I may not be the right person to respond to this as I've never had a prep sink. But I have enjoyed prep sinks while helping out friends and family in their homes. Based on that, I would say that prep sinks are desirable (if not "essential") when:

1) more than one person is frequently prepping/cooking in the kitchen;

2) working with a prep sink makes sense with your cooking style. I, for ex., prefer to work in a small perimeter where I don't have to move more than a few steps to the sink, cook top, wall oven or fridge. Moving to a prep sink even a few feet away takes me out of my "work zone."

3) the cooktop/range/ovens are more than 4-5 feet from the main sink. I gather this is your situation and I can see a huge advantage to having a prep sink near the cooking area. If I had a kitchen like that, the cooking area with prep sink would become my work zone (in which case, I'd get as big a prep sink as possible)

Hope this helps.

We put two sinks into our new kitchen because my wife & I were always competing for sink use in the previous kitchens. I do pretty much all the cooking, and she's usually on salad duty, so having two work zones each with independent sink access helps us to not have to be constantly elbowing each other out of the way.

A prep sink is only 'essential' in a commercial kitchen where food safety code dictates separate sinks for hand washing and food prep. In most home environments, they are a convenience.

Yes, you will be sacrificing storage space and counter top space. I think in most kitchens prep sinks are a waste, especially when you say you already have a pot filler. But, I'm very short on countertop and storage space personally, and I do a lot of baking and pastry work.

Do you have pictures to post? Maybe others can help you configure the layout in a way that makes more sense, with or without the prep sink.

I had one 4 kitchens ago but not subsequently. It's great if you have space though I often see prep sinks that are too small to be as useful except as a bar sink, at least for me. I think it depends on the kitchen and the family using it.

So I feel the answer is that a good, functional sink that fits the space is essential but a secondary sink is just that.

My answer to the question divorced of all context, a prep sink becomes essential:

1) If you have a big or awkward kitchen where you can't make a good workpath between the food storage (fridge), main sink, and cooking zone. Then you get the double triangle kitchen where there's a prep-cook triangle, with subzones, and a clean-up to storage triangle, with subzones.

2) If you have too busy a household to tidy the kitchen before cooking and don't want to prep meals over dirty dishes, or if you regularly leave half-clean dishes to soak in the sink and don't want to get them dirty with prep, or if you keep your dishes in a dish drainer in the sink, and don't want to ...

3) When you regularly have two different cooks working on two entirely different things at the same time, and both needing running water. E.g., making pizza crusts and breaking down a chicken.

4) If you'd be happy with a big two bowl sink in the above situations, but can't fit one (i.e., two single bowl sinks add up to two bowls).

5) When you have an ancillary non-food-prep function that really needs a "secondary" sink, rather than a "prep" sink. That would be for a bar, coffee bar, snack center, hand-washing, kids' goopy projects, etc.

I think there are some more reasons, but can't think of them.

No one really needs a prep sink. Running water is a luxury, really. But having one can be essential to whether a kitchen flows smoothly and works as well as it can.

KMCG, I'm not so good with the descriptions. Would you like to post a floorplan?

I can't think of a time when a prep sink is "essential" and you've already proven that you can live without one. However, if your current layout made you happy, you probably wouldn't be doing a remodel to begin with.

Then again, most of what we do in a kitchen remodel isn't really essential, is it? Except for replacing things that have broken or fixing things that are unsafe, most of what we do, we do either because it will be nicer to look at or because it will improve functionality. If it will improve function, look nice, and won't cause a hardship to have it, then why the heck not?

Was my prep sink essential? Of course not. Did it substantially improve the way my kitchen works? Absolutely!

Thanks so much for these helpful responses. (Okay, I confess - I shouldn't have said essential; I know it's all relative, but it's just the way my brain was working! I've never even considered a prep sink before...)

There are often two people cooking in this kitchen, but no little kids and not a ton of traffic. I definitely fit the first 3 of plllog's categories, though. I often go to prepare dinner but find dishes sitting in the sink. I admit to never knowing what to do with slimy chicken when there are dishes drying next to the sink. It would be nice to have a clean sink on view when we entertain. But I suppose I could be pretty happy even with a single sink that is just in a better location. Still, if we are going with new cabinets and counters, it does present a nice opportunity.

I'll try later to post a floorplan, as I apparently can't just copy and paste in this message. Keep commenting - I love hearing about how people use these. Does anyone feel like their prep sink is just something else to keep clean, or a counter space hog?

When the main sink is on one side of a big island, by the range...and the fridge is on the other side of a big island...by itself. Then a prep sink is essential, IMHO :)

Does anyone feel like their prep sink is just something else to keep clean, or a counter space hog?

I have seen people say such things about their 2nd sinks on this forum...but it usually turns out that the sink is placed out of the reasonable work loop, or as previously said, it's too small to function as needed. Placement in accordance with how things happen in the kitchen is essential.

I love mine...With several members of the family all working in the kitchen, or when working by myself. Maybe not 'essential,' but in so many ways beneficial, advantageous, convenient.... ;-)

To me it is almost essential if my family wants a sane woman in the house who doesn't feel like throwing dirty dishes across the room because no one else can load the DW and the dishes prevent me from using the sink to prepare food. I cannot wait for my prep sink. :)

You can get a sink cover made to fit flush to the counter so that only the faucet is in the way. :) This is often done in truly tiny kitchens on the one and only tiny sink. It can be done on a prep sink that has to pretend to be a counter top as well. It's easiest to do if you have a positive reveal. That way, the cover can sit on the edge of the sink. It can also be done with the cover having little legs if you want a negative or flush reveal. Usually there's a half moon hole at the edge to get your finger into, but I've see where there was a hinged lever that went flush and could be pulled up. The surface can be cutting board, or match, as I said. If it's stone, they usually use a veneer of it stuck to heavy plywood to keep the weight manageable and to keep the stone from breaking through a lot of handling.

Well we may have done the triangle no-no by blocking our main sink with an island. SO the prep sink will be in the prep triangle (with range and fridge).
I've lived with a double sink (and am only using 1/2) for 12 years. I got a big sink going in and a prep. I have to admit I do feel spoiled! IF I didn't have the island in the way maybe I wouldnt have needed it BUT I love the thought of separate prep from clean up area.
I do still wonder about walking around the island to get to main sink.

BTW DH makes jokes "two sinks! two sinks!"...

I had a prep sink in my kitchen for 21 years and never used it. I'm doing away with it in my kitchen remodel. I think if you have two people cooking at once it may be feasible.

I consider mine essential to the function of our new layout. I have a cooktop on one side of the island and the clean up sink is on far side of the island. The fridge is on the end wall in between the two sides. Yes, I could live without it, but I would probably pull all my hair out or quit cooking if I had to go around the island every time I needed water to wash my hands or get water for cooking. My cooktop used to be in the island across from the sink, so I didn't have to go far for cooking, but the only space for my mixer was next tot he oven on that far wall, so I had the around the island issue for washing egg goo or dough off my hands and just hated it. Now I have something more like the double triangle and am much happier. Yes, life would go on without the prep sink, but Mama wouldn't be happy and we all know when Mama ain't happy...... ;-)

I just got my first built-in dishwasher after 23 years with a portable. When you have a portable you tie up your sink and faucet every time you run it. For me, having ONE sink work 24 hours a day is a total luxury. Cannot even imagine what I would do with a prep sink!

kmcg- I also have a small kitchen and opted for a prep sink. DH is still not crazy about the idea (plumbing for the prep sink is to be installed this week). He thinks it is a waste of an 18" cabinet and counterspace. But then again I am the cook and not a neat one at that. I always prep near the sink and if I am too far away-- I leave puddles in my path. If you google my name you will see my layout. My reason for the prep sink is that my kitchen is 11 feet wide and without it I would have to cross the kitchen to dump boiling water etc and that would be through a traffic route. It was not an easy decision, since it sounds kinda weird to have 2 sinks in a small kitchen like mine and they are not that far apart from each other. But they will be used for two totally different functions. I also like that I can have a cutting board made to cover the prep sink when not in use and need the extra counterspace.

It's pretty interesting how relative "essential" can be.

When we were planning our kitchen (in our first home), I told my SO many GWers insisted a prep sink was needed for our kitchen layout, and I also tried to sneak a pot-filler into the bargaining as well. As I'm a clean-as-I-go cook, I didn't really have the dishes-in-sink-so-I-can't-use-it excuse. I went with the what-if-you're-helping-to-cook-and-we-both-need-to-use-the-sink argument. He said, I can wait my turn. So I tried the I-could-back-into-the-person-walking-to-the-fridge-with-a-pot-of-boiling-water line to which he said, don't worry; we have an ice maker. (This "sense of humor" may be why we do not have kids.)

In the end, we really didn't have anywhere for the prep sink to really go that didn't involve trenching long distances through our slab for the water lines and drain lines, which we didn't want to do.

As far as the pot-filler, I made the case that carrying a heavy pot filled with water across the kitchen could be disastrous for our lovely brand new bamboo floors, and he just looked at me and said, well, you would have to carry it back to the sink anyways, right?

How could I argue with such logic?!

I'm a prep sink virgin working on the second night here. I think there must be a learning curve. So far it hasn't really helped - for me there's just two sinks to get stuffed with unwashed dishes now! I'm thinking this might change with experience. But it's definitely a new thing, learning to cook in a space with two sinks. I've been finding myself wishing I had sprung for the single giant stages ... only I'm not sure it's any more giant that my silgranite - I think some of the acreage is drainboard, and I love the granite. Love, love love love it.

I agree with the notion that if your cleanup sink is way away from your prep zone, across the back side of an island or something, then a prep sink would be pretty desirable. Short of that, I'm not so sure -- so far I'm thinking of it as the second bowl of a 2-bowl sink, with some extra space in between the bowls.

I guess all I have to add to this discussion is to note that if you do let wisdom from the forum prevail over your inner sense of things, it may take a while to learn in practice how the thing is best used.