Hi Jeannie Schaldach We love, love, love our Cristallo. Everyone who has seen it has fallen in love with it. In our case, it has been bomb-proof so far. We prepare food, cook, and eat on Cristallo surface. We eat every meal on our island, and we have to young kids who are not too careful. The countertop has been indestructible, so far. No stains, scratches or chips. However, our installer has told me, right after the installation is finished, that the stone can be brittle, therefore we have been very careful to make sure that it doesn’t get hit hard or in a funny angle. And we haven't re-sealed ours yet. I was told by the installer that it won't be necessary. Hope this helps. Cheers~

You're an odd duck Joe 😅 But I have to say I do agree with the sentiment of a lack of standards within the industry has soiled it. Many overpromised and underdelivered jobs which is unfortunate... but I'd argue this is due to a large portion of the industry lacking general required skills & knowledge. With wholesalers willing to sell to anyone with a wet saw, many "fabricators" seek a quick buck leaving the client in a lurch. I work in the wholesale business while previously on the front line for a fabricator. I find it interesting that some of my fabricators rarely if ever bring these problems my way, and yet others are putting one fire out after another before saying they won't work with certain materials. This leads me to the conclusion that knowing what you're doing might have something to do with it. However as mentioned this is a wholesaler issue as well as many stones are passed off as something they are not. Calling a dolomite a granite, or a marble a quartzite for example. While quartzites like Taj Mahal or Cristalo are a much stronger, less porous materials, but many of the stones in this thread like Do Brasil, Macubas, Aria, etc.. I have sold over a hundred times easily (annual wholesale sales $8,000,000-$10,000,000 which also includes quartz, granite, marble, dolomite, limestone, onyx, porcelain, etc...). In fact I've recently had customers come back after 4 years because they were building a new home only to put Aria in again because they loved their last counters so much. That said I have seen these issues crop up many times, and in quite a few cases I've had to link up a quality fabricator to rescue a sus fabricators job. I always say "I have 40 clients, but I don't have 40 I'd let into my house". I'm sure the same goes for your business 😉 Now just to respond to a couple of your points "Some of these quartzites have had your recommended procedures followed to the letter and have still failed miserably." - How do you know? You hovering over them? You know the disiccants that you find packaged in products occasionally? Well the same stuff occurs naturally in some of these stones. These stones will suck up moisture, oil, and anything else; you're not sealing your way out of them. It's the nature of the beast; they are unsuitable for use as countertops. - You know everything on earth has a saturation point. Science! But many stones have a higher cement content that binds the quartzite leading to these more porous qualities. However many stones are marketed as "soft quartzites" which is a misnomer, and some stones that are not quartzite at all which is on the entity that sold the material to them. What is more unsuitable is the industry's lack of self-policing. Every time there's an unhappy customer, the natural stone industry suffers. I hate what these irresponsible hacks, importers, trade associations, and fabricators are doing to my industry. - Agreed When I click on your link I get this: "This content isn't available right now. When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted." I'll be happy to debate this with you and your fellow stoners on your Facethingie page. Or bring it over to All Slab Fabricators, unlike the SFA, where everyone is welcome. - I know for someone of your age the internet can be difficult; I don't mind showing you how to do it: https://gprivate.com/69fzy once you're there just ask to join. It's hardly exclusive with 18k+ members, 5K more than your group 😘 I sense a bias Joe, certainly it could be argued that I have one as well, but my goal when selling product is not to be an evangelist for any one product. You on the other hand wrote this: We Corian fabricators were telling consumers over a decade ago about the problems inherent in natural stone. But no, like a wayward daughter in love with the bad boy biker at the bar, you wanted hard and shiny and turned deaf ears to our pleas. We told you Corian never, ever, bled at built up edges. We told you it was virtually stainproof and repairable. No. You were warned repeatedly. Now own up. It's all we can do to hold our "I-told-you-sos" inside. We don't wanna hear it. I provide the pro's and con's for a product and let the customer decide. I always say no news is good news. Unfortunately; as you pointed out many in my business do not approach it with the same tact.

"The natural stone industry pays her to shill for them...Karin needs to tell her Brazilian overlords that she's out of scientific and technical lipstick to put on their impoted pigs...Karin, I challenge you to put your geologist brain to work coming up with a solution to the pervasive problems inherent in the quartzite aspect of the natural stone industry" The irony is that in this very thread, Karin has written at length about quartzite and its properties, and has written numerous other posts about testing quartzites and what to watch out for. Apparently @joseph_corlett wants Karin Kirk to solve all the problems of the stone industry. @joseph_corlett's comments above about Karin Kirk are despicable even for him who frequently tosses out supercilious comments on this forum. @joseph_corlett - provide backup that Karin, as you put it, has "Brazilian overlords". Provide backup for your statement that "The natural stone industry pays her to shill for them". You are one to frequently talk of lawsuits on this forum. Yet here you are, fervently making libelous statements about Karin. If Karin did not respond to the recent comments by @Lindsey Brady and @jmh0405, it could be because they have not actually tagged her, so how is she supposed to know she is being asked a question. Her tag is @karin_mt. Though with what Joseph Corlett wrote about her, I wouldn't blame her for not coming back to this forum. Karin Kirk has a website with her contact info if you want to look her up. BTW, Karin holds a bachelors in geology from Skidmore College and a masters in Earth Sciences from Montana State University. She has taught courses about climate change, ran energy conservation projects, worked on national-scale climate education efforts, and worked with NOAA on its Climate.gov website. She also has a TED Talk on climate change if you are interested. (There are about 100,000 people that apply to give a TED Talk every year. 100 get selected.)

Yes, the naming is not very helpful, for all kinds of reasons. Your best bet is to ignore the name and do whatever you can to learn about the specific slab you are considering. This article explains several tests you can do: https://usenaturalstone.org/how-to-be-your-own-stone-sleuth/ As for green vs grey, I've only seen Infinity with grey veining, not green. But certainly it can vary within the quarry. In particular, watch for porosity - that would be my main concern with that stone. Here's more info on that: https://usenaturalstone.org/properties-of-quartzite/ Hope that helps - good luck!