I didn't do a soap dispenser for two reasons...I didn't want another hole in my granite and also b/c I wanted to pick out something unique looking that I could change every year if I wanted too.
I bought some unique glass holders (with tops) that I have near my sink - one is for soap and one is for lotion.

I have one and like it a lot. I add the liquid detergent through the top, filling it about half way, then the rest with water. It keeps the sink area looking less cluttered, although it's not something I couldn't live without. When your nice new kitchen is all done, you'll be happy not to have a bottle of soap sitting out.

However, sometimes when I am washing something very large, I get out the bottle to squirt some liquid right into it. This doesn't happen often, for me.

We have a soap dispenser on the right and a lotion dispenser on the left (L is for Lotion is how we remember which is which) and use both of them multiple times daily. Have never regretted it; two fewer things to sit on the counter.

I dreaded putting holes in my granite too. But I did not want a bottle (pretty or not) sitting on my counter. I use the NeverMT with a huge Sams Club bottle underneath so I don't have to fill it all the time. LOVE IT.

hi mset..

I pondered the same thing..my faucet came with the soap disp...I didn't want a lot of holes either..but my sister liked hers so I went with it. I keep dish soap in it and have a pretty bottle that holds hand soap..I am glad I have it now.

KA:)

I think it might depend on how many other holes you are committed to. Our faucet needs two, plus one for sprayer and one for filtered water (and one for air switch) I just didn't want another thing jammed in there. If you have a single hole faucet and no other holes you might feel better about giving some real estate to the soap dispenser.

I think the answer depends on whether you are a "I want a pretty bottle on my counter" person or a "I want my counter to look uncluttered" person. I am the latter and have a soap dispenser. I would miss it terribly if I didn't have one.

I also keep a tube of hand lotion in my tilt-out drawer in front of the sink.

I wasn't sure about the dispenser either, however we did end up putting one in. I'm really glad we did. Very convenient but as someone else said I could live without it. In fact I did for the first 25 years of marriage and it didn't hurt a bit. But it keeps the sink area neater and it's always in the same spot.

I don't know if this will help you since I have never had a built-in dispenser to compare to, but I recently got an automatic soap dispenser and it has made me decide not to bother with a built-in one if/when we redo the kitchen. I like the automatic THAT much, especially when I have raw eggs or meat or random yucky stuff on my hands. (Now I just need a hands-free faucet and I will be all set.) For what it's worth, I have mine filled with a mild non-antibacterial dish soap so I can use just the one pump. The automatic dispenser is not all that great looking (in my kitchen anyway -- it would fit better in a newer kitchen), so the built-in would win the style competition.

I'm planning on the rohl country pull out faucet too - haven't seen anyone with one yet - be sure to let me know how you like it!
I was planning on the soap dispenser, but now northcarolina has me intrigued by the automatic one; not sure I've seen that in a kitchen - assuming it has a sensor and you just hold out your hand - do you have a picture of it in your kitchen?

I love my soap dispenser attached to the big bottle of detergent under my sink via the Never MT. Very glad I put that in.

I do them whenever I can... in my bathroom, my kitchen, kids bath. LOVE not having the bottle tip over on me or get in the way.

This house, we only have them in our remodeled bathroom. Can't wait to do the kids and the kitchen again. :::: patience::::::

Many years ago, dh was putting in a new faucet and suggested it. I thought, sure why not? We moved out after a couple years and I had to live without it! Sure, I survived, but when we needed to replace a faucet in another house, I could not wait to have it back. Now that I have it, I'm not real sure how I lived w/out it for all these years.

My mother also has one. She doesn't use it because it's too hard to fill. She's maybe 5' tall, and even a reach to the back of the sink is too much so I suppose that's something to think about.

Elba1, my sensor pump is linked below. I don't have a picture of it in my kitchen, but imagine the white and chrome one against late '80's laminate. Yeah. lol. I've had it about a month so I can't speak to its longevity, but it's working well so far. I am one of those people who uses a paper towel to turn on the water when I've been handling raw meat so I don't have to wash the faucet handles; that's why a hands-free soap dispenser suits me well.

Sorry for the hijack, OP!

Here is a link that might be useful: Simple Human sensor pump

I love having soap dispensers at both my sinks--dish soap at the clean-up sink and hand soap at the prep sink. Both have a NeverMT, so I rarely need to replace the soap. In fact, I just started on my third bottle of dish soap and I'm still on my first jumbo bottle of hand soap at the prep sink, even though my kitchen was finished more than three years ago!

I've had a soap dispenser for the past 10 years. Love, love, love it. No question that we will put one in the new kitchen. Matter of fact, I'm putting one at both sinks. I hate a wet, slippery bottle of soap sliding around the counter. To me, thats more of a mess than cleaning around the dispenser hole. I like the cleaner look too. Plus, I have a hard time finding a soap bottle that I like that doesn't cost a fortune. They seem to break quickly somehow, and then I have to start my county-wide, three month hunt for a new one all over again.

I never regretted having one and will put one in this kitchen. One less "thing" to deal with around the faucet area and those store bought soap bottles get pretty grimy, etc. and if you find a "pretty" container, then you have to worry about it falling into the sink and breaking.

Well, we didn't install soap dispensers. We use those Dawn foam dispensers: short bottles, which we just keep down in the (9" deep) sink so I'm not aware of clutter. For hand soap we have an attractive pump bottle of whatever fine-smelling stuff at the prep sink. I like the idea of being able to use that up and switch to another fragrance: for now, it's Persil Menthe -- love the not-too-smelly Savons de Marseilles -- Green Tea next. A little blast of luxury. So I don't have to make a commitment to a three-year supply of whatever.

I like my soap dispenser! We purchased a kitchen faucet 14 years ago and it just happened to have it. Now we're remodeling, and I purchased a another faucet with a soap dispenser. I don't think you'll miss it if you never had it. But I think you would miss it if you were used to having it. I think a dispenser looks better than a soap bottle, and you don't have to open a cab and reach for it if you keep it hidden.

farmgirlinky -- that's my big dilemma -- I love the foam soap!! (did you know that you can make your own refill with the dawn soap - put a tiny bit - about 2 cm - of regular soap in the bottom then slowly fill it with hot water)

with my old house (nice big sink), I kept the foam dispenser in the sink as well. this house, the sink is too shallow and the kitchen is not pretty anyway, so it's on the counter.

So while I like the idea of not having a bottle of soap - either on the counter or in the sink - not so sure I want to give up the foam soap to a full concentrate soap.

Has anyone transitioned from the foam soap to the concentrated soap dispenser? did you like it?

I also debated this a lot in my kitchen reno and opted to not do it. My DH thought that it was something that could break, and I didn't mind using a bottle since I also keep hand soap at the same sink. I reused an old (classy looking) bourbon bottle and stuck a pourer on it, and it looks great. I agree that if you're used to one, you miss it, but I'm happy with our solution.

northcarolina - thanks for posting that dispenser. I'd love to get one in white for the hand soap. I just ordered a dispenser to hook up to a NeverMT for our dish soap yesterday, but if I had seen this, I may have used this for dish soap instead and suffered with filling the bottle, lol.

Lots of good arguments for both for and against--thank you. Now I am even more confused! ;-) Someone asked about countertop space, which there is plenty of. The sink is 30" wide and there is only one hole for the faucet since it's a pullout, so we definitely have the room. It's just another hole that I can't decide about...but it sounds like the soap pump is a handy dandy thing to have! Ugh...maybe I should just let DH decide--I am so done with these decisions! :)

Yes and I love it!! I love it so much it was the first thing we installed in our kitchen before we even renovated it. At the time we put it where the pullout sprayer was that we no longer needed because the new faucet we installed had a pull out sprayer.

When we renovated the kitchen we definitely included one again. I can tap it with the back of my dirty or germy hand.

lawjedi, thank you for the homemade Dawn foam soap tip! And I do like ellaf's bourbon bottle idea, too. For some reason, we have an empty bourbon bottle close at hand....
lynn

irishcreamgirl--you bring up a GOOD point. There are so many times when my hands are greasy (like after re-oiling a cast iron pan after cleaning it) and I need dish soap, not hand soap, and I have to pick up the bottle to get the soap out. I think I'm going to go for it--that sold me! Thank you!

Ok so final question--do you put it on the right side or the left side? I am right handed, and now I keep my sponge and dish soap bottle on the left side of the faucet and the hand soap on the right of the faucet, but I am flexible. Thoughts on placement?? Thank you!!!! Super helpful!

I have had a soap dispenser in the last two homes that I have had with a hole that was drilled through the top to accommodate the dispenser. It is hard to make a decision to put another hole in the beautiful top but the alternative is to have the unwanted clutter of the bottle. I have always liked mine built in. Make sure you get a good quality one though.

I have always put my dispensers on the right side. This makes sense to me especially if you are right handed. The natural movement, to me, is to go to the right.

Here is a link that might be useful: premier-kitchen-design.com

Can anyone recommend a dispenser with a LONG spout? The one we have now (Price Pfister) has an utterly useless 2" spout. I have found a 3 7/8" spout, also 3 1/2", but am wondering if there are any that are longer. The new sink is 10" deep.

We weren't going to get a new soap dispenser, but after reading this thread, I thought, "I don't want ugly bottles on my new granite!" I could do a rack mounted on the sink cabinet door, but I think the dispenser is neater :-) It just needs a long spout so it can actually squirt dish soap into the pots, instead of dribbling down the side of the sink.

Will definitely get a NeverMT--so glad that I heard of it here!

thanks northcarolina

I wouldn't do it again, the less holes in the granite the better IMO and mine already doesn't want to function properly. I find myself reaching under the sink for the dish soap anyway.

If you had to choose between a soap dispenser and a spray, what would you choose? I have always had a dispenser, but the saleswoman tried to talk me into a spray, and I need to keep my existing number of holes. I am looking at a Rohl Country Kitchen model. Thanks for your thoughts.

nmother - the original poster and I are also getting the Rohl country kitchen faucet, but with a pullout spray in the head - have you seen that one?

Hi Elba1, I am a little leery of wear and tear on a pullout spray. I have seen several in showrooms(although not the Rohl) that droop after too many pulls. Thoughts on the Rohl? Also, I did not see that feature on the Bridge style (I need 3 holes). Thanks!

You are correct, sorry I didn't recall you were going for the bridge style. I get the sense the consensus on the forum is for a spray over soap dispenser. I've always had a spray on the right and I'm left handed, so I never use it. That's why this time we chose the faucet we did, so the lever and the spray are right in the middle, for all of us. I'm getting the matching soap dispenser, but that will only be 2 holes for me.

I too was a bit leery of getting the pullout faucet b/c of wear and tear over time. But I think in this case one has to know oneself! I am pretty gentle with appliances (always feel like I'm going to break them!), so I figured that I could probably get a few years over the average lifespan of a pullout faucet. One salesman told me 7-8 years was average before something needs to be replaced. I figure if I can get 10 years out of a faucet that's pretty good.

The store where we ultimately ended up buying the faucet said that they've had very good luck with the Rohl pullouts. No major complaints. That was enough for me!