We've had the same problem with Caesar Stone. Cambria is far better product!

Neither my fabricator nor I can recommend caesarstone. They do not honor their warranties either

Take that picture again, a little farther back please.

I am absolutely floored at how badly our Caesarstone is chipping after the first year of having it. For the cost I would NEVER install it again. I would have gone with a lighter granite and dealt with the maintenance. I am highly disappointed and do NOT recommend this material.

Floored .and pissed off.Taken advantage off.No wonder they demand 100% payment upfront- they know its a terrible product and that we will all be coming back to them so once they have our money oh well.UNACCEPTABLE.Looks awful in less than 5 mins after the installation.Marks, lines, stains; everywhere,; you name it- defective 100%. No. we are not 'racists' that don't like whatever the country of origin is where they make it- we are genuine hard working customers who have been duuped.

URGENT

Under Australia's consumer law we have the Consumer Guarantee and no warranty or company can override this.

Further, in Qld your kitchen supplier pays a levy to the QBCC as an insurance against problems with your build or its products.

People - We have protections.

If you have had an issue with your stone benchtop and received no satisfaction from the company you dealt with, please contact me asap as I am collating data and concerns and will represent our collective voice to the ACCC and beyond.

Email me at recon.conjob@gmail.com

I finally out that Soft Scrub cleanser cleans off water and grease marks from the honed concrete colored caesarstone counters.

I echo all the comments here about avoiding Cesarstone products! Their claims about their countertops being easy to clean are outright misleading and so inaccurate in my opinion. I purchased the Empira Black quartz countertop, and not even the cleaning priducts recommended to me by Caesarstone could remove the fingerprints and stains.….let alone the warm water and soap which their website says is all that is needed to clean the counterttop. And I hadn’t even started to cook yet and fully use the kitchen, so I can only imagine what marks that would have left. Even simple water marks and wipe marks were clearly visible, and ghost marks would appear. fingerprints could not be removed. i was so dissatisfied with the product, that I replaced it with a Silestone countertop so my reno could be finished…..a much much better product (and customer experience) in my opinion. Caesarstone has not even acknowldeged the problem and say the defective product is not covered by warranty. Very short sighted, as now my decorator and contractor, and everyone in their networks,, will avoid using Caesarstone going forward based on this experience.

So for anyone who is thinking of using Caesarstone, i would suggest you think twice.and look at other quartz products.

I too have a honed Caesarstone countertop, Cloub burst. Has anyone has any luck trying to get the company to repace, this does not do what a countertop is suppossed to do. I have been using it for four months, its complety stained. The liquid soft scrub with bleach makes them whiter and shows where I have cleaned!!!

TamaraB

I have cloud burst in my kitchen and it’s a big kitchen and yes they stain quickly but I get them out with magic eraser and bartender’s friend cleaner. But I would NEVER use them again.

Ginoos

Don't buy Ceaserstone. They make a lot of claims, but the mateiral doesn't hold up. The warranty is only for the original homeowner - this is a clear sign that they do not want to honor it. My countertops are subject to wine rings and cracks along the corners. The countertops are not heat resistent - my countertops cracked all the way through from the heat of a standard oven. All the way through the stone. We will never buy it again and will go with the real thing.

David:

In all fairness, you'd have to post pictures. Cracks in corners can be fabricator error and cracks from heat can be from not following the appliance manufacturer's instructions. I'm all for holding estone manufacturers responsible, however, I'm not for misappropriated blame which we see here all too often.

in response to @Joseph Corlett, LLC, fair enough re pictures. i posted negative comments above about my horrendous Caesarstone countertop which even with recommended cleanser and a lot of elbow grease could not remove fingerprints, smudges and wipe marks, etc etc. it was definitely not possible to clean and maintain with warm soapy water as CS claims on its website. And now CS hiding behind its warranty rather than standing behind its product even though their stone technician admitted there was an issue. I am posting pictures below.

Based on my experience and the awful countertop, I would suggest to anyone thinking of Caesarstone to consider other product options and/or suppliers. Both my contractor and decorator are no longer recommending Caesarstone to their clients.

in the photos, you’ll see even through the wet of cleaning that fingerprints and other marks remain. The other two photos show smudges that could not be removed and wipe marks that remained after trying to clean

Awful product. 100% regret my purchase and having the same issues as a lot of other people here. This company needs to be slapped with a massive lawsuit. Material is not fit to be used in a kitchen and the company is not responsive AT ALL. Shame on them—this is outright theft.

Completely agree, there should be a class action against them for producing and selling a product that is is not fit for purpose and for not addressing their defective product consumer obligations.

"Most of these marks can be removed with little effort and non-abrasive cleaning products such as Soft Scrub® Liquid Gel. Caesarstone retains its beauty without sealants or waxes."

Notice how Caesarstone lawyers very carefully used the qualifier "most" instead of "all". Not to rub salt in the wounds here, but y'all were warned.

This is what happens when the design team sticks its nose into the technical testing department and convinces the CEO that releasing a faulty product will be a smash hit in sales.

Try the Tenax Quartz Toner before the class action lawsuit please.

I had Caesar stone countertops installed. Within a couple of days, they were stained. They are truly atrocious. Hard to clean. Marks very easily. Caesar stone has denied any responsibility, even though the finish is not what I ordered.

Agreed, the CS honed countertop I had installed was crap, couldn’t be cleaned and maintained properly (let alone easily as stated on its website) and definitely not fit for use in a kitchen. But as reported by many here, CS denies any responsibility….no doubt because if it did accept responsibility, it would be flooded with claims and go bankrupt. So all we can do is contine to spread the word here, elsewhere on social media, and within the design and contractor community about the horrendous product and customer service….and hopefully its sales will suffer. I agree with the person that said CS’s actions are outright theft. Has anyone heard of a class action suit being brought against CS?

I have the exact same issue as @Ann Kippen on the vanilla noir caesarstone. EVERYTHING including water leaves a mark and it takes scrubbing and drying immediately to remove them. Has anyone tried the suggestion of @Joseph Corlett, LLC to use Tenax Quartz Toner? I'm literally ready to tear them out!

I have the exact same issue as @Ann Kippen with vanilla noir caesarstone. EVERYTHING including water leaves a mark that requires scrubbing and immediate drying/buffing to remove. Has anyone tried the suggestion of @Joseph Corlett, LLC to use tenax Quartz Toner?

I wish I'd read this a year ago. I absolutely detest my Caesarstone kitchen countertops. It's Empiria Black and it .never looks clean. It's ruined my expensive kitchen renovation. For pictures, scroll up to see the ones Ann Kippen posted five months ago.

Natalie, like you, I wish I had read other comments and resaerched more before choosing and installing CS. i couldn’t live with my horrible Empira Black countertop, so ended up replacing it with a competitor product which is definitely much better, CS was a very pricey mistake! CS refuses to acknowledge responsibilty and hides behind the fine print in its warranty, even though it even sent out a stone/quartz consultant to look at my countertop who indicated it was defective in not being able to be cleaned and maintained properly, not to meantion ”easily” as CS claims on its website. My contractor and decorator are no longer recommending CS to their clients. Hopefully others will see these reviews and not make the same choice of the horrendous honed countertops from CS as we did.

Echo all the same here. A beautiful kitchen is ruined by a CS product. Our counters chipped and stained within the first month they were installed. We contacted the warranty department and of course they cover nothing, like everyone here can attest. Never again Caesarstone. Your product is garbage. These chips just show up. They’re not even at the big sink where heavy pots get washed. And the stains!! DO NOT BUY Caesarstone anything!!! Biggest disappointment!

I reached out to CS to say the stains were impossible to deal with and I wondered if I could somehow have it coated with something to make it work. They said that would void the warranty and recommended I address stains with a mix of Barkeeper's Friend and Soft Soap. I wrote back asking how I could get action on that warranty as their product is inferior. That was a week ago. No response. I'm not seriously going to pursue it because it sounds like others have tried and lost. If there's ever a class action suit, I'm in.

You should not be required to use BF or SS for every drop of water that has dried on the counter! I sent an email asking for their assessment and recommendation for dealing with the issue LAST YEAR and received no response. I’m also in if a class action is brought.

This is my chips on my CS as well. Happened within the first 6 months with no trauma to the counter, just happens seemingly out of thin air. I thought about paying our fabricator the $250 to repair, but they are just popping up everywhere. Do. Not. Buy. This. Product. I feel bad for everyone who invested in a renovation and used this product like me. Bar keepers should only be needed for extreme cleaning of stainless steel and other surfaces made for abuse, not average countertop use!

It would be great if a lawyer were to step up to help,us with a class action lawsuit. It is outright theft by Caesarstone to continue to sell a horrendous and defective product. in the meantime, all we can do is continue to post our reviews on every site and social media we can think of, so CS sales suffer.

Our chips come from thin air too. No rhyme or reason. We’re so disgusted with this product and company for ignoring so many complaints. We had a Trex deck that deteriorated after a few years. Years, not months. Apparently the boards were from a bad batch. Trex sent an investigator and wrote us a check to get it replaced. Great company and would buy their product again. Accidents and mistakes happen. Great customer service goes a long way. Too bad Caesarstone isn’t being one of those companies.

I am really confused and concerned by all these negative comments. We have a polished Caesarstone countertop in Frosty Carrina (white marble look) with slightly rounded edges and 5 years in it is still fabulous, no chips, no stains. When we occasionally get red wine smudges or "rings" (places where the shine is different) we remove them easily with Barkeeper's Friend. We are about to get Caesarstone for a bathroom renovation, for the sill on the shower, the niche in the shower and a few other places and I am wondering if the product has declined, or if the complaints are related to having honed surfaces, black surfaces, or sharply defined edges. Help!

We thank everyone for sharing their experiences and engaging about Caesarstone products. We apologize if these experiences have been poor and hope those have been addressed for everyone. For any cleaning issues, we recommend reviewing our website (https://www.caesarstoneus.com/care-maintenance/quartz-mineral-surfaces/) where we have recommendations, videos and instructions on how to maintain your countertops. Please note that Honed, Concrete, and Rough finishes require more cleaning than our Polished finishes. Since there is a more exposed surface area with these finishes, metal marks, fingerprints, and other signs of daily living will show. However, most of these marks can be removed with little effort and non-abrasive cleaning products such as Soft Scrub Liquid Gel. Quartz is very durable being resistant to cracks, scratches, and stains but is it indestructible? No. Typically, chips can happen along the edges from pressure and/or force with a sharp object. This is something that can be discussed with your fabricators prior to fabrication as our products can have different shape edges. Chips can be fixed by restoration companies as well. Again, we thank everyone for reaching out and feel free to reach out to us via our website. We would be happy to answer any questions you have while shopping for your new kitchen material. If you have any further concerns or questions, please reach out to us at https://www.caesarstoneus.com/contact-us/

Thank you @caesarstone for taking note of our concerns and providing a response. You suggest concerns be sent to your website which I have done with no response so it seems a public forum is the only way to get attention. My outstanding question still not answered: is it the company position that handprints and water marks can not be wiped up off your darker polished surfaces (vanilla noir) and should require the use of soft scrub to remove? And, if that is the case, shouldn’t the company make it clear that a surface you are recommending for use around a sink and other wet areas will constantly have visible marks on it unless freshly cleaned with soft scrub (or similar product) and thoroughly dried/buffed?

If it is NOT normal that a polished vanilla noir surface should require that extra level of care, then perhaps you can own up to the fact that there are some defective slabs out there and start providing a remedy to those of us that experience this unfortunate situation. Or, admit to the world that you are not being forthcoming when describing the ease of care of this product. Simply put, no kitchen counter material should require soft scrub and buffing to keep it free from plain water marks.

In response to Caesarstone’s reply, any readers of this take note….any complaints to CS fall on deaf ears. None of soft scrub, bar keepers friend nor any other cleaner recommended to me by Caesarstone could remove the finger prints, wipe marks and smudeges. And at the time I purchased the product, the only mention I saw on the website as far as cleaning was how ”easy to clean and maintain” the countertop would be. This was an extremely misleading statement! i have been in touch with CS, and no solution has been forthcoming. so their comment above is, to me, rather disingenous.

@Calllee is absolutley correct that it is NOT normal that a countertop made and sold for kitchens and bathrooms should require constant cleansers and buffing to have the product look good, And in my case, not even that helped. CS in fact sent a stone technician out to look at my countertop who acknowledged that there was an issue…..but the fact I had removed the countertop had, they said, voided any warranty. i had removed it only 10 feet away so it could be replaced, but yet they said something must have happened either in the fabrication of the countertop or removal. That was total crap….the only thing that had happened was that they sold, and continue to sell, defective products that are not fit for kitchen use,

I had removed it as I knew I could not live with such a horrendous countertop (if it was this bad within 1 week of installation, I could only imagine how dreadful it would be after any more use) and I figured the cost of replacing it would be better than hating my entire kitchen reno. It never occurred to me, nor to my decorator or contractor, that CS would not offer some form of compensation given the countertop was defective (iI.e. could not be cleaned to look clean at all). Yet CS refused. and based on all the comments here, I am not alone. My decorator and contractor, and those in their trade networks, are no longer using CS, since there are many other and better options available.

So for anyone considering a CS countertop, I strongly suggest you look at competitor products, They are not all the same, despite what CS may say. And don’t get sucked in like I did by the name CS and by all its fancy advertising, which made me think CS HAD (past tense) a good reputauion of quality product. It is a terrible product based on my experience and is best avoided. The fact CS continues to sell its honed countertops is beyond disgraceful!

Agree with recent responses to CS statement. Our chips are NOT from any impact and are literally appearing from out of the blue!!!

@Caesarstone

Let's break down your response:

1. "We apologize if these experiences have been poor and hope those have been addressed for everyone."

None of us have had our issues satisfactorily addressed. Read the thread.

2. "For any cleaning issues, we recommend reviewing our website (https://www.caesarstoneus.com/care-maintenance/quartz-mineral-surfaces/) where we have recommendations, videos and instructions on how to maintain your countertops."

You recommended that I combine Barkeeper's Friend and Soft Scrub. 1. Time consuming for basic every day use. 2. Still didn't work.

3. "Quartz is very durable being resistant to cracks, scratches, and stains but is it indestructible? No."

I wouldn't have thought that aluminum foil would scratch this "very durable... resistant to cracks" product. I was wrong.

4. "Chips can be fixed by restoration companies as well."

What the above sentence actually means: "Those of you with problems are going to have to hire an outside company to fix our inferior product."

5. "We would be happy to answer any questions you have while shopping for your new kitchen material."

Shopping for new kitchen material? After what we spent on your product? Not likely.

My counters looked better when I covered them with contact paper. Maybe I'll try that next.

I wish I'd read these comments before installing this product a couple of months ago. Yes, even a drop of water wiped up immediately will leave a mark. I've contacted the company about having a representative look at my counters but it sounds like anything being done is probably not going to happen. No need to talk about a class action. With all these negative comments they probably won't be around. Ceasarstone has been a big disappointment. Maybe for a show home with cards placed "do not touch" is the only way they look good. I wonder how many are in Canada. This is something "Marketplace" may be interested in doing an investigative story about

Caesarstone:

I'd suggest the author of your next response have a familarity with the use of paragraphs.

I'll do copywriting and editing for a fee.

Caesarstone

I'm really curious as to who and why the decision was made to finally respond to a 6-year-old disasterous thread. Someone decided to go head-on after abandoning the ignore tactic? Fascinating.

Years ago, somebody at the highest level of Caesarstone probably did a cost/benefit analysis of releasing this trash. On one hand, the competition was going to, so you can't look like you're less than they are. On the other hand, somebody in the technical department warned the poo-bahs that if they marketed this junk, it would come back to bite them mightily. I'm betting someone in accounting took a good look at all the money to be made, factored in the cost of the reputational damage and the likelihood of a class action lawsuit and when the CEO read his report, he pulled the trigger anyway.

Speaking of class action lawsuits, remember Wilsonart's Solid Surface Veneer? Compared to that garbage, Caesarstone looks like a star performer. They thought they had the problems figured out when they bonded the SSV to the substrate for the fabricators. They were wrong. Wilsonart ended up paying guys like me to do warranty calls. A buddy of mine was an expert witness on that case. Of course, like what will happen here, fabricators will end up getting screwed, .33 cents on the dollar for SSV replacement.

Your accountant probably already figured the cost of the class action lawsuit into his cost/benefit analysis and he's got you covered.

Well played, Caesarstone, well played.

Oopsie, it was Wilsonart's famous failing blue glue settlement that reimbursed fabricators .33 on the dollar. I do strive for accuracy.

Update: Tenax Quartz Toner makes a positive difference. Definitely better, especially when dealing with those "quick" stains like water droplets.

(Not that I've used it, of course, as doing so would void any warranty or possibly make me ineligible for any reimbursement if there is a class action suit or deter CS from refunding any of my money when they concede "You know, you're right. Our product is not what was promised." Nope. Not me. This is just knowledge gained through casual neighborhood chats.)

The Quartz Toner is available through amazon and is easy to use. (Definitely not speaking from experience.)

I am leery of honed quartz products in general. Silestone Suede finish seems to perform well and is forgiving. But generally speaking I'd test the non shiny quartz products before purchasing if possible. Maybe take a sample home and use oil, etc. to test them. Or just skip them and get shiny quartz. Or perhaps get a stone in a non shiny finish that a fabricator recommends. If looking for lighter colors, perhaps an acrylic like Corian or Hi-Macs in their normal matte finish would look good. But dark acrylics show scratches too easily.

And we remember a glue failure from the late 80s early 90s. Many laminate tops were redone because of that. Perhaps that is the one referenced in another comment. I don't remember the brand.

Were the problems with Caeserstone only on honed, natural or suede finishes vs. polished finishes? Did they used to make Vanilla Noir in honed/natural, as I only see it in polished on sale now.

My vanilla noir is polished. I’ve gone back to my fabricator to try to determine if something was applied before or during installation that could be the culprit.

I posted on another Houzz forum but to second Ann the CS countertop I have is shocking - chips marks etc. I'm replacing it . To Tamara - I have cloudburst. Stains everywhere. especially around sink and near the tap black dots frequently appear which I have to scrub off. It's clearly defective but is marked with the correct caesarstone serial numbers etc. I don't even want it 'fixed' at thie point just want to get rid of and start again with another product.

Biggest mistake of my kitchen remodel was Ceaserstone. I've reached out to the company, they respond that a representative will get in touch. When I follow up a few weeks later they say they have no record of my request even though I've copied their response in my email. They just stall and hope you will go away. From my experience I wouldn't recommend them. It stains like crazy. No problems so far with chipping but I am so careful. It may be fine for a show home used simply for looks but not real life.

Here's my issue. After installing Caesarstone in my kitchen 10 years ago, the whole slab started to 'bow'... lowering the corner edge of the slab by over and inch, making the dishwasher below, almost impossible to open. They of course, have denied culpability, and despite saying "lifetime guarantee", are unwilling to talk with me in person or examine the issue. There was no extreme exposure to the slab of heat/cold or anything that would damage it, and yet as a company, they aren't interested in following up to even determine if the fault lies in their product. unbelievable!

@laurenskitchen I'm trying to imagine it. Can you post a picture? My caesarstone is supported by cabinets underneath.

I have ordered it to be installed at the end of the month. I am so glad that I came to look at the reviews here. My order will be canceled today.

Hi Debra, you won’t regret cancelling your order given the defective products of CS and the horrendous customer service, You’ll have no problems I’m sure finding a great replacement, as there are so many better options out there.

Good luck, enjoy your new kitchen, and glad the comments here helped.

I wished I had known about Houzz and checked out the reviews before my renovation and my CS costly mistake!

https://mixandmatchdesign.com/new-blog/a-review-of-our-quartz-countertops-one-year-later

I’m researching countertop materials and have come across many grear reviews of caesarstone. I attached just one The timing of this flurry of negativity over the last 7 months is interesting