JAN MOYER, what a WONDERFUL idea about polishing the sink cutout!

Tuscan Basins:

It does not depend on the "recipe" All engineered stone is filled with polyester resin which has a very low tolerance for heat, no matter the color or brand.

Readers can take the word of a guy who disregards the manufacturer's instructions or they can take the word of the guy who gets the call when the manufacturer's instructions are disregarded.

I'm not disregarding your word at all. But clearly there is a difference in the experiences that people have reported. Maybe it's a longer higher heat that causes the problem. My test at home showed no marks whatsoever. But I'm gonna keep testing. I'd like to know for certain what the limitations are, just for my own use. :-)

Using trivets is not only a best practice, it is required by your warranty. Should you have a problem with your slab, my understanding is the presence of any marks from heat will void the warranty even if the heat was not the source of the failure for the claim.

We all take risks with things like this. It's a cost benefit analysis in the end. You want the freedom to do something and are willing to pay the penalty because you think there is a low risk of catastrophe.

Agreed. I have never sat anything hot directly on my counters. That's just common sense. I don't plan on changing those long-instilled habits either, when I get new counters. I won't take any risks with MY counters. Maybe with someone else's LOL. However, I prefer to KNOW the limitations of my own new counters, for certain. Knowledge is a good thing. I'm probably more of a research freak about all this than most. I just like to know stuff. :-)

I agree with Chess. No one is leaving their pots directly on there for hours. People tend to place hot items on there for a small amount of time, whether your just moving your macaroni pot to make space or just taking something out of the oven. My experiences have been with lighter colors no heat marks.

I have granite countertops. I also have a 40 year-old collapsing roasting pan rack that I use as a trivet OR my maple cutting board. The only thing you can "abuse" with impunity is SS.

Dekton can take the heat! https://www.cosentino.com/usa/dekton/. Beautiful and strong. And unbelievably gorgeous colors. Check out some of their new colors. http://www.dekton.com/usa/new-colors/

Any of the ultra compact surfaces like Dekton or Neolith will be able to take the heat but there are also fabrication draw backs. Because of it's density you can only do mitered edges and it will cost much more to fab then quartz.

They do have some beautiful colors!

"Agreed. I have never sat anything hot directly on my counters. That's just common sense."

I agree -- I was just having a hard time imagining a crock pot that sits directly on the countertop (i.e. not on little legs).......but then I looked at some Google images, and I see there are some that do. I have 2 slow cookers, and both have little legs.

I had a hard time imagining the heat from a coffeemaker on legs would damage a Silestone quartz top, but it did as pictured.

Go to your local countertop supplier who fabricates solid surface acrylic tops - i.e. Corian, HiMacs, Staron, etc. - and ask them for a small sink cut-out or scrap of material. We make 12" x 12" trivets, sand the edges smooth and add rubber bumper pads to the back side - we sell them for $5.00 each! I have several at home, and always set my crock pot or cookers on them. Have never burned one of them, even when setting pans from the oven. An oval vanity sink cut-out is perfect for the larger oval crock pots! Just never ever set a hot pan or a cooking appliance directly on your countertop surface, no matter what material they are!

Something else to be aware of is sous vide cooking, and setting your cooking vessel directly on the counter top. Sometimes things cook from 12 to 36 hours at temps up to 155, or for shorter periods up to 185 degrees.

I'm in the "Gee, how hard can it be..." camp. Some crockpots get hot on the outside, some do not. If yours does, break down and use a trivet or hotpad!

BTW, we had a customer who complained of small white cracks next to her stove. She said she always took the coffee pot off the coffee maker and set it on her quartz top, right next to the stove. Over the years, the intermittent heat broke down the resins and caused the little cracks. Use a trivet people!

You might look for a crockpot that does not get hot on the bottom. I have Sea Pearl quartzite and there are no marks on mine. I put hot pans or casserole dishes on it all the time. Not 400 or 500° though.

Hmmmm. This thread has got me thinking about using my curling iron around a brand new quartz vanity in the bathroom. Guess I need to get some kind of counter protection in there, too. It's easy to bump them right off their little stands...

I think if the iron got hot enough to damage the top.........you'd be on your way to bald in short order.........

Not really - my curling iron heats to 400 degrees, as many of them do. That is definitely high enough to be a problem - the quartz manufacturer's show 350 as the maximum. I use my curling iron on max temp, always. I still have plenty of hair left too. :-)

Under the right conditions a curling iron could damage a quartz countertop. It'll pop the quartz crystals before it melts the plastic, I'll bet.

Just had quartz installed and the fabricator said no to the crockpot on quartz. This is a recent notification about the damage it can do. Better to be safe than sorry.

Think about what a flat iron can do. Mine gets really hot.

just had quartz installed. the man who installed them also was the fabricator...he said NO hot pans....i intend to use my crock pot on my stovetop ......or a large cutting board......same thing with my electric skillet....way to much money to be careless

We have quartz counters and I put anything hot on a large cutting board or hot pads (coffeemaker, hot pans, waffle maker). I’ve always done this though and I’ve had corian and granite counters in the past.

Two years since I put in a comment about buying a $6 cutting board. I use it all the time. It makes zero sense to take a risk over something so trivial as a trivet (sorry).

jmm, I got a nice wood cutting board to put my countertop oven on. It cost more than $6 but was definitely worth it (I have Corian). I agree that there is no need to take a risk. I use my crock pot on my induction rangetop and use my rice cooker right on the counter. it's interesting what Joe said about a coffee maker. I would never have thought of that. We switched to French press shortly after our reno, so we don't need to worry about that.

I have had my quartz counters over two years now. Coffee maker sits on it. Countertop toaster oven sits on it. I probably use that toaster oven 4 out of 7 days. No issues whatsoever. Zip. Nada.

A crock pot does not place DIRECT heat on the counter. It is footed.

That said? Use your head. Don't place anything of high heat directly on ANY top but SOAPSTONE. The end

Jan - my crockpot gets fairly warm underneath. I'm not sure that, over 8 hours, that level of indirect heat wouldn't damage the resin in the quartz. I'd rather be on the safe side. It's not a big deal to use a cutting board under it.

Jan Moyer -- The crock pot emits heat through the bottom of the appliance and continued heat on the surface for 6-8 hours has caused my fabricators to warn against putting it directly on the surface. I would take their advice before others on this post.

Someone new signed up and spread around spam to a lot of forums, trying to drive business to a video channel. Don't fall for it.

I have clients and every one has a crock pot ..... Yes they use it on Quartz. No matter! The only surface impervious to all heat and a burning pot is soapstone. :)

My wife and I debated for years about the necessity of a hot pad. I didn’t think it was necessary, but I was wrong. It took me 2 months to find the time to create the two videos using my left over countertops. With all the conflicting information out there, I hope the videos give some firm evidence on what’s okay and not okay to do with your countertops. I’d feel so sick if I caused a crack that was preventable. I hope the information will be helpful to all those who were wondering like I was.

I thought Quartz was a natural stone and Quartzite the man made stuff mixed with plastic?

Definition of "quartz"

A hard white or colorless mineral consisting of silicon dioxide, found widely in igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. It is often colored by impurities (as in amethyst, citrine, and cairngorm)

Inga

Inga, it's the other way around.

So Quartz is the stuff they mix with plastic? Is that what most people buy? Very confusing::)) Personally I'm not fond of that look but think the white look is very

popular right now.

Inga

We usually let clients know. Nothing is bulletproof. Just for peace of mind either have the fabricator create a cutting board from the same material or buy a separate one. Peace of mind.

"man made stuff mixed with plastic"

LOL! I think you can do better than that. Quartz, is engineered stone. This is from a simple Google search.

Engineered stone is a composite material made of crushed stone bound together by an adhesive, (most commonly polymer resin, with some newer versions using cement mix). This category includes engineered quartz, polymer concrete and engineered marble stone.[1] The application of these products depends on the original stone used. For engineered marbles the most common application is indoor flooring and walls, while the quartz based product is used primarily for kitchen countertops as an alternative to laminate or granite.

Chessie,

I did an extensive Google search about Quartz and Quartzite not for any personal reason just because I wanted to know and understand what what the dirrfferenmc was. I found it confusing. I came up with totally different results as I mentioned in my earlier post. I was corrected and am fine with that. Perhaps I misinterpreted the information. Don't know. However, Much of what is on the internet, is NOT always correct even if every one thinks it is because it's printed and written so it must be true. Not.

All of those people who bought what they thought was stone only to find out the plastic

particles became marred and damaged. How sad is that. I'm sure they spent a lot of hard earned money thinking they were buying REAL stone. Now everyone says well you should have known. How about we all put the onus on the people peddling stuff that they either don't know enough about or are just glazing over it to make a sale.

It's no different than the Wolf ovens that are dropping blue enamel onto your food. This is known but really lots of sales people act as if they have never heard of this. I have first hand knowledge when I was looking at ovens. I wasn't interested in a Wolf oven but the guy was moving me into that direction . When I mentioned the issues, the guy just looked at me with a blank look. Obviously he was getting more commission on the Wolf than any other oven in the showroom

Long story short, sales people, appliance stores etc need to step up to the plate be knowledgeable and up front. Just my opinion, not worth much in the greater scheme of things. But,,,,,,,,,

Inga

ifoco - natural quartz is a mineral which has many uses (electronics, glass, etc) but I don't think it's ever been used for countertops. The name "quartz" has been attached to products like Caesarstone and Cambria, but they are always/always marketed and sold as a manufactured product. I don't see how anyone could be misled into thinking they're getting "real" stone when it's very clear that the quartz sold under brand names is in fact a man-made product. Even the higher-end versions are marketed as "marble-look,"not as marble. And the lower end versions don't look like real stone at all.

And as it happens, quartz is actually more durable and stain/etch resistant than many natural stones (I'm thinking of marble in particular).

So I think it's unfair to claim the salesmen are misleading customers into believing they're getting real stone since I just don't see how that could be. Where there is a problem is with salesmen claiming that the products are indestructible (they're tough, but not that tough) or maintenance-free (depends on the type of quartz).

Quartz is a mineral. As a gemstone it is a 7 on the mosh scale. As a countertop it is crushed and mixed with resin, approx 92 quartz to 77 resin. Baffles me that anyone thinks it’s indestructible.

*Mohs” and “7 % resin”

"All of those people who bought what they thought was stone only to find out the plastic

particles became marred and damaged. How sad is that. I'm sure they spent a lot of hard earned money thinking they were buying REAL stone."

I have quartz counters. I don't have PLASTIC counters. I have no "marring". No staining either - there is nothing that I have not been able to easily remove. I bought my slabs knowing full well that this was engineered stone. I cannot imagine ANYONE that would come to the conclusion that estone is a natural stone. All you have to do is LOOK at samples in a store and you can see that this is a manufactured material. No stone yards orf fabricators, that I know of, try to pass off quartz as natural stone - it's simply a no-brainer to see that it is a manufactured stab.

You WILL find lots of stone yards, however, that will attempt to pass off marbles as quartzites and granites. Perhaps that is what you are referring to. There are LOTS of threads here on HOUZZ about that exact issue, and how to avoid it.

Anne:

You are buying the estone industry's propaganda. The 93-7% is by weight, not by volume. Engineered stone is about 35% resin and 65% quartz. This is not up for debate or dispute.

No dispute, I’ve read enough of your comments to know what you say is accurate. As occasional consumers of all the building trades, it is easy to fool us, especially when “reputable “ propaganda is repeated everywhere. There are too many out there willing to do so because the they know the consumer will rarely use the recourse available, for a number of reasons. My point was that the quartz products can be damaged.

ANY counter material can be damaged. But I will agree that the early marketing of Quartz was sometimes misleading and led some people to think that quartz counters were the new “miracle counters”. Those claims were quickly put to rest. Even the quartz companies changed their warranties to be more of a CYA.

All that said, I love my quartz counters. I would choose them again today.

Hi all, I have a question about my new silestone counters. Every year I cook Xmas dinner and will usually make a standing rib roast in a “showtime” rotisserie. I have been doing this for years on the old Formica counters with no issues. Since the rotisserie gets very hot, would a cutting board be enough to protect the counters or should I put it somewhere else?? Where to put it, I am not sure as I already use the stovetop to cook everything else. I do use trivets to place anything hot on the counters.

If the cutting board is large enough, it should be fine. Your top can get a little warm, but that's about it.

Thank you Joseph. I will go pick up a larger cutting board as may last large wood one decided to split in me.

How hot does one of these rotisserie's get? Hot enough to catch wood on fire? Wood cutting board? Hmmm... I'd recommend taking an old baking sheet, best is one with a lip, setting that on some trivets, and then setting your appliance on the baking sheet. It will act as a heat shield, and contains anything that the appliance might leak. I do this all the time with my waffle maker. Makes cleanup easier. The important thing is to have an air gap between the baking sheet and the counter, and get that air gap with something that will not conduct heat, like a cork or rubber trivet. You could even get four 90 degree PVC pipe elbows, like 3/4", and use those as spacers between the counter and baking sheet.

Everyone should own a SOAPSTONE cutting board. Antimicrobial, IMPERVIOUS to blistering heat.

Have it made to a total size you need at a fabricator from a remnant. Then? Cut it in half for two that are easy to manage a, store and lift.......and butt together

There is NOTHING you can't set on it, or do on it. Gets ugly with scratches? Sand em right out.

Ask a local fabricator to save you a sink cut out : )