Free Stainless Sinks May Not Be So Free

The quote below is an excerpt from a Kitchen & Bath Industry group discussion on LinkedIn.

I emailed the author, Steven Conneen, to ask his permission to quote him here (Thanks Steven).

Apparently, just as in times past when consumers are in a money-conserving mood, the market is being flooded with cheap products to meet demand - in this case poor quality stainless steel sinks.

Think twice about installing a no-brand stainless steel sink UNDER a granite, quartz or solid-surface countertop. The cost of removing it when it rusts or discolors will be FAR MORE than any savings you enjoy today. In fact, it may be impossible to remove it without destroying your beautiful tile backsplash.

Those of you that have grown up experiencing only high quality stainless sinks don't know how bad they can get.

Sinks that are to be undermounted should be ONLY high quality, "lifetime sinks", such as Elkay, Franke, etc. Corian, quartz and Siligranite sinks also can be termed "lifetime sinks".

In fact, you should question ANY free product offered as an enticement to get you to buy, unless the offer is from a manufacturer of the products (ie. Free Elkay Faucet with the purchase of an Elkay Sink, or Free GE Hood with the purchase of a GE range and dishwasher).

Peggy

As a manager of a high end plumbing showroom in the Northeast we have gone to great lengths to educate our plumbing/ contractor and retail customers and that's the key. It takes some work but you have to hit it from all angles. We work hard to educate the architects, designers, builders or anyone involved in the spec about quality and the opportunity to make more money.

It seems like such a waste to spend thousands of $ on beautiful stone counter tops to cheap out on the sink and faucet.

One of our biggest obstacles right now is actually with the granite companies. There has been huge influx of import (sub-quality) stainless steel sinks from Asia which these companies can buy for a fraction of the cost of the Elkay, Franke or KWC sinks. They'll even throw it in at no charge to hook the consumer on the granite purchase.

What the consumer doesn't realize is that these Asian sinks are not true 304 grade Stainless steel sinks with an 18/10 chromium/nickel content. Fortunately we've had some customers come in looking to replace their Asian sink because it is starting to show rust.

I now encourage all of my customers to bring refrigerator magnets with them to the counter places to test the chromium/nickel content in the sinks. The lower the content the higher the concentration of ferrous iron which will cause the magnet to stick to the sink.