Stainless steel sinks

“A website all about stainless steel sinks? Preposterous!" we hear you cry (or words to that effect). Well, while it is true that the humble stainless steel sink is hardly the most riveting subject for a website, rest assured that 1) there are sites around with much weirder subject matter than sinks and 2) there actually seems to be a lack of decent information available on the subject for someone planning to buy a stainless steel kitchen or commercial sink. Most of the websites belong to sink manufacturers or retailers and are little more than a list of products, without much in the way of help in choosing a new sink. So here we go – (nearly) everything about stainless steel sinks!

Use of stainless steel sinks

First it is worth mentioning where and why sinks made of stainless steel are typically used. This can be broken down into three main areas:

Home

Most homes will have a stainless steel sink in the kitchen – go and see our main article about stainless steel kitchen sinks.

Stainless steel bathroom sinks are perhaps less common, but this is probably more an aesthetic consideration than anything else – because bathrooms tend to be dominated by ceramic materials (tiles, toilets etc.), washbasins tend to be made of a similar material, which also has many benefits, though also a disturbing tendency to crack when struck. However, you may well see a bathroom sink made of stainless steel in a commercial setting such as a factory washroom or perhaps a public washroom, where the toilet and other fittings are also of stainless steel and where ease of cleaning is more important than any question of looks (see below).

Commercial/Industrial

Commercial and industrial stainless steel sinks are also extremely commonplace – in essence they are widely used for all the same reasons as household sinks: ease of washing, maintenance, etc. The difference is primarily in size - a sink in a busy restaurant kitchen will be much larger than its domestic equivalent in order to accommodate the large quantities of dirty dishes. Also, commercial sinks will tend to be made of a more robust stainless steel which can take dents more readily and where some of the aesthetic appeal has been sacrificed for strength.

Healthcare

The use of stainless steel sinks in healthcare institutions is worthy of mention in addition to the above – here of course, hygiene is paramount, and as mentioned earlier, stainless steel can take a lot of punishment from the cleaning chemicals used to sterilize the sink in such an environment, as well as the variety of other substances that may well end up in contact with the sink.

Manufacturing of stainless steel sinks

So how are stainless steel sinks made? Actually, the process is pretty simple, for the most part. A surprisingly thin sheet of stainless steel is sliced into sections and then the shape of the sheet is basically “punched” into the steel on a press using a mould, which both stretches and strengthens the steel. The rest is just details – smoothing and buffing the sink, drilling the drainage hole, sometimes spraying the outside with rubber/latex to deaden the clanging sound of dishes.

To save us going into detail, you can watch all that right here on this video! It’s one of those “How it’s Made” shorts for the Science Channel, evidently filmed at the Elkay stainless steel sinks production plant – Elkay being probably the largest producer in the world.

Like it? Pretty simple, huh?

Other major manufacturers of stainless steel sinks and similar items, besides Elkay, are Kohler and Franke and their production processes are no doubt fairly similar.