Saturday, April 30, 2011

The right kitchen sink

 

I have no idea why ppl buy those tiny little sink ? budget of space or budget of $ ? Anyway the size of the sink do matter, next comes the $ to pay … but I notice nowadays .. with a RM200 you can get a stainless double bowl sink …. what the hell .. it’s economical as there are many local and china made and brands.

Mostly, are China made, due to cost of material and labor, quality, depends on brand and LUCK ! My friend’s TEKA rusted after 5 years of usage … hahahahahhaha ….

so here are some tips that I gather because I had this blardy dilemma for over 8 weeks, just to choose a sink … unbelievable but .. I think I take pride in what I choose and do and I’m not a perfectionist .. because that calls for a rich bastard and I’m not but I want to be …

if you read or follow my blog, you should know that I cook … how good is the taste is subjective hahahahha … so I want to spend something worth my hard earn money and should look good, practical, quality, cheap and etc etc …. anyway .. it’s impossible, but it’s possible if u spend 8 weeks looking are various types of sink from Johor Bahru to Kuala Lumpur and to even oversea … Singapore … then you should be able to summarize what you want with your budget …

I’m into budget because I need 2 sink … 1 double bowl for my wet kitchen and 1 single bowl for my dry kitchen … so the journey begins … to find the cheapest, workable, nicest sink …

1. Size of your wok, determined the sie of your sink.
If you wash your wok, you would agree the spillage of the tap water to your worktop and the floor … it sucks …, so by choosing the correct sink, eliminate or reduce the spillage and makes a very clean washing experience … yes .. cooking and washing IS AN ART .. those bastards that do not agree are basically spoon-fed and blardy ignorant .. same goes to ironing … it’s and ART … we artisan takes pride on what we do .. hahahahahahaha

For a typical asian, I believe your work size is at size 18” or 46cm in diameter … that’s minimum … if smaller … I bet u just cook for your pets and you usually dine out or you takeaway …. angry ? then get a proper size will ya …. this size of work called for a 45cm long basin and a width of 40cm and a depth of 20cm, anything shorter it’s going to create water spillage when you wash … unless, you wash with a very very very slow water … patiently and skillfully rinse of detergent… that takes hell a lot of practice, time and skill to work around the wok washing …. so save that trouble … get those with the spec given …

2. Single or double or triple basin
If you have a very long worktop … get the triple, however, do you really need those ? My choice is a double, 1 with the size above and 1 smaller … total within 3 feet or 90cm long … other then that .. it will look damn awkward and awefull if u have just a 10feet run wet kitchen …  be it twin size of 1 big 1 small … stay within 3 feet long…. A single basin only would be hard to work on because you are advised by ME not to wash and rinse at the same time at the same bowl … it’s hard to get a perfectly squeaky clean on whatever that you are washing …. wash in 1 basin and transfer to another basin to rinse …. a basin with a Drainer … but due to our Malaysian high moisture environment … it’s better to op just 2 sink and minus the drainer, cos uneven drainer grows mold and bacteria in it edges ..if it’s not dried in time. Get a wall hang stainless steel drainer would be a better option …

Left hand or right handed sink.
If your wok is on your left … make sure the bigger basin is on your left … likewise for the opposite … this one .. I no need to brief further … if you don’t  get it .. then ur with stupid ….

Inset or Under mount
Under mount is the ‘IN’ thing now, if you have a Granite top… definitely under-mount, looks plush and lush …  Insert type, you need to have a silicone applied on the edges of the sink … some are exposed some are not, mold tend to develop overtime, I’m yet to find anti-mold silicone … if you do found any, please msg me … the rest will grow mold … be it white, transparent or darker silicone … all have this problem …. so under-mount will never show this typical cosmetic defect, under-mount sink are limited, however if your like me … you will find one … but some cases ppl use insert type to mount it under, some might look OK … some … looks like shit ! especially if yours are with a lot of steps … and odd shape sink … a NO NO … dun make fun of yourself ….

Material of the sink
Ceramic, Granite and Stainless Steel 
Ceramic and Granite … typical priced at RM2,500 and above … got budget why not .. can choose color … else stick to Stainless Steel … yes all sink claims they are stainless … but what is the grading … most of them claim 304 (18/8) or 316 (18/10) these are basically a mixture ratio of Chromium and Nickel Alloy, so which shall I choose ?
SAME … you can hardly tell the difference since the subject is SINK and not making a Rocket …  but 316 or 18/10 raw material will cost more cos Nickel is more expensive then Chromium. Armed with these …. u can easily judge if the salesman is talking cocks and bullshitting you right on your face … anyway … bad news is … branded and non branded are mostly MADE IN CHINA … only a handfull are made in their respective country and that cost a BOMB .. like I say … u take a risk in believing that the sink that you buy with your hard earn money is really a 304 or a 316 … because from the beginning of this topic … I told you a story of a friend who bough a RM1,400 TEKA sink that has rust spot on it after 5 years of using it … cosmetically .. u cannot differentiate a cheap stainless and a graded ones … just by BRAND and the price …and LUCK to get the real deal .. I got mine in Singapore … I believe in them because they are world known best complained  citizen … so typically they don’t sell craps to the public  so whatever that sells there … CAN BUY !!! …. I got mine both sink in 1.2mm and just a dime less of RM1,200 … Swans from US of A … that’s a STEAL …. it pays to do window shopping for 8 weeks 2 countries 6 state ….


Thicknes of the stainless steel
A typical economical sink would have a minimum of a 0.8mm thickness … lower then that … would make a very clumsy sink … a typical 0.9 is ideal and 1.0, 1.1 to 1.2 is LUXURIOUS … anyway … below … I have tips to make your 0.8 sound like it’s a 1.2 or even 1.4mm in feel … bear in mind that every mm increase in an increase of the depth of your pocket …

Shapes -  Round, Oval, Rectangular, Square and odd shape
Unless it’s for show-off and ur not cooking anything at home … any shapes is ok so long it looks good in your eyes … else stick to rectangular, semi rounded edges ….  or rectangular square edges ‘IN’ thing now … and with water director … that’s the coolest of the cool … typical price for that is RM1800 and above … no budget… then consider rectangular and semi rounded edges … easy to clean … round ??? WTF …. OVAL ??? X2 WTF !!! for washing pets food container ???  not practical …  remember .. asian cooking … big oily wok … unless u dun cook … ok … I got notin’ to say …

 

Plumbing kits
With the new designers sink, we now has the option to choose varieties of the waste management comes with the sink, often comes with a more expensive tag line, some has even smaller basket to hold waste inside the drainer. Gone are the days we use our finger to pickup the waste else chocking the sink while washing.

Accesssories
Designers sink some comes with chopping board and rinsing basket, this is a PLUS to your sink. Choose it if you have the budget

Insinkerator
it’s basically a food waste disposer. Very common in West, now making way to Asia, this is useful when your staying in an apartment or condo when the main garbage bin is shared amongst occupants, to keep the smell away in your kitchen you need to do a run to the garbage bin, else dispose it with this multifunctional grinder to ground the waste into fine particle, read the manual, because some cannot take it chicken bones … just fish bone … a food waste disposer can reduce the amount of waste that goes to land-fill.. this is sure an ECO Friendly device … Typically price at RM1,000 and above … fits under the sink yah …. make sure for new house … get the electrician to mount a plug point under ur kitchen worktop …

Sounddeadening and water condensation
If you get urself a real cheap sink … don’t be too sad … I’m here to help …. expensive and designers and also copycat china brands has sound deadening pad on the back of your basin … some covering the whole bottom … some just small patch … some thick some thin … some uses corrugated paint …  so long it deaden the typical water tapping the sink .. it is a good sink … if yours do not comes with any of them …. go to ur local hardware shop … ask for Roof top Bitumen rolls … usually 1 side metalic the other side is sticky bitumen … use ur creativity … stick it to the bottom of your sink … use a spoon to even out the air bubble, before that … put ur sink under a hot sun … and the bitumen rolls .. so that it soften the bitumen .. easy to work on …. else use hair dryer for heating and soften the bitumen .. work with spoon .. BIG SPOON … then clean the smug with alcohol or kerozine …. tadaaa … expensive SOUNDED sink … RM5-10 …. to get the RM1,000 plus feel …. if u did that … please THANKS me below … fark … I’m writing all these tips without a bottle of beer …. pity me !!! dammit hahahahahhaa

Finishing - polished, silk, brushed and linen
Linen finishing tops my preferred choice … price is about RM500-800 more …. either the salesman if honest or he never used it before … they were saying it’s hard to get it squeaky clean because the oil might catch on the edge of the beveled patterns …. fark them !!! it’s because they do not keep on stock cos the price is 100% or 150% more and it’s hard to sell …. nuff said …

Typically … do not get the mirror polished finishing … unless u never wants to cook at home … easily scratched … Linen tops the best durable usage … it seems it cannot be scratched …. thus the hefty price .. also Linen comes in very limited design … Silk and Brushed .. are the common ones …. they are already scratched … so with your idiot-ness … it may hide some of ur work of art …. do you know .. are genuine stainless steel has a property of sell healing for hairline scratches …. ask GOD … he’s the ALMIGHTY … the CREATER of HEAVEN & EARTH …... if u asked me … I’ll definitely SLAPP u ……

 

ok 2am now … no beer … but a bottle of vodka lying as if she’s calling me …. dammit …. happy SINK hunting …. and oh oh .. dun trust anyone that says ITALIAN brand … fuck them .. no such thing … have … if the price is over RM3-5K  ..  even italian design …. this is marketing GIMMICKS …. use google or yahoo … check it and dun be an arsehole ….got brain use it …

 

I boh hau siaw lahhhh …. told u liaw …..

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

very informative blog, thanks for sharing.

A simple way to evaluate the quality of stainless steel.
Bring a small piece of magnet and put near to it. If it sticks, the stainless "steel" is not real steel. If it do not stick, real stainless steel !

The other day I went to Ikea and wonder why similar sinks cost 10 times more. The answer is revealed with my litte magnet.

Anonymous said...

I am using Silgranit Blanco, cost me RM2.5k. Loving it. Hopefully it stands a lifetime :)

Elis Layla said...

it nice post i really love to read this it has full of information about Kitchen.

Unknown said...

thank you very much for your most helpful information on kitchen sink.
may I know which brand and model sink did you end up buying?
I look forward to your reply

Unknown said...

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