NyefNyef By "called Blanco", I meant I telephoned Blanco's US HQ and asked them to find me their sink within a 200 mile radius of my home. They pointed me to their regional sales teams, who could not locate it readily available, or in their nat'l warehouse. They said most of the time, nobody really stocks them and they're all custom ordered. No matter. Amazon & FedEx came thru. cal Ditto! I'd love to FedEx them too. breezyThanks for answering my original question. My suspicion was that they weren't as good, just based on how often I see Blanco mentioned and never hear the other makers. And compared to what we've spent already on things, you're right that $100 is a small price to get exactly what we wanted exactly when we need it.

Hi Breezy -- FWIW it may be worth asking around a little more about this. It may be so, but I'm worried this may be a little embellishment on a past, finite problem. I think -- at least so I've gathered from a few unrelated sources - that at first both silgranite and e-granite had trouble cracking during shipping. I gather both are better now than formerly, but silgranite got better before e-granite. I don't know if that's just familiarity with shipping-type problems that they've been able to mitigate now that things are better understood, or whether they've actually literally reformulated. I guess I've been led to believe the latter, that things are now literally different from how they were a couple years ago. Someone I spoke with today said that until a year ago or so e-granite still had some trouble, sometimes, shipping; silgranite until a couple years ago. But now both companies -- he claimed -- are comparable. Again, the recommendation to inspect with a flashlight before installation for cracks. Again I heard that once installed, the sinks are utterly durable. I heard claimed this was so for both brands. Whether there's more involved in the long term that distinguishes the brands, or whether the distinction is due to a now largely-irrelevent shipping issue (due to material improvement first by Blanco, then Elkay), I can't say. But it's possible you can have both sinks with impunity. That's one problem with judging solely from reports of problems -- there can be a cohort of products susceptible to problems, that later (or earlier) cohorts didn't exhibit. It's tricky to pick away the time-component.

Has anyone used an Elkay e-granite sink? Know how they compare with silgranite? Yesterday I went with my GC to look at plumbing fixtures, etc. for my kitchen remodel. I saw an 8" deep e-granite (actually 85% natural quartz) that I liked (Harmony model ELGU2218). The sink opening is 12" x 12 5/8" but also has an extra 9"x12" ledge that I could lay vegetables on to drain... so the overall counterspace it would take would be 12 x 22. I just haven't known anyone who has had an e-granite by Elkay, but have read from many of you who love your Blanco Silgranite sinks. Thoughts?

Hi Haley, Sorry I just saw your comment. Here are some photos I have in my archive. I can take different angles tonight if these aren't helpful. FWIW, 6 months later and we still love this sink. The dark color matches our black stainless appliances, but also just makes the sink more of a shadow, which is good to avoid drawing eyes to dirty dishes! We use the faucet hose+sprayer to give it a good rinse every evening after cleaning up dinner to keep food from drying in place. We've given it 1 deep cleaning (we also have a grid on the bottom, so deep cleaning involved a thorough cleaning of that, too). The water filter is good for filling water to cook or a tea kettle. The soap dispenser is actually really nice because it keeps the counter tidy. The faucet is touch activated (got it before the remodel) and it's amazingly handy. We added an air button for the disposal (which by code has to have a manual light switch on the wall, which for us is not in reach of the sink) and it has never been pressed accidentally and is very useful so I recommend it. The dishwasher air gap is required by code here so no avoiding that!