They are popular, especially in the single bowls or the lower divider. They are easily refinishable if you do get a scratch.

I have a 33" single bowl, 16 gauge SS. Love it! I haven't found that the apron is difficult to keep clean, and I also don't find that I have a lot of drips while doing dishes. No scratches in almost 5 years of use, but I can hear the zipper on my sweat jackets rubbing against it, when I'm wearing one while doing dishes.

The inside bottom is very scratched, but we use it pretty hard, especially in gardening season. It's fairly flat in the bottom, which is good when I have a sink full of dishes stacked, but OTOH, I have to chase debris with a jet of water to get it in the strainer.

Can I ask what kind you have?

I love mine. We have a 36" stainless apron front. Has been in use for over 2 years now. No scratches on the front at all, although, like mama goose, I do notice my hoodie zipper scraping against it from time to time. The top of the apron has a few scratches and the bottom of the sink has a few...nothing that bothers me at all. The grid in the bottom helps a lot with scratches. This pic was taken about 18 months after installed. I guess the scratches on the top of the apron are really unnoticeable as I don't see any in this pic. We purchased ours on Overstock and the brand is Vigo. It is 16ga.

I bought my sink on clearance on eBay, but at the time I felt that it compared to one I'd seen on Overstock, manufactured by Kraus. I has a center back drain, zero degree corners, and looks like the one pictured above. My kitchen remodel was very low budget, and the sink was one of my best decisions.

I've seen questions asked about whether the zero degree corners are difficult to clean, but I use my fingernail in the dish cloth to clean out the corners, and once in a while use a cotton swab to deep clean.

Also, I left a positive reveal on the back, so that I can rest a large cutting board over part of the sink--my budget version of the Stages sink.

mama goose...the positive reveal on the back edge is a great idea...wish I would have thought to do that.

Thanks - everyone one - what do you mean by the positive reveal?

A positive reveal is when the stone cut-out is large enough to expose a bit of the sink flange. A negative reveal covers the flange completely.

Reveal refers to how much, if any of the sink edges you want showing where the sink and the counter meet. Positive reveal means the counter edge does not completely cover the sink edge,..leaving a little ledge.

so on the picture above it looks like the counter top covers the back of the sink. Can anyone show me pics of both and tell me advantages of them. Thanks

Here's a link with threads discussing different reveals: GW search

Just
by reading this forum for a few years, it seems to me that that
negative reveals are more popular--a negative reveal covers the caulk,
and you don't see any grunge that collects there. Negative and flush
reveals have a cleaner, sleeker look, IMO, but have a higher
incidence of chipping, especially if the counter material is prone to
chipping, such as some soapstone and marble varieties. I've read that
negative reveals are easier to install because the edge of the sink is
masked--it's
easier to see slight variations in a positive or flush reveal.

The
argument for a positive reveal (other than the option for an integrated
cutting board), is that one can see the grunge and clean it more
easily, and deteriorating caulk can be discovered and redone sooner rather
than later. The caulk line is also visible in a flush reveal. The left
and right sides of my counter are m/l flush with the sink edge--DIY
amateur, so there is a slight offset, but not enough to redo it.

Not seeing grunge. It's a feature, not a bug.

I chose a negative reveal because I wanted the ability to just wipe down the counters and cleanly sweep everything into the sing. I didn't want to have to clean that little ledge that comes with a positive reveal. I told my fabricator I wanted the tiniest negative reveal he could do. It feels like it's about the thickness of a credit card...just barely over the edge. It gets cleaned every time my sink gets cleaned so no worries about grunge building up. I definitely see the benefit of having the back edge have a positive reveal though. It would be nice to have that little ledge to hold a cutting board over the sink.

DIY2Much2Do can you send me more pics of your kitchen. It looks similar to mine. What color is your island?

DIY2Much2Do you need to post pics of your kitchen! I want to see too!

Mine is also installed like DIY2's, but 1/8" above the counter (to match the gas cooktop).

Oh, and forgot to say, I don't have any issues with cleaning or scratches along the front edge :) Mine is a Kraus 36" 60/40 split, 16 gauge.

I've installed several Kohler's and the clients loved them. Vigo makes a decent apron sink.

Mine is Vigo.