I keep mine in the sinks all the time; for me, they buffer the sound of pots and pans hitting the bottom of the sink, they also serve as a drainer, water runs off to the bottom of the sink if you washed stuff and leave them on the grids, as opposed to stuff sitting on the wet bottom of the sink, they also protect the finish on the bottom of the sink, not a big issue for me though.

the ridges on the grids also help stack washed items sideways, if not the items are slipping and sliding on the slick surface of the sink bottom and are sitting in the dirty water; I swish hot water and a quick cloth wiping on my grids a few times when I'm cooking intensely; I clean the sinks thoroughly once a day at most, the grids hide them.

small food items/specks that slip from dirty dishes can slide down on the bottom of the sink, the grid is clear of that............

not a stupid question at all, if you've never had them, you wonder.
same as with potfillers, a perplexing item if you've never had one; if you have one and use it, you find it handy and get used to it's presence and usefullness.

I use mine too all the time for the same reasons. I thought it was dumb and $$$ but it is great as it lets the water run when you want to wash your hands with a sink full of dishes - they are really great with deep sinks. It does make it harder to clean.

I echo the two prior responses.

I have an inexpensive dish drainer from Target on top of the wire grid to keep rinsed dishes that collect throughout the day.

pattyk--if you do a search at the bottom of the forum, you'll find a bunch of threads over the past year re: this very topic :-)

I have always used a grid, even in my crummiest kitcehn sink. I just like that extra "cushion" factor when putting things in the sink, or while washing pots and pans, and I like that it keeps items being cleaned/rinsed out of or above the soapy water as it's being rinsed off said items.

I didn't think I wanted one, and my sink doesn't come with one. After a week or two of pans dinging on the bottom of the sink, DH told me to go buy two. I think we picked them up at Bed, Bath & Beyond. I stick them in the dishwasher every so often for a "good" cleaning.

Christy

We never had grids before building our new home, & now I can't imagine being without them, for all the reasons given by the previous posters.

I was reluctant to get one, since the custom ones are so expensive. I ended up getting the OXO sink grid which, though not all that attractive, covers about half the sink so I could rest items on it while washing. However, it still meant that the other side would still get scratched despite my best efforts, and I didn't have a clear opening for the drain. I just recently bit the bullet and got the custom sink grid and couldn't be happier. I just pull it out and stick it on the counter when I'm doing a thorough cleaning of the bottom of the sink and stick it back in when I'm done.

I like the grid because it keep heavy pots and pans off the sink bottom. I have a lot of Le Creuset and cast iron I wouldn't want either left in the sink to soak if it wasn't on a grid.

Buffettgirl, I need to have you train my husband! I load dishes right away, he hasn't caught on. He also likes to "wash" wine glasses by hand and put them away. Every so often I have to go through the stemware cabinet and pick out all the "washed" ones and put them in the dishwasher to really wash them.

hahaha...I guess I thought everyone did this. This is how we do it at my mom's too. the sink is always empty. And that's not just me being anal because I am the worst housekeeper ever, I just hate seeing dirty dishes. I hate seeing dishes drying that are clean too. Must just be one of my quirks. lol.

Heh, Buffett. We often have pots and pans or bakeware we need to hand wash and sometimes we leave them to soak in the sink for a bit--either because they have caked on stuff or we're doing something else or just being lazy!

We have a dishwasher, but for the pots, pans, knives and other things that would take up too much space in the dishwasher, we do those by hand. We have a double bowl Silgranit sink and I didn't think we needed a grid. Well, when you wash things with water in one bowl of the sink, the water cushions the clanging. BUT, when you rinse with water running in the other empty bowl and IF you have a bit of arthritis in your hands, you occasionally drop things. Yes, Silgranit does get little chips, and they do show when water minerals dry in them. The left bowl of the sink which we fill with a couple inches of water to wash stuff, remains pristine. Nary a scratch.

So, to minimize future damage, after 2.5 years of clanging, I finally broke down and bought a stainless steel grid for the right side bowl. Nothing in our kitchen is shiny, and our faucet is brushed nickel, so it is taking me a bit of time getting used to seeing it shine in our metallic gray sink.

I think I am going to like it, also for all the reasons given above.

Just in case anyone thinks this is a new idea, I have seen recommendations in 19th century books for wooden grates at the bottom of sinks to prevent damage to the sink and everything washed in it.

Buffet - I am basically a cluttered person, but if it's one thing I can't tolerate, it's dishes or pots in the sink! Everything goes directly into the dw; when my kids were little, as soon as they were able to open the dishwasher, they put their own stuff in.

Furthermore, I worked at my daughter's sink, which has a grate. Try peeling vegetables with a grate. The damn things get stuck in the grate and instead of being able to sweep them directly into the garbage disposal, I had to pick up the grate, move all the peelings out of the grate openings and the ones hanging on the grid and THEN sweep it into the disposal. Last step, put the cleaned off grate back into the sink. NO thanks! No grate for me when I get my new sink.

ok raynag - that's me to a T. I am a cluttered person. Like I've admitted I am not a stellar housekeeper. But even pots that have to soak are only allowed to soak for a short time before I have to scrub them. And yeah, my kids put their things in the DW too.

I'm glad I'm not the only one out there who won't be getting grates.

I would get in trouble, when I was a child, if I didn't rinse my dishes and put them in the dishwasher. I guess I've been trained pretty well, because I still do it.

Glad to see this discussion. I keep hearing how happy people are with the sink grates that come with the Ticor sinks, yet I've had a hard time imagining how I would use one. I can imagine some limited situations when it would be nice to have one, but I've also had a hard time with the concept of using them to drain your handwashed dishes.

I use my dishwasher for most dishes and, as others have mentioned, when I need to wash some by hand they don't usually sit in the sink very long (except when needing to soak for a while).

I guess I'm in the minority, but I'd much rather pull out a small dish drainer from the cabinet under the sink, place it on the counter, and either put the handwashed items in the drainer until I'm finished washing and can dry them or simply let them air dry for a short time--after which I quickly put the dishes away and return the dish drainer to its spot under the sink. I would hate to have any part of my kitchen sink tied up with draining dishes and have to work around that.

I guess it just shows that, within the basics of good kitchen design, we each have to take into consideration our own working style. I may also be influenced by the fact that we have a developmentally disabled child who would, I'm sure, wash hands over the clean dishes or empty out the last of the soup in a bowl directly over the clean dishes without giving it a thought.

One of the reasons it's so helpful to read this board is that people not only explain what their preferences are but explain the reason behind it so that the each of us can decide whether it applies in our own circumstances.

buffettgirl--despite throwing more things in our new(ish) Miele DW than I ever did in any DW before, there are still some items that will never see the inside of a DW (like my knives), or some things that just end up being washed by hand for other reasons (e.g.--its size/bulkiness, or we will need the item before DW is run and emptied....).

I'm not knocking anyone's style - I hand wash many things - knives, large pots...I just never seem to end up with dishes in the sink and or on the counter. :)

We don't leave dishes in for a long time and they are still handy. What we did was buy a really cheap one as the Blanco were $100 when I was looking and I didn't want one that bad. The cheap one was handy so I kept watching online and when I found one for $50, I got it. I just like how the water runs much easier with the deeper sink. We don't use our dispoal for major things as we have an old house so if we are peeling I usually do it in the trash as it's next to the sink and not a big deal/just as easy as I don't want to risk the pipes as we have issues with roots. Get a cheap one if they are clostly and you aren't sure as we then just threw the cheap one in the basement.

I used a sink grid when I had a 'hard' (enamel) sink in the apartment I rented and I needed it. I've always had stainless sinks since then and never needed a grid - to me it's just something else to clean and makes cleaning the sink more complicated (read, it's going to get done less frequently). Me too buffetgirl, dishes go directly into the dishwasher so nothing is piling up in the sink. If pans are soaking in the cleanup sink I'll wash my hands in the prep sink - which is where I am mostly anyway and don't see the need for a grid there either.

Wow, I almost feel insulted here. I have the double grids on my Orca and I love them. And I guarantee you I am every bit as anal as Buffettgirl about putting dishes in the DW. You certainly won't find any dishes "soaking" in my sink. I tend to handwash dishes while I'm cooking. Stir the pot, wash the dish, place on top grid for quick dry, stir again, drain the noodles over botton grid, put away dishes in top grid, pour sauce over noodles, sauce pan in bottom grid, place water in it, rinse colander, place on upper drying grid, wash sauce pan, place on drying grid, put away colander....Something like that, the grids actually work great for those of us who are beyond anal about having dirty dishes sit in a sink.

Just to show we're all different...I don't mind dirty dishes in the sink... No, they don't sit there for days on end, but when I'm making dinner, etc. I don't have time to wash or even rinse the dishes and put them in the DW...I usually have 2, 3, 4, or more things going at once so I go directly from 1 to 2 to 3, etc with no time in between... Plus, my DH does the dishes and he runs it at night but does not unload until the next evening...so I don't usually have an empty DW to use. We both work outside the home w/long commutes so our time very is limited...

Japper, Sorry. I hope you don't actually feel insulted (I noticed you said "almost"). I don't think anyone who has mentioned not using the grids in the sink feels their way is better (I know I don't). For me, I'm just trying to get another viewpoint, to compare with my own, to see if I'm missing out on something that would make my life easier. As I said in my earlier post, it helps sort out what will work for our individual circumstances. If I end up getting a new Ticor sink from Galaxy, then I will certainly try the complementary sink grids to see how they work for our family. Asking what others like (or don't like) about them helps me to sort out how I might best use them.

The fact that you are able to multitask so efficiently and share space in one sink for so many different functions tells me that you must be far more coordinated than I am! I'm pretty sure if I tried to do all that the noodles would end up in the sink, if not on top of my clean dishes.

Yeah, I'm like sail-away - I'm wondering if I'm missing something by not having grids, so I was just trying to get a feel for why people have them, certainly not insinuate that people that use them don't put their dishes away, I'm sorry if it came off that way. it kept sounding to me as if my way of doing things just makes them unnecessary, but I'm hearing that you cook the way I cook - cook and clean at the same time and that the grids work for you, so it may be something I should consider.

What I do normally do when I cook - i don't know if this is unrelated or not (especially when I bake) I fill one side of the sink with soapy water, so that when the baking is done, the dishes are soaked and either ready to hand wash or ready to toss into the DW with hardly any manual labor involved. :)

We never had the grids in our old sink, but bought the new one from Ticor and it came with a grid. I would not have purchased one separately, but now it is here I love it. I actually prefer to have stuff soaking in the sink/sitting in there awaiting dishwasher time as opposed to out on the counters. It is all in how you prefer to work!

I HATE a countertop dish drainer, period, and am even less excited about one on my new granite. So having the grid in the bottom of the sink to act as a "built-in" drainer and no fuss about moving one in or out is a wonderful treat for me. I too move the grid once a day and scrub out the sink.

Never would have guessed that such a small thing would make my life more pleasant.

Good luck!

When I picked out my sink the plumber asked if I wanted the grids and I thought "what the heck would I need those for??" Besides, at $80, they were ridiculously expensive. But then again, I never knew a sink could could $700! I've always had SS sinks and never worried about scratches or anything.

Well, after being in my new home for about 2 weeks, I noticed some very fine scratches. Deep enough I can put my nail into them. I was very upset! Don't know how it happened-whether I did it or it was the workers, but regardless, I'm noticing now how much my heavy pans clank (really bothers me now) and scrape against the sink, so needless to say...I called and ordered the stupid grates!!! If nothing else, just to preserve the sink and my sanity!

did not think i would get so many responses on sink grids..I never had them before and guess I will just have to try them for myself to see if I like them...I will have a double bowl stainless sink and if they help from getting scratches on the sink then i guess it will be good for that.also i do wash dishes by hand and don't always use my diswasher ( but now I will be getting a new dishwasher and think I will be using alot more)..and when washing my glasses it sounds like it will be easier to stand them up on..oh well..like i said never used one and because they came free with my Ticor sink I will try them...thank you all for responding!!

Gosh, was I getting emotional over sink grids? Sorry about that! But, yes I have to agree, when I first saw them I thought why in the world would anyone want or need a grid for their sink? And now that I have them, I find that I actually love them (kind of like having kids...).

rofl Japper - it happens to even the least TKO among us....something hits a cord.

Well, I do try to unload the DW every morning, b/c I hate dirty dishes in the sink. But I've been up for 3 hours, and the breakfast dishes are still in the sink! I'd better get off the computer...

Anyhoo, I've gone back and forth and back again about this grid business. I know it will get in my way (peeling veggies, as raynag said). I'm a clean freak, so anytime meat touches it, I'll want to put it in the dishwasher. And I clean my sink bottom all day. And the one I want (Shaw's stainless) is 100 bucks!

But after 1 month of careful use, my Shaw's has its first teeny chip on the bottom. Dang it all. I don't know how it happened. TheHusband, I'm sure.

So I'm making him buy the grid.

Francy (off to unload the dishwasher...)

I've gone back and forth about grids. I ordered them for our 2 ss sinks--main and prep. They were expensive. I loved the look of grids but I found I didn't like them. I took them out. I used the small one as an auxiliary dish drainer. I found the big one (for our 30 x 17 sink) was hard to store. It had to go in the cabinet under the sink on a diagonal making the storage space useless for anything else.

fast forward a year....I decided to try the grids again. I still didn't like the grid in the prep sink but I ended keeping one in the main sink for the last 1 1/2 years. I like it more than I don't like it. The main problem is that it's too large to fit in the dw and has to be scrubbed down fairly often to keep black gunk from getting into all the joints. And as it ages, it's harder to get it clean--inevitable build up in little nicks and scratches and I assume the wearing away of a clear coating in the factory finish (?) It's also a bit unweildy when I take it out of the sink.

If I had it to do over again, I would skip a prep sink grid and would try to find 2 small grids for the main sink instead of 1 large one.

Ha! Buffettgirl, and Sue36 I had this conversation with my DH, GC, GC's associate and GC's wife this very morning (she stopped by to say hello and see how things were going).

I mentioned that I was having to "train" my dh and dd to put things STRAIGHT into the dw now that we had one, and she just started laughing, stared meaningfully at GC and said, 'Yes, well let me know IF YOU FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THAT". The assorted menfolk in the room looked abashed and blushed... lol So clearly, it's a common problem!

Honestly, though, since the DW went in last week I haven't had a dish in the sink. It's BLISS! Omg, I have a clean kitchen for the first time EVER. I'm a rotten housekeeper, but I could get very used to this "making it easy" approach. I keep hoping that once we get a closet framed in the bedroom we can dispense with the floordrobe approach that we've been living with for 3 years....

To keep this ::cough:: on topic: I do not have a sink grid, but having read how y'all like them, maybe I should consider it!

I have to say - my dh even cleans toilets so putting dishes in the DW isn't a challenge for him. But the army trained him right. ROFL.

I have a KWC "D" shape 10"deep,polished SS sink. I purchased the full SS grid (bottom & sides) to protect the polished finish and really love it. One of my better purchases.

Bump ...

I have an equal, double SS sink. I bought one or two back when I did my kitchen (2002). They really annoyed me and just got in my way. I don't care about scratches...they will happen. Aside from looking cool, I still don't understand their usefulness.

My DH trained ME to never put dirty dishes in the sink. When we first met, I was so puzzled....it's what the sink is for, right? Now, I agree with him. Dirty dishes either stay on the counter or go in the dishwasher (in our house).