I have had an Astracast [composite] white sink for 10 years. The side with the disposer looks a little rough (when it has not been recently cleaned) because I did not read the manual that said to NOT use abrasive cleaners on it, and I used to Soft Scrub the dickens out of it. I also bleached it as the stains would set in because I dulled the polished bottom with my reckless scrubbing. I don't know what material it was made of (in 1999), but they are now made of a granite composite. I loved my sink because it had these grayish flecks in it that went so well with my new (at the time) laminate counters. The side with the strainer basket still looks white and nice. I did not abuse that side as much. There has been hair coloring in that sink and we have poured boiling water down the drain--without running cold water, we have washed paint brushes repeatedly, and poured untold amounts of chemicals down the drain. The drain (which was a plasticky white--what did I know?) has cracked, but the sink has not. One thing it does do, though, is show black marks from pans. That is why I used Soft Scrub on it so much. Those black marks drove me nuts. My hubby did manage to drop a sharp knife on it *just right* and it it made a little chip, which he covered with some sort of epoxy. Because of the pattern on the sink, you can hardly see his little fix. Unfortunately, he did that when the sink was fairly new, so I was plenty *shall we say* irritated with him! I am going with another composite sink in our remodel. An apron-front single bowl quartz sink. I am now aware of what NOT to do in one of those sinks, and the first thing I did was purchase one of those sink grids.

I purchased a Blanco precis under mount sink in 2010 for my kitchen. It is a beautiful sink. However this year, 2014 the sink cracked on the left side near the bottom curve....the crack continues to grow up the side and across the bottom. The sink leaks so we can't use it. We have a dishwasher and are not heavy users of the sink...so we're alarmed and surprised that it cracked after 4 years of use. We contacted Blanco Canada, who were very pleasant and they said that they no longer make the sink in white and gave us other color choices to replace our damaged sink under the lifetime warranty. We asked if there was another white or stainless sink model that we could substitute that would fit our cutout in the counter top...they said unfortunately not. They did not offer any other solution. Unfortunately our whole kitchen is pure white so the color options offered won't work. Our sink is undermount with Caesarstone countertops...so we have a problem. We contacted Blanco in the States...and have found the same sink in white which we have ordered. They went out of their way to be helpful. Denise Durken....their customer service person is wonderful. As far as cleaning is concerned. ..our existing sink was great for about 2 years. ..then it started staining...because our whole kitchen is white...the staining really shows. I have found the best solution is filling the sink with water and adding powdered oxyclean and letting it soak for hours. The sink returns to sparkling white. The stains return all too soon though. Between oxyclean treatments I use a stiff brush and Vim ...it does a good job. .but I worry about long term erosion of the surface. Overall I am disappointed with the fact the sink has cracked...and it is difficult to keep it white without a lot of work....because of the undermount issue we are compelled to use Blanco again . From a practicality point of view...i would probably order a dark color if I were to redesign my kitchen....i think there would be fewer cleaning issues.

We put a charcoal gray (anthracite) Blanco Silgranit sink into our last home (about 12 years ago) and after a few years of use, we were less than pleased with its performance, especially for the price tag. At first, it was amazing and we loved how it looked! Over the years, we used it for everything - normal kitchen/dish washing use but also occasionally to wash out paint brushes, soaking clothes, even washing show chickens in it. (No utility room sink, so the kitchen sink was the go to spot.) We kept it clean and well cared for. We believed all the hype back then that Blanco sinks were impervious to just about everything and I guess we should have been more careful. It basically started looking blotchy and losing its color on the bottom. It then started pitting on the bottom and was no longer a smooth surface, especially around the drain. And the blotchiness wasn't really stains but rather "burns", according to what we had read online. By the time we were ready to sell the house, it was pretty unsightly and we had to replace it. (Due to the less than helpful Blanco customer service folks who refused to honor any sort of warranty, we went with a Kraus sink.) But we only had the Kraus sink for a few months before moving, so not sure how that one will hold up. So now I'm trying to decide what to do with our new (but 15 year old home). I like how durable stainless sinks are and how cost effective they are but since spots and smudges on the stainless steel appliances drive me crazy and I'm CONTSTANTLY wiping them off, adding one more stainless item to care for in this kitchen doesn't seem like a wise decision. Anyway, thought I would add my 2 cents. I still can't decide if I want to do another composite sink (but do a more reasonably priced manufacturer like Kraus) or go with something else. If I do composite again, I will definitely go with a darker color and be super diligent about ONLY soap and water going into the sink.

So I'm not crazy for oiling my black composite sink! I've been using mineral oil - I also stumbled upon that by accident - and while it looks lovely, I'd like to use a lighter oil. I'll try this - thanks!