink installed to help you out.
Shop Kitchen Sinks
Handmade stainless steel kitchen sinks.
One thing you should really look out for is the curvature of the corners, you do NOT want a sharp right angle, some sellers will claim that it is more stylish but what they forget to mention to you is that things get stuck in there and is really hard to clean from the corners, so to save you the hassle make sure you spend a little more in getting a stainless steel sink with R10 internal radius corners for easy cleaning.
Tips for undermount sinks, regardless if it's a single sink or double sink, is that you need to make sure you're not getting a sink with a tap hole because they're going to cover your nice stone benchtop. Tap hole sinks are dated and usually only bought to cover up an old space, or for areas where you know that there's going to be a lot of splashing and no care like a public hand basin, mop sinks or maybe in a laundry.
Hand Made Sinks Have More Space
When you're replacing your old sink you'll try and imagine that there's no way you could do with a smaller sink and you'll measure it out and then look for one that's a similar size or bigger. There is something that you'll also need to consider when getting a higher quality hand made sink. Even if the size is small there is actually more space inside the bowl, that is because there is a lot less wasted space with the pressed sinks requiring more curvature or a higher radius corner because of the way they are made.
So if you're getting your sink bowl undermount kitchen sink or topmount just made sure you try and imagine the actual bowl dimensions rather than measuring the length and width of the sink from lip to lip.
When it comes to buying a kitchen sink, opt for one made of thicker steel. It is prone to denting, makes less noise, and is highly durable.
Draining Trays, the Hard Question
We get asked a lot about draining trays, we recommend that if you've got a dishwasher and doing most of your dishes in there then there is less of a need for a draining tray. If you're planning to undermount then you also want to show off your benchtop as much as possible.
But functionally a lot of people say that drainer trays are a must, so in the end, it comes down to personal preference, we've got another blog post where we ask our customers for their comments about draining trays so if you want to have a read of what others say look at the draining tray post.
Alternatively, we also designed a try that suits our double bowl sinks, we call this a portable drainboard because you can pull it out when you're cleaning pots and pans or you can put it away while you're preparing a meal, it's versatile and works a treat. Some other options people are going for is using a colander or roll mats that are available.
One thing to be careful about when getting a drainer tray is that with most other brand's you will have to choose whether you're after a right hand bowl or left hand bowl whereas we've designed our sinks so that they can be installed as either, so you can buy it now and decide later whether you want it on the left or right.
More Questions or Need More Tips?
If you have more questions or want more tips give us a call or send us an email or read our FAQs, we're always happy to have a chat and make sure you find what you're looking for.
We have a wide range of kitchen sink mixer taps, tapware, basin mixers , towel rails that you can browse on our online store.
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