Sink depth relative to your height? Apron sinks and others.

14 years ago

A sink salesperson told me today that taller people are more comfortable with shallower sink depths (e.g., 7") because then they don't have to lean over to reach the bottom, while shorter people are more comfortable with deeper sinks because they can reach the bottom of them without bending.

Does that make sense as a general rule? I'm a tall woman looking at a sink which is about 7" deep, which felt comfortable to me.

Thank you!

Featured Answer

peytonroad

14 years ago

I am 5'6" and find a 10inch sink delpth to be uncomfortable to me. (My aunts home) I had to sort of bend down to reach the bottom. I will go with the 8 inch depth.

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Comments (11)

morgne
14 years ago
I have found that to be true. In fact I raised the level of the counter that our main dish washing sink is in several inches in order to make it easier to do dishes without bending over... and even easier for the taller Hubby.
mdod
14 years ago
I can't find the post but I just read something about this recently. The comment was that you want your fingers (maybe even palms?) to be able to reach the bottom of the sink when standing straight, otherwise you can hurt your back. Someone else said that the sink grids can help raise things up for your sink is too deep.
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First question: what kind of apron-front sink? Some are meant to sit atop a cabinet that's been cut down to recieve the sink. That'd be like the stainless steel or copper ones, and maybe some fireclay sinks with more regular rectangular shape. There's a thread on here (I think bichonlover started it) where Poorowner and I responded with pictures about our stainless apron front sink installations. Here's a picture of my sink. It's in a same-size cabinet with two dishwasher panels on either side. You could get away with not using the dw panels, but I needed them to deal with a spacing issue, and to cut down on dw noise. Some (and I'm thinking about the handmade Shaw's and other fireclay ones) are meant to go into an apron-front cabinet that's had a cutout in the blank apron front to receive the sink. Thus the cabinet has to be wide enough to hold the sink and still have some space on either side of the sink for the cutout. I think I've seen Shaw's owners with 33" sinks in a 36" cabinet, and the like.
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holligator
14 years ago
I'm 5'11" and I have a 10-inch deep sink that is undermounted (so it's even deeper), and I absolutely love it. I have no complaints at all about the height being uncomfortable.

Two qualifiers, though...

First, I do have a sink grid, so items sit about an inch off the bottom.

Second, I don't do a lot of dishwashing by hand.

I would get as deep a sink again in a heartbeat!
michellemarie
14 years ago
I am 5'7" and it never even entered my mind to pick a sink depth based on my height. I think both of the sinks I have are about 10" deep. For me it was all about how many dishes I soak in the sink at a time. The sink in my last house was a cheap and shallow builder grade sink. I HATED it because it seemed I could never soak as many dirty dishes at one time as I wanted. The first thing I did when picking out the sink for this house is look at big and deep. I really can't imagine someone wishing they had a smaller sink. Now that I am redoing my kitchen I again went for big and deep. Just my opinion.
gardenburgher
14 years ago
I'm 5'7" and I went from a 6.5" depth to a 10" depth. I was aware of the difference for about 2 weeks. (Not uncomfortable, just aware.) Then I got used to it and never looked back. I LOVE it.

Before I committed to the 10" deep sink, I wandered around a kitchen showroom and pretended like I was washing dishes. I wanted to see if I was uncomfortable with the reach. I might have looked goofy, but I was too TKO to care!
3katz4me
14 years ago
Our sinks are about 9 inches deep which seems relatively deep compared to some I've used. I'm 5'5" and DH is 5'10". Neither of us have ever felt the sinks are too deep but even he has commented on some other sinks he's used that are too shallow. Just seems like there's not enough room for much of anything. I'm not tall enough to have a problem with sinks too deep I guess but I would not want a sink any shallower than what I have now.
User
14 years ago
I'm 5'7" and I have an undermount 36" Shaw's sink, it's 10 1/2" deep and I have no problems at all. I've been using it now for 5+ years. I love it.

Like gardenburgher said it takes a week or two to get used it, but it's the same adjustment you make for anything new, whether you've remodeled your kitchen or moved into a new home. I moved my DW and fridge when I remodeled and it did take a few weeks to get used to the new location, but now it's normal, as is the depth of the sink.
remodelfla
14 years ago
Barely 5' tall and my sink is almost 10" deep... very comfortable for me.
lascatx
14 years ago
Why? Do tall people like to have water splash and have wet bellies all the time? Not me. I love the deep sink. If it were just about where the bottom of the sink hits you and remodelfla has it right, then I shouldn't have a sink at all. :-O ;-)

I am 5'12" (family ranges from 5'7" to 6'3") and have a 10" deep sink undermounted with 3 cm counters. We do have a grid and we raised our counters a bit (they were supposed to be 2" but I got maybe 1 to 1-1/2), but I think the more important factor is getting a faucet with the proper reach for you sink size and arm length. Think about it -- how often are your hands at the bottom of the sink? How often are you hands reaching into the sink and under the stream of water. Our old faucet was low and set back to where we were bending (in and/or down) to wash anything.
User
14 years ago
I've seen many posts were taller people were concerned about the depth of their new sinks and how it would affect their backs. I'm vertically challenged (4.9) and LOVE our deep sink. So to some extent she may have a point

OTOH, Lascatx's comment about tall people liking to have water splash & wet bellies makes me feel sooooo much better, now I know I'm not the only one! HA! Thanks Lascatx!

Sink depth relative to your height? Apron sinks and others.

peytonroad

Comments (11)

morgne

mdod

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