Ceramic sink scratches easily and is a pain in the butt - help

June 5, 2013 11:17 AM

My mom has a ceramic sink that she seems to hate. She says she had actually ordered a different sink and they installed a ceramic one and she didn't notice until afterward and didn't want to argue. Now she's had it for years and it continually annoys her.

She puts sink mats in there to prevent scratching, but they don't really make solid sink mats without holes -- the ones they make for how she uses them have lots of holes where food gets stuck in them and gets underneath them. What she does is buys something solid and cuts a hole for the drain and makes her own sink mat, but it looks really stupid. I tell her to just let stuff scratch the sink, but she says the ceramic surface is harder on dishes and makes them break easier. I don't know if this is true.

Do you have any recommendations? Are there any good sink mats that will be like a new surface on the bottom of the sink with one big hole for the drain? (Not one with holes throughout it.) The material should be floppy, but stay in place, so it can just sit on top of the bottom of the sink. Harder plastic ones don't conform to the contours of her sink and leave a gap from the mat to the bottom of the sink. Also, the sink is black, so white ones look a little silly. Maybe she will be willing to try putting stuff in the sink directly if the scratch marks can be cleaned -- any ideas on that? She definitely wouldn't be happy with a scuffed up, beat-up looking sink, even though I don't think it's a big deal.

I just feel bad because the new sink was a gift from us kids of hers, and I want her to be happier with it!

posted by AppleTurnover to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

My parents also have a ceramic sink, and Mom uses a dish pan (plastic, so it won't scratch and doesn't damage the dishes) inside the sink to do dishes in. It's not perfect but it works. Once the dishes are done, the dish pan is rinsed and wiped and goes on top of the drainer to dry for next time. (That being said, it's obviously not a perfect solution. I know my mother also hates her ceramic sink.)

Soft Scrub with Bleach will lessen the appearance of the scratch marks, but will not remove them. Alas.

I hate to suggest this, but if your mother won't go for a dish pan, and she's been hating this sink for years, maybe think about buying her a new sink? (Or giving her permission to buy a new sink? She might be complaining about it because she wants to know y'all are OK with her buying a new sink.)
posted by pie ninja at 11:28 AM on June 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

Get her a steel basin rack. Food will have a tough time getting stuck in it, and if it does, a simple lift-and-rinse will be less of a pain-in-the-rear than a floppy sink mat.
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:47 AM on June 5, 2013

Is there more to her complaints than this? Don't metal and enameled sinks scratch too? Also, I didn't think the sink mats with holes were meant to be left on the bottom of the sink all the time. I always drape mine over the divider when not washing dishes.
posted by stopgap at 11:48 AM on June 5, 2013

I used to have a really obnoxious sink that would scratch and stain. I was constantly using Comet to get the stains out, but it never looked clean. I got so fed up that I did was pie ninja's mom did, and use a plastic dish washing bucket. It was rectangular and fit right inside the sink. I think I got it from the dollar store, but it may have been Canadian Tire. It was cheap as dirt in any case. I'd wash dishes in that. When I was done I'd just empty it, give a quick rinse, and store it under the sink until next dish washing, along with the dish rack. Easy Peasy.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 11:52 AM on June 5, 2013

(And actually, on re-reading I think I might be totally wrong here, and it's actually a ceramic-look enamel over metal that my mom has -- but the rest of the info should still be the same! Does it help to know enamel is just as annoying?)
posted by pie ninja at 1:06 PM on June 5, 2013

We have one of these that's original to the house (1930's). Any kind of metal leaves marks (pans, cookie sheets, etc) We've used the afore-mentioned Comet and Soft Scrub, but honestly, the thing that works the best is a generic spray bottle with a 10% bleach solution. Spray on, walk away.
posted by ApathyGirl at 3:02 PM on June 5, 2013

Look no further than Bar Keepers Friend. No metal scratch in a ceramic sink can withstand its magic!
posted by cecic at 9:24 PM on June 5, 2013

Can i ask what's wrong with ceramic sinks? It's just that i was thinking of buying one next year instead of a stainless steeel one, and i assumed that functionally they were identical.
posted by wilful at 11:32 PM on June 5, 2013

wilful, metal objects sometimes leave grey scratches in ceramic sinks. They can also chip apparently although I haven't seen that. I am planning to get a ceramic kitchen sink and may let it develop 'patina'.
posted by plonkee at 12:54 AM on June 6, 2013

Seconding Bar Keeper's Friend. I badly scratched up a toilet bowl a few years ago trying to snake it out, and it looked horrible. I read about Bar Keeper's Friend online, and when I tried it I was just amazed. I swear by the stuff!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 4:26 AM on June 6, 2013

Wilful. The ceramic sinks are sort of terrible. Metal cutlery scratches the sides and its hard to get them really clean there is sort of a "rough" or natural texture that just doesn't get shiny and clean. Also they are so hard. If you tip over a glass or a mug it is very likely to shatter which never happened with my stainless sink. I would strongly recommend against a ceramic kitchen sink. I hate ours and if we weren't renting I would have already replaced it.
posted by saradarlin at 3:04 PM on June 6, 2013