Why is my kitchen sink so not-square?
July 7, 2013 9:39 PM Subscribe
Kitchen sinks are inefficiently designed in a round shape-- Is it particularly difficult, hence expensive, to engineer a square sink?
I have a typical, double metal kitchen sink. Recently I noticed that it (and all the sinks I've ever had) are disappointingly round.
If I were engineering a sink, I would give it right angles, so that there is the maximum available space and dishes would stand up straight in it.
In a typical sink (and mine), the corners are all rounded, and dishes in them (picture tall wine glasses) just cave into the center like it's a damn punch bowl. There are four pockets of space that aren't even available in the corners, and because of the incline, everything kind of leans into the drain.
How disappointing. Now that I'm actually thinking about it, it seems that this design is outright asinine. Why isn't there an entirely different standard for this little part of life?
I have a typical, double metal kitchen sink. Recently I noticed that it (and all the sinks I've ever had) are disappointingly round.
If I were engineering a sink, I would give it right angles, so that there is the maximum available space and dishes would stand up straight in it.
In a typical sink (and mine), the corners are all rounded, and dishes in them (picture tall wine glasses) just cave into the center like it's a damn punch bowl. There are four pockets of space that aren't even available in the corners, and because of the incline, everything kind of leans into the drain.
How disappointing. Now that I'm actually thinking about it, it seems that this design is outright asinine. Why isn't there an entirely different standard for this little part of life?
Well, for one: truly square corners would collect debris and be maddeningly hard to keep free of unsightly mold.
My double-sink has about (guessing here) 1/2 to 1" rounds in the corners, and the rest of the sides are flat. The bottom slopes towards the drain, of course, for obvious reasons.
But the house I'm in has a brilliant addition: a rubberized rack that rises about 1/2" above the bottom of the sink. It has only a couple longitudinal bars, but many crossbars, so it's fairly easy to lodge a plate vertically. Plus, since this is essentially the bottom of the sink for most objects, there's less worry about glasses breaking. Food waste, OTOH, is easily chased down the drain with the spray hose, even when the sink is full of dishes.
Maybe something like this would work for you?
posted by IAmBroom at 9:44 PM on July 7, 2013 [5 favorites]
My double-sink has about (guessing here) 1/2 to 1" rounds in the corners, and the rest of the sides are flat. The bottom slopes towards the drain, of course, for obvious reasons.
But the house I'm in has a brilliant addition: a rubberized rack that rises about 1/2" above the bottom of the sink. It has only a couple longitudinal bars, but many crossbars, so it's fairly easy to lodge a plate vertically. Plus, since this is essentially the bottom of the sink for most objects, there's less worry about glasses breaking. Food waste, OTOH, is easily chased down the drain with the spray hose, even when the sink is full of dishes.
Maybe something like this would work for you?
posted by IAmBroom at 9:44 PM on July 7, 2013 [5 favorites]
A good point about mold/scum. Professional kitchens also sterilize the sinks with chlorine tablets or additives to prevent this.
posted by Miko at 9:51 PM on July 7, 2013
posted by Miko at 9:51 PM on July 7, 2013
Most every kitchen sink I've used has been mostly square, though not exactly - since you don't want sharp corners for food fragments to collect in, and the bottom always slopes downwards towards the drain.
I did a google image search for kitchen sink, and it looks like my experiences are not anomalous - most kitchen sinks are mostly square.
posted by aubilenon at 9:55 PM on July 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
I did a google image search for kitchen sink, and it looks like my experiences are not anomalous - most kitchen sinks are mostly square.
posted by aubilenon at 9:55 PM on July 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
I have a very straight-sided "cuboid" bathroom sink, but a more traditionally shaped kitchen sink.
My bathroom sink doesn't drain nearly as efficiently (as Miko says, the water doesn't swirl around as well, leaving a lot of debris behind), and is also harder to clean. It's beautiful to look at, but not very user friendly.
posted by Sara C. at 9:57 PM on July 7, 2013
My bathroom sink doesn't drain nearly as efficiently (as Miko says, the water doesn't swirl around as well, leaving a lot of debris behind), and is also harder to clean. It's beautiful to look at, but not very user friendly.
posted by Sara C. at 9:57 PM on July 7, 2013
The issue might actually be with your expectations and your dishwashing routine.
If you have a bunch of wineglasses in there "caving" and once and not "standing up" -- are you using the sink as a place to hold a bunch of dirty dishes before washing them? Because if so, you're right, that's not what they were designed for. They're designed either to become a washbasin themselves by engaging the stopper, and then washing one dish at a time, or holding a washbasin (or two) while you wash one dish at a time in them. With a double sink, the general presumption is that you're using one to wash, one to rinse; or one to presoak, one to wash.
Because of this problem we keep a kitchen towel open on the counter next to the sink, and put dirty dishes there. Then when it's time to load the dishwasher, we just run them under the sink water and load up. They don't hang out in the sink, because you're right, a sink isn't designed to be a holding tank for more than a few dishes at a time.
If you really can't change that habit, you could go out and get a washbasin smaller than your sink and use that to stack your dirty dishes in.
posted by Miko at 10:00 PM on July 7, 2013 [5 favorites]
If you have a bunch of wineglasses in there "caving" and once and not "standing up" -- are you using the sink as a place to hold a bunch of dirty dishes before washing them? Because if so, you're right, that's not what they were designed for. They're designed either to become a washbasin themselves by engaging the stopper, and then washing one dish at a time, or holding a washbasin (or two) while you wash one dish at a time in them. With a double sink, the general presumption is that you're using one to wash, one to rinse; or one to presoak, one to wash.
Because of this problem we keep a kitchen towel open on the counter next to the sink, and put dirty dishes there. Then when it's time to load the dishwasher, we just run them under the sink water and load up. They don't hang out in the sink, because you're right, a sink isn't designed to be a holding tank for more than a few dishes at a time.
If you really can't change that habit, you could go out and get a washbasin smaller than your sink and use that to stack your dirty dishes in.
posted by Miko at 10:00 PM on July 7, 2013 [5 favorites]
Of course you can get square (consumer, not professional) kitchen sinks. Here are some examples. They are extremely impractical for the reasons stated above.
posted by gentle at 10:13 PM on July 7, 2013
posted by gentle at 10:13 PM on July 7, 2013
The reason that sinks have rounded corners is that they're stamped, it's hard to make square edges and corners when stamping. Stamping is a good way to make large numbers of sinks cheaply for consumer use. If you really want a 'square' sink you can get an industrial sink, but you won't like the price.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 10:13 PM on July 7, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by Confess, Fletch at 10:13 PM on July 7, 2013 [5 favorites]
If I were engineering a sink, I would give it right angle
...and you'd need a supply of Q-tips handy to clean those corners (and they'd never get really clean).
this design is outright asinine
Actually, the design is a result of decades of evolution. My parents' basement has a pair of big, deep square sinks in the laundry room. They aren't the porcelain or stainless steel you're familar with, I'm not sure what they're made of, but I recognized them immediately when I saw A Tree Grows In Brooklyn -- when they moved from their tenement to the much nicer upstairs apartment, that was the type of sink in their kitchen. This was a hundred years ago.
posted by Rash at 11:03 PM on July 7, 2013 [3 favorites]
...and you'd need a supply of Q-tips handy to clean those corners (and they'd never get really clean).
this design is outright asinine
Actually, the design is a result of decades of evolution. My parents' basement has a pair of big, deep square sinks in the laundry room. They aren't the porcelain or stainless steel you're familar with, I'm not sure what they're made of, but I recognized them immediately when I saw A Tree Grows In Brooklyn -- when they moved from their tenement to the much nicer upstairs apartment, that was the type of sink in their kitchen. This was a hundred years ago.
posted by Rash at 11:03 PM on July 7, 2013 [3 favorites]
It's actually more work and expense to make sinks that are rounded, probably.
You can get a little rack to put in the bottom of the sink to make the surface flatter -- but then you have to clean the rack.
posted by amtho at 11:06 PM on July 7, 2013
You can get a little rack to put in the bottom of the sink to make the surface flatter -- but then you have to clean the rack.
posted by amtho at 11:06 PM on July 7, 2013
My kitchen sink is square and has a flat bottom. The previous owner of my house constructed it out of stone slabs and a lot of silicone kit. It doesn't drain well, the corners are impossible to fully clean (which means it smells pretty much all the time), and the sink bottom in the corners shows significant wear and tear. At first, I liked being able to set things like wine glasses upright in it, but that's not worth the downsides. I'd trade it in for a new sink with a sloped bottom any day.
posted by neushoorn at 12:56 AM on July 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by neushoorn at 12:56 AM on July 8, 2013 [1 favorite]
One more point of anecdata: my synagogue (when I was a kid) had their rather industrial sized kitchen renovated in the late 80s. Someone had the great idea to install square sinks. A rabbi from another community came by, saw them, and pointed out to our (mostly clueless) rabbi that, since it was nearly impossible to really clean squared sinks, they couldn't really be considered kosher. The sinks were removed, and new sinks were bought. Money down the drain.
posted by Ghidorah at 2:11 AM on July 8, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by Ghidorah at 2:11 AM on July 8, 2013 [3 favorites]
I had to go check my sink, because I was sure it was square, and it is - but with very rounded corners. The bottom is mostly flat, the slope isn't noticeable. It's not a pain to keep clean at all (it's stainless steel), it's exactly as easy as every other sink I have, including the rounded bathroom ones.
For what its worth I agree with you that a completely rounded bathroom-style kitchen sink would be a nightmare. I've never had one. Only mostly square ones. They're fine. Get one if you want one. I agree that a sharp edged square one could be hard to clean though.
posted by stillnocturnal at 2:56 AM on July 8, 2013
For what its worth I agree with you that a completely rounded bathroom-style kitchen sink would be a nightmare. I've never had one. Only mostly square ones. They're fine. Get one if you want one. I agree that a sharp edged square one could be hard to clean though.
posted by stillnocturnal at 2:56 AM on July 8, 2013
Oh, this is basically what my sink looks like . Not hard to clean, because of the rounded edges, but still mostly square.
posted by stillnocturnal at 2:59 AM on July 8, 2013
posted by stillnocturnal at 2:59 AM on July 8, 2013
Confess, Fletch has it. My dad was a draftsman whose job for the last several years of his career was with a sheet metal stamping company, and he talked about exactly this issue. The corners of stamped sinks (i.e. virtually all consumer models) can't be sharp. If I remember right, the radii have to be larger for deeper bowls and/or thinner metal. Cheap sinks are made of thinner metal, and therefore have larger radii. Take a look at some high-end stainless sinks -- brands like Franke or Blanco. The radii are much smaller than on the $59 Home Depot model your landlord stuck in your crappy apartment.
posted by jon1270 at 3:01 AM on July 8, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by jon1270 at 3:01 AM on July 8, 2013 [5 favorites]
I don't think I've ever seen a kitchen sink with a round/sloped basin. They've all been rectangular with rounded corners.
In addition to a sharp-cornered sink being hard to clean, I don't think it would visually appeal to most consumers. They've come to expect rounded corners.
It'd be a small gain in surface area for a considerable loss in aesthetics and ease of cleaning, and possibly more expensive. And since dishwashers are so common in the US, most homeowners probably aren't concerned about those few extra inches.
posted by Metroid Baby at 3:45 AM on July 8, 2013 [2 favorites]
In addition to a sharp-cornered sink being hard to clean, I don't think it would visually appeal to most consumers. They've come to expect rounded corners.
It'd be a small gain in surface area for a considerable loss in aesthetics and ease of cleaning, and possibly more expensive. And since dishwashers are so common in the US, most homeowners probably aren't concerned about those few extra inches.
posted by Metroid Baby at 3:45 AM on July 8, 2013 [2 favorites]
Yeah, confess, fletch has it. Deep drawing puts enormous stress on the metal. If you had sharp edges, you'd have stress risers and the metal would tear. (I used to work in an airplane parts factory and we actually had Boeing redesign some tub-shaped parts because thetight radii weren't possible to make.)
posted by notsnot at 5:30 AM on July 8, 2013
posted by notsnot at 5:30 AM on July 8, 2013
My kitchen sink is large, square-cornered and nearly flat-bottomed. It's the size of a double sink, but without the double. My wok and large frypan sit in it with room to spare. I am constantly delighted: everything that frustrated me off about the cheap double sink is solved. Big things fit comfortably. Tall things don't tip over.
The corners clean up nicely with a pot brush. There is no mold. There is no lodging of food in the corners. It doesn't stink. It isn't requiring any more maintenance than the old double sink.
I do not understand why this is not the standard for quality kitchens. The big, flat-bottomed sink is almost near life-changing.
posted by davidpriest.ca at 6:54 AM on July 8, 2013
The corners clean up nicely with a pot brush. There is no mold. There is no lodging of food in the corners. It doesn't stink. It isn't requiring any more maintenance than the old double sink.
I do not understand why this is not the standard for quality kitchens. The big, flat-bottomed sink is almost near life-changing.
posted by davidpriest.ca at 6:54 AM on July 8, 2013
Agreeing with Miko's answers, I'll point out that most household sinks aren't designed with the intention that dishes will spend a lot of time in them, probably based on traditional housekeeping methods. Best practice dishwashing, let alone proper housekeeping, would mean that dishes spend very little time in there at all.
And if there were to be a redesign of sinks that considers the habit of leaving dishes around like I do too, I'd prefer a below-counter level dish rack with plenty of drainage so that I could pile dishes and glasses in there, blast them with the hose, then either hand-wash or load them into the dishwasher or leave them until I feel like dealing with them, as needed. My own sink is miserable to use, and I spend a lot of time looking at farmhouse kitchen sink p*rn. There are sinks such as you describe out there - it seems to be a more contemporary personal choice than a common builder one.
posted by peagood at 7:33 AM on July 8, 2013
And if there were to be a redesign of sinks that considers the habit of leaving dishes around like I do too, I'd prefer a below-counter level dish rack with plenty of drainage so that I could pile dishes and glasses in there, blast them with the hose, then either hand-wash or load them into the dishwasher or leave them until I feel like dealing with them, as needed. My own sink is miserable to use, and I spend a lot of time looking at farmhouse kitchen sink p*rn. There are sinks such as you describe out there - it seems to be a more contemporary personal choice than a common builder one.
posted by peagood at 7:33 AM on July 8, 2013
because of the incline, everything kind of leans into the drain
That's meant to be a feature.
It's a drain, everything is supposed to lean into it. It's meant to drain things. If it wasn't the lowest spot, the sink would not drain well.
If you had a flat bottomed sink, a bit of water would remain in the sink when it drained, and develop nasty sink slime. You'd have to clean the sink much more often, or wipe it out with a towel every time you used it.
Even most restaurant sinks slope toward the drain.
posted by yohko at 8:21 AM on July 8, 2013 [2 favorites]
That's meant to be a feature.
It's a drain, everything is supposed to lean into it. It's meant to drain things. If it wasn't the lowest spot, the sink would not drain well.
If you had a flat bottomed sink, a bit of water would remain in the sink when it drained, and develop nasty sink slime. You'd have to clean the sink much more often, or wipe it out with a towel every time you used it.
Even most restaurant sinks slope toward the drain.
posted by yohko at 8:21 AM on July 8, 2013 [2 favorites]
My kitchen sink is square, constructed of stone slabs epoxied together.
Water does pool in the bottom rather than draining completely, and I do need to scrub it down fairly regularly and scrape a bit of gunk out of the corners occasionally (I keep a bamboo skewer by the sink for this purpose.) That said, it's not a terrible hassle to maintain; if a normal sink bothers you that much then it's certainly possible to have a rectilinear one made.
(I have to agree with those above suggesting that you just not use your sink for dirty dish storage, though: once I got into the habit of washing dishes immediately rather than stacking them in the sink I found out I was spending a lot less total time doing dishes, because I didn't have to spend all that extra time stacking and restacking and rearranging and soaking off the bits that dried while the dishes were waiting in the sink. Also my sink is actually usable as a sink now, which is a nice change.)
posted by ook at 10:08 AM on July 8, 2013
Water does pool in the bottom rather than draining completely, and I do need to scrub it down fairly regularly and scrape a bit of gunk out of the corners occasionally (I keep a bamboo skewer by the sink for this purpose.) That said, it's not a terrible hassle to maintain; if a normal sink bothers you that much then it's certainly possible to have a rectilinear one made.
(I have to agree with those above suggesting that you just not use your sink for dirty dish storage, though: once I got into the habit of washing dishes immediately rather than stacking them in the sink I found out I was spending a lot less total time doing dishes, because I didn't have to spend all that extra time stacking and restacking and rearranging and soaking off the bits that dried while the dishes were waiting in the sink. Also my sink is actually usable as a sink now, which is a nice change.)
posted by ook at 10:08 AM on July 8, 2013
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posted by Miko at 9:41 PM on July 7, 2013 [22 favorites]