OP here, I should mention that we currently have a 50/50 sink that's 14x16x8 for each basin, and 14x16 is just slightly small for our bigger pans. We don't wash plastic or stainless steel pans in the dishwasher so the plastic containers and pans tend to pile up, so if there was 1 basin I fear that we would end up having problems with no available sink space.

Before we stopped washing plastic in the dishwasher, we had a large single-basin sink and it was fine, about 7 years ago when we moved.

how do you use a dishpan as a 2nd bowl equivalent?

You store the dishpan under the sink, pull it out, set on one side of the sink and fill it when you want to wash or soak things while using the rest of the sink for prep or to make the disposal accessible while you wash.

thanks ginny20, we don't really do dishes that way, at this point anyway - perhaps we should and I now plan to buy a dishpan either way - we use the double sink so one is full of dishes and the other is usable for washing things like produce, or some of the dishes in the other half of the sink. it's not the most functional system, but I don't see changing it soon enough to move to a single sink.

we also don't use a garbage disposal (we have one in our current kitchen, and don't use it, and when we move upstairs (and turn the current kitchen into a rental) we don't plan to install one on the new sink. I never figured out how to use the disposal...

Dreamojean - I'm in the same boat as you. I will need a double for a 30in cab. I just prefer double. Are you sure you can't fit the 29in in a 30 cab? My KD told me they could fit up to a 30 in a 30 cab. I'll have to find out the details, but seems like I read something similar in a post here in the past.

I think some 29 or even 30" sinks can fit in a 30 cab and others can't, I have no idea why. The Kraus sink is 30 and says it can fit in a 30 cab, the Vigo sink I love is 29 and says it needs to be a 31" cab. I've even seen 27" sinks that supposedly need 33" cabs. It's confusing.

I've been advised that if the specs say you need a 31" cab it's not great to put the sink in a 30" cabinet. I guess the Vigo sink needs an inch on either side to undermount it properly. Total bummer. Not worth going from IKEA to semi-custom cabinets just to get the sink I want though, it doubles the cabinet price more or less.

Hmmm...I'm gonna check with my KD - will let you know what she says. I too saw a Vigo that I liked - it was a 50/50, but with the same specs. I'm curious to know what will allow some 30s to fit into a 30" cab, but prevent a 29 from fitting into a 30" cab.

Dreamojean & others:
The sink mfr will say you need (for example) a 33" cabinet for a 30" undermount sink because they allow room for the mounting clips on either side. You can fit it into a smaller cabinet by resting the sink edges on top of the cabinet sides, sandwiching them between the wood and the countertop. We installed our 30" sink (28" inside width SS bowl) in a 30" cabinet by doing this. Sink mfr specified minimum 33" cabinet. This does make it almost impossible to change out the sink without destroying the countertop, but that's already unlikely with undermount because of the cutout.
HTH, Ruby

Thanks Ruby - that did help.

Dreamojean - my KD said ok to the 29" sink in the 30" base even though the requirement is 31, so all may not be lost for you with the sink you really like.

Here's the sink I'll be putting in a 30" cabinet later this month.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ann's sink

To follow up on this thread, I ended up going to a showroom and seeing the Vigo sink I loved in pictures/ online, and turns out - it was nice but not worth the extra trouble of jury-rigging it.

I ended up going with the double Kraus 60/40 D shaped sink, with D-shaped for main sink and more mini-rectangular for the breakaway sink and I LOVE it! the main sink is big enough for most of our bigger pans, and the side sink is perfect for washing vegetables or smaller pans, filling our water filter carafe etc., and it's deep. What I love about Kraus is that it came with all these extras like a grid at the bottom, and strainers, and I bought a big hefty faucet as part of the package and it's really artistic and pretty.

The whole package was around $600 from faucet direct - not cheap don't get me wrong, but including a matching faucet with the sink and the extras meant it looks good and cleans up well... after all the back and forth, deciding mostly among Vigo, Franke and Kraus (with a little of some other manufacturers in there) and wanting a 70/30 and "settling" for a 60/40, and not wanting a D-shaped - it worked out in the end.

Yippy - so happy it worked out!

I too ended up going with a different sink - haha. Some times it's funny how things work out.