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farmhouse style sink, cast iron or fireclay? opinions please

14 years ago

My wife and I are getting close to making a decision on our sink. She likes the look of the farmhouse style apron front that we will undermount the other 3 sides in soapstone.

I like to do the dishes in a double bowl, using one side to soak the dishes and the other to rinse them.

Anyway, the question is, white fireclay or enameled cast iron? We want a sink that won't stain, or at least be easy to clean, and won't be easy to chip. So, we're prepared to go high quality.

Kohler has a cast iron apron front for $1,700 (ouch), and Whitehaus has fire clay for $1,070 (free shipping).

Can people offer suggestions and opinions?

Thanks!

Don

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Comments (4)

deeageaux
14 years ago
Look at this thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Quartz Farmhouse Sink
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Christy Bell
14 years ago
I opted for the Fireclay - mostly due to size as Kohler only had a larger sink. After choosing that, I'm glad I did. The fireclay won't show the cast iron underneath if it does chip (which both could do) and it's beautiful. It weighs a lot less and was able to get our Porcher sink for around $800. Cast Iron is appealing if you don't mind spending the money, but I don't really think it makes a difference.
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gobruno
14 years ago
We went with fireclay bc it's supposed to be really easy to maintain. It's been a long time, but I believe that the sink in the kitchen of my childhood home was a Kohler cast iron sink and it scratched super easily. If you didn't have a rubber mat in place, it would get these grey metallic looking scratches. I hope that's not true with the fireclay. Good luck. We agonized over this too. We used to alway pick SS bc of the ease of maintenance; so, this is a little bit of a leap of faith for us.
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ship4u
Original Author
14 years ago
deeageaux,
I never thought about stress to the fireclay from the garbage disposal. Does anyone else have thoughts about that?

Thanks christyinco and gobruno for the comments about fireclay.

What do others think?

Best regards,
Don
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