IMO the grids on the bottom of a sink are just one more thing to clean and they do get gross. A good quality stainless sink will never dentand IMO still the abosolute best material for kitchen sinks . Hoenestly I have cheap back to back sinks from Ikea they are 15 yrs old and the scratches are almost invisible and I run a catering biz from my home so well used daily.

I personally hate stainless (too many cheap rental kitchens) and went Silgranite. But no input on switching.

Just fyi, it's not here yet, currently projected at a 14-16 week lead time. In case that is a factor. (they originally said 8-9 and then added 5-6 at week 8.5)

I have both in my kitchen: Stainless prep sink (15", 12" deep) and composite granite (33" wide, ~10" deep). I really like both, for different reasons. The composite granite is black/onyx and is super easy to keep it looking clean even when it isn't. I also have black counters and like the blend of the black sink/black counters. For my prep sink, I like to be able to see when it isn't clean (and I wash it more frequently) because I regularly soak food in it. I did have a stainless sink in my previous house that I wish had been composite simply because it was next to an east-facing window and the glare of sunlight was just too much.

I switched from stainless to black (anthracite) composite at least 15 years ago with no regrets or issues. Stainless worked and looked fine but it was so run of the mill to me that's what prompted the change.

The Elkay Quartz Luxe line is the best composite sink on the market. Even better than Elkay's Quartz Classic line. Get the biggest sink you can please. A 33" sink undermounts in a 33" cabinet when strapped, not clipped, in place.

I would for sure skip the stainless and get a composite. I have had 2 Blanco's and one Elkay. I perosinally like Blanco better, but I could'nt tell you why 100%. I will likely always hav a composite sink in any house I ever live in. No scratches and handles heat perfectly fine. I have had white, gray and cinder. Even the white was amazing after 5 years of use and still looked new.

Do you have hard water? If so, I do not recommend getting a Blanco silgraite sink in the darker colors (I have no experience with the light colors). This is the Cinder color.

You go from brand new beautiful….

to UGLY in no time flat. I am 99.9 % positive this is from hard water stains. It is not from lack of regular cleaning or using the wrong cleaning products. I promise this is the same sink even though it looks like a different color. It is just the way I angled the camera to capture the streaks better.

Now I can get it back to looking beautiful again, but it is a day long cleaning and oiling process. It will last maybe two days until the oil washes off and it looks hideous again. I wish I had known this before hand, so that is why I try and post my experience when these threads pop up.

After Cleaning/Oiling process. Lasts a couple days.

@rebunky - a stainless steel sink would also show that film with water of that degree of hardness. If the OP has that level of hard water, and does not have a whole-house water softener, then the answer to the OP’s question should be ”neither”, and perhaps an enameled cast iron sink would be best in that situation.

To the OP - in 3 of my past kitchens I have had 2 Silgranit BlancoDiamond Super Single sinks in anthracite, and most recently a 30” single-bowl 16-gauge stainless steel sink. I love both types. I loved my first Silgranit sink so much, I got the same one in the next home. With my next move, to the home I am in now, I opted to change to SS solely because after so many years I wanted a change. I love the SS sink too. The scratches don’t bother me - they all blend into a patina in a couple of months and you don’t see them. The SS shows water spots more than the anthracite sink did, but it‘s minor and doesn’t bother me. I loved the anthracite color so much, it shows nothing, and looked like black velvet against the gleaming polished chrome faucet. Having said that, I enjoy change to the brightness and shine of my stainless steel sink. I would not get thinner than 16 gauge though.

Both materials have positive qualities. I would avoid the Silgranit white and cream colors. Those colors behave differently than the darker colors, and are harder to keep looking clean.

I think the only problem with stainless steel is some people don’t buy the best quality…it may be old school but since your appliances are stainless steel it seems the same material in the sink would integrate better

Thank you everybody!

@rebunky and @M Miller I will have a water filter to ward off hard water and so I think they will both be options. So it looks like for composites Elkay and Blanco in dark colors are good and SS without the grate are good too. For SS, I am looking at Ruvati, Blanco and Zuhne in 9" deep, 16 guage sinks. Beyond guage, is there anything else that speaks to the quality? 16 guage tells me about the thickness (and I believe that should be good), but how do I know whether it will rust or not? I did not see any numbers on the steel composition. Any hints, @btydrvn @Patricia Colwell Consulting?

“how do I know whether it will rust or not?”

Rust in a stainless steel sink is caused by something left on the sink’s surface that is itself rusting, not the sink. It could be a metal spatula or a can. Or it is frequently from people who use steel wool pads to clean their SS sinks, which should not be used. Steel wool pads leave behind tiny particles of metal which rust, not the sink. Also it has been reported on this forum that if your water has a lot of iron in it, when that water dries in the sink, the iron in the water shows up as rusty coloration.

All of this can be easily cleaned with Barkeepers Friend and a sponge. Do not leave Barkeepers Friend to sit in the sink. Sprinkle it in the sink, then wipe with a wet sponge and rinse.

I like a sink with an offset corner or side drain, like I had with the BlancoDiamond Silgranit Super Single. For SS, Kraus makes good 16 gauge SS sinks with an offset drain. An offset drain allows you to set larger things in the sink without covering the drain, and leaves more space under the sink since the plumbing is off to the side.

BlancoDiamond Super Single in Coal:

Kraus Standart Pro KHU110-27:

We closed on our new house four months ago with a white Silgranit sink, and I love it so much. (I think the color we have might be called "biscuit," but I'm not at home and can't easily check right now.) I constantly marvel at how great it looks and how easy it is to keep clean. Anything that doesn't come off directly from rinsing always comes off extremely easily with a little baking soda and a paper towel. I've had stainless sinks my whole life, and I never particularly babied them, but they always looked bad immediately after cleaning because of water spots that would appear after the first use. With my white Silgranit sink, water spots are never visible even though we don't have a water softener yet. I spend about half the time cleaning my sink as I ever did with stainless, and it always looks great. I love mine.

Update: I realized that I misread and the OP wants a black sink. Oh, well, I'll leave this comment here in case anybody else finds it useful. :)

I don't understand the problem with grates. A grate gets dirty. Like anything else used in a kitchen, you put it in the dishwasher to get it clean. You don't let it get gross. If you need two examples to always have a clean one you buy two. They're inexpensive. Keep the extra under the sink.

@dan1888 I never thought of putting the grid in the DW! I nearly always have room in the DW and the grid is not bulky anyway. I think I'll just stick with SS considering that I have SS appliances for an integral look and that composite material probably have a wait like @HU-876090495 stated. Thanks everyone for your input and @M Miller for the pictures and offset drain idea (I was thinking about it taking under the cabinet storage into consideration and so going for 9" max depth).

The deeper the better for sink…that space will be more useful in …than under …the sink

We put a Blanco siligranite sink in our then new kitchen about 13 years ago, and it was one of the best decisions. It did not have a very good start however, as it actually developed a small crack right after it was installed. They replaced it though and I have loved it for every second since.

That being said, when we do the total renovation of the disaster we just purchased, I will be putting in a stainless steel sink. Not because I was in anyway unhappy with the siligranite, but because all things considered SS is what I think is best for us at this point in life.

We have stainless steel in the second home which we’ve owned for about six years, and I like that as well. Can’t predict the future but I don’t think I will regret going with the stainless in the new house. I sure hope not since this is our final, forever, my kids can sell it when we’re gone house!

@dan1888 @btydrvn, I plan on going with 9" depth in part because I like the depth, but don't want to go 10" because I would like to use the under the cabinet space for trash containers and under the cabinet storage. That way I gain 18" of cabinet space for something else.