The Anatomy of a Functional Workstation Kitchen Sink

The kitchen workstation sink should have two major benefits. 1. It should be efficient for the user(s). 2. It should be ergonomically comfortable for the user(s).

Let's take a look at efficiency. In order for a kitchen sink to be efficient, it should save the user(s) a great deal of time. The only type of sink that fits this category is a workstation sink.  I am a strong believer that, for most users, only three accessories are necessary for the workstation sink to achieve its optimal efficiency. 

The most important of the three is the butcher-grade cutting board. Our cutting board material is not on the open market. It is the only material that inspectors will approve as cutting surfaces in butcher shops. Our past customers tell us their cutting boards are in great shape after over 10 years of use. They are dishwasher safe too!

The second most important accessory is the multi-purpose grid. As shown above, the grid can sit next to the cutting board. This allows the user to place food on the grid and rinse if necessary. One item at a time can be placed on the cutting board, and the food can be swiped into a bowl. 

The third accessory is the all-popular sponge caddy. That accessory was inspired many years ago by a customer request. Since we were about the only company, at the time, that was producing workstation sinks, I sketched up a similar design and sent the drawing to my customer. She loved it. I have redesigned it many times since then, but the original design is still a great one.

We do offer a fair amount of other accessories; however, for the most part, they may take more time to use than simply using the bowl or colander that you already have in your kitchen. 

Now on to a critical part of the function of a value producing workstation sink - quality! If you install a sink, and it fails down the road, the replacement will likely cost many times the original cost of the sink. These are some things to consider.

Sadly, this happens to be an American made company. If you look closely at the interior corner, the weld was never finished properly, and the whitish area around it is the result of someone not knowing how to correctly use a de-bluing wand to clean a weld.

The white areas you see are from a process called de-bluing. This is done with acid and an electrical charge. Keeping the de-bluing tool on the stainless steel too long produces a whitish haze, as seen in the image below. 

Zero-radius sinks are not easy to build correctly. The process requires highly skilled welders and finishers. The combination of both skills is quite rare, especially in lower-priced sink categories. I suggest you zoom in on sink images and look for telltale signs of poor quality.

More examples of poor welding showing up even in American-made custom sinks.

Likely the best known workstation sink manufacturer. I took this photo in a local showroom.

Many of the manufacturers that offer dual-tier sinks use the flange as the top tier. This design is, in my opinion, not desirable. The flange interface with the countertop and caulk allows for water to sit on that interface. Degradation of caulk can occur, as can calcium buildup from standing water. You can easily see this issue in the photo. This happens to be an older photo I took of a xxxxxx sink installation in a showroom. It is my understanding that they have improved their welding in the corners. 

One of the best places to visit, in order to get feedback about the quality of a sink brand, is Houzz.com. Make sure you go to their discussion pages and do a search for a brand of sink. 

All of the workstation sinks we have designed have one or two tiers within the bowl. We have never used a flange as a top tier. In case you are wondering why companies use the top tier as a flange, it is because the two-tier internal bowl design has three patents on it. I owned the patents until recently. I sold them to Ruvati. They are the only ones that can legally have two steps within the bowl. My Paragon™ workstation, with two interior ledges, does not fall into the above category and is a proprietary design of ours. See the below image. You can see the micro-radius corners are very smooth, and there is no black line or white appearance around the weld due to poor de-bluing techniques. One of the significant benefits of my design is that the width at the top (above the ledges) is the same as below (18"). The others on the market get narrower below the steps. Most end up with 16" in width. The bottom line is this: Do your homework. Invest in something that you are sure will last the test of time. Look at both Houzz.com reviews and Google reviews. 

We have nothing to hide except for perfection. That's why we take close-up photos of our work.