I use the dw for almost everything. If I do hand wash something, I just wash, dry it, and put it away. No drying rack. Greasy casseroles and wine glasses go in the dw. If you really do have to soak something, you don't need to fill the whole sink. Just fill the inside of the pan or whatever with water.

One basin is bigger than each of the two smaller basins. Better for large cookie sheets that have to be hand washed.

One less sink basin to wash.

We are avid GD users so with 2 basins I would need 2 GDs.

When we bought our house 30 years ago, the first thing we did was switch to a single basin. It gave us more counter room where there was precious little.

I love my single sink. Everything fits in it! Like Debrak I don't use a drying rack if I don't put something in the dishwasher I dry it and put it away. I have a couple of thick drying pads and I use one on the counter if I'm going to wash a few things before drying them.

I like that I can set large items fully down into the sink. In my old double basin sink, I felt like I was always fighting to try and wash larger items - whether large cutting boards, roasting pans, or my largest frying pan. I do use a drying rack for several items, but it was always on my counter because one side of my sink would have been too small to hold it, so no change for me there. One single bowl that is 27" wide and 10" deep has been much more useful then 2 16" wide basins that required a larger cabinet and took away more counter space. I didn't have room in my new kitchen to really go much larger than a 30" cabinet, and I am thankful I didn't have to try and take that space from elsewhere to get a very useful sink.

A large single bowl sink can function exactly as you describe with the added benefits of the single bowl. I can put my largest roasting pan in my sink to the left and still have over 2 feet of space on the right side of the sink to do all the other things I need to do. I don't use a drying rack but if I did it could set in one side of the sink and still have much more room on the other side of the sink than any double bowl sink I've seen. I often joke that I feel sorry for people who have two small sink bowls...they are just so confining and limiting.

There is plenty of room for a dish rack in one side of a single bowl and still leave one side open for washing. I know someone who leaves one in her single bowl sink all the time. Works for them. For me, I pull it out from underneath when I absolutely have to use it. Otherwise, I simply use the biggest bowl/pot to wash the few hand washable items I might have. The single bowl is also great for hiding dishes when want to. :-)

We do also have a plastic basin under the sink that my dh likes to use when he handwashes. I've never needed it. My dh was against the single sink but now seems to like it just fine - though he'll never admit it!

I will never go back to a double sink. Love my big single sink!

If you use a garbage disposal, I always thought it was a PITA in my old double-bowl sink when there were food scraps in the side that did not have the disposal. It seems that with a two-bowl sink, no matter which side you install the disposal, you wished you had the disposal on the opposite side. So each time I used the sink, I then had to gather up scraps with a sponge on the non-disposal side, or pull up the full strainer, and dump the scraps into the other bowl that had the disposal. Messy and kinda icky. And worst of all, the non-disposal drain often still got food going down there, which caused clogs. I find the single-bowl a better arrangement with regards to the disposal (and also with regards to the other benefits listed by the posts above).

If I had the space for a double bowl with 2 nice deep big bowls (like 24" each) that would be great. But I don't. (Also, if such a sink exists, I'm sure it would've been way out of my budget.). As between a double bowl and a single bowl, I much prefer my single.

Our single bowl sink is a 32" model... 30" or so inside.... Big enoug to hold our biggest pan, soaking, and still have plenty of clear space for whatever else we need to do. Ex - a full size colander drying fruit or pasta, a clean space for washing/rinsing other dishes, etc. We have a dish rack, which we use always. It lives on the counter, just as it did when we had a double bowl sink. There are gadgets that fit over or inside a single sink, that could serve as a drying rack. "Colanders," roll up "mats" that are open to allow water to drip into the sink, etc. But we need an oversized drying rack, which wouldn't fit in any sink no matter how many bowls.

I'll play the opposite side of this coin ;-) We installed large single bowl sinks at work and I hate them. They don't seem to drain neatly and food/drink is all over the bottom of the sink unless you pull out the faucet and wash it down EVERY time. I'll admit, it could be a bad design or poor install.

When faced with this decision for my recently remodeled kitchen, I decided to stick with a double bowl - equal sides. I love it. I like having a "clean" side and a dirty side during dinner prep and clean up. It's great to have a clean sink to drain pasta etc. My pots and pans don't get placed in the dishwasher, nor do any of my knives so I always have a batch of hand wash items after dinner.

My GD is only on one side but that doesn't seem to be an issue for me - maybe because I am used to it.

I'm beginning to see the other side of this. I realize now that I have a bad habit of using my dish rack as storage for things that I use a lot (mostly favorite knives). I'm also revisiting the idea of soapstone, so I could have a drainboard. And, I'll have a prep sink (with GB) not too far away in the island. Does anyone have a particular sink that they think is really superlative? I'm not really looking for an apron front. Thanks all!

I have always had a double sink (SS 70/30 split), and it is probably the thing I hate most in my kitchen. While I can fit a lot of my things in the sink, I can only fit them in one at a time (no hiding much of anything), and trying to maneuver larger items around to scrub them is frustrating!! I too didn't understand the attraction of the single sink until I started to pay close attention to how I use mine. I wondered about using a GD in a single sink - and then realized that it had to be better than moving the scraps from one sink to the other. I never fill the sink to soak pots etc. - can't stand sticking my hand down into cold dirty water to empty the sink, so that's not an issue for me. I use a mat on the counter for drying. I also begrudge the amount of extra space that gets chewed up under the sink with the extra plumbing required for a double sink. I am soooo looking forward to getting my new super single (Silgranit) sink with the drain positioned on the right!

I insisted on a large single white Kohler cast iron bowl sink some 20+ years ago (at that time, SS double bowl sinks were in) and have never regretted it for reasons above.

I had a double bowl for many years and switched to a single bowl. Old habits die hard and I still use it exactly like a double bowl. I use a separate bowl on the left side (accessory item for the sink) filled with soapy water for washing, and dry the dishes on a shelf-rack on the right side (another accessory item). I have yet to use the full width of my sink for anything.

Re: food floating on the bottom of a single sink. I was worried about this, but it's actually not a big deal b/c I use a sink grid. So although there may be crumbs floating around in the bottom of the sink, they don't touch anything else in the sink -- the grid lifts any soaking pans, colanders, etc., far enough off the bottom that the food doesn't touch them. Yes, I do run the faucet around the bottom of the sink as my last step in clean-up. But I did this with my double bowl, too. So again, not a big deal although I was worried about it pre-install.

Large, single-bowl sink with grid. It's a revelation. I actually use a drying rack on my counter but also use the sink+grid for setting large things on end and letting them drip-dry. I hate hand drying anything!!! You can fake a two compartment sink by using a plastic bowl or pot. It's so flexible and versatile.

About the only time I plug the drain and fill the sink to any degree is when I soak the grid.

I've really only ever had a single bowl so I don't know any differently. I lay a dishtowel to the side to drip dry my clean pots and pans and then put them right away (I'm a counter natzi, and don't like when things sit out uncessesarily). I like the single basic because it's easy to keep clean (less corners to scrub) it holds a TON of dishes and leaves me space to stack dirty dishes in the sink while still having room to wash my pots, versus having dirty dishes on my counter...again...hate counter clutter. There is no right or wrong here, just personal preference.

Due to space considerations I chose 30 inch single bowl because no real alternatives - not having a center divider I think the actual sink capacity may be similar or same to having a 36 inch double bowl with the divider. Now after using I think Id want a 36 (or even larger -42 inch) single if I had the space! Just gives you a LOT more versatility. I have the stainless steel grid on the bottom which allows water to drain even if theres dishes in the sink.

I'm not familiar with the options (grill, etc) that undoubtedly improve the functionality of single bowl sinks. I'm going to have start looking at them.

I agree with the above posters regarding a single bowl sink. Go as large as you can. I'll never go back to a double or a small sink.

The Kohler Stages 45 is superlative IMHO! It is so versatile. It is one of the best kitchen decisions I made in my low budget reno.

I like two bowls. I had a standard double bowl for 25 years; now I have a 60/40 in a 30" cabinet. The larger bowl is bigger than one side of the old double - both front to back and side to side (deeper too); the smaller side has the GD. DH can pile cooking/prep dishes in the big side, and we still have access to the GD. I have lived my whole life with a double sink, one GD, so I'm used to only dumping gunk into one side.

I can't lay a cookie sheet flat in my sink, but don't think I've ever had to soak a cookie sheet. I put one end in the water and wash with a soapy washcloth or sponge. My larger sink is big enough for my roasting pan.

Sink grids are a must!

This is why I'll never go back to a double sink ;)

I've never had anything except a Stainless Steel 2-bowl sink, and the craziest possibilities I had really considered would've involved something like a 40/60 split sink . . . until I started reading this board 1-2 years ago.

I am now 100% set on a large single-bowl sink:

- If I need a smaller bowl, I can pop in a plastic dish tub.

- One drain (preferably set to the side) means the whole sink is served by the garbage disposal, and one drain means you have fewer pipes /more storage underneat the cabinet.

- I do use large dishes fairly often, and I hate washing them in my standard 2-bowl sink.

I'm definitely going with the Kohler Stages sink, as shown above. I kind of think it's going to be one of the best parts of my new kitchen.

Love the 2 bowl 70/30 (60/40?) I have. Larger side holds my biggest canning pot, Turkey roaster, or most anything else. Small side with disposer for scraping plates, trimming vegetables, rinsing dishes - I still wash a lot of pots and pans, knives, etc.

Willtv, when I showed my GC the dimensions of the kohler stages 45 I am planning to use, he said you could bathe twin babies at the same time!

I had twin babies - bathing them was a one at a time operation!

I put everything in the dishwasher except the biggest pots and pans. They take up so much room in the dishwasher that it feels as if I'm running a whole cycle just to wash, like, two things. Seems wasteful.

This means I'm handwashing only my largest dishes, so I need a basin that not only fits the biggest things, but fits them with plenty of room around them that I can easily flip the biggest things around in the sink (while scrubbing/rinsing) without banging everything against the sink and faucet and redirecting water all over creation.

I cannot express how much I hate washing dishes in a basin that's too small with the banging and the splashing and all the dirty/soapy water that gets all over creation and requires cleaning up afterwards.

Double sinks are just a double serving of too-small basins.

I like single bowl kitchen sinks. They really save a lot of space and are very convenient to work with. It all depends upon your washing skills & exactly how you make use of it.

Double and triple bowl sinks were necessary in kitchens without a dishwasher. You needed them to wash, rinse and sanitize. With a dishwasher, most of these functions disappeared.

The single bowl allows me to drop large items into the sink without parts sticking up or out. More importantly, it allows me to rinse the item without splashing water everywhere. The only things I wash in the sink regularly are large items such as sheet trays, pots and pans. I need the larger sized sink.

I'm getting rid of a perfectly good Franke double bowl sink and replacing it with a Kohler single bowl. I've been looking forward to this for the last ten years. I have selected stainless steel. The number of bowls was more important to my decision than the material. I am so glad to get rid of that double bowl sink. I will appreciate the change every time I have to wash or soak something large.

I really enjoy having a super single sink for all the reasons stated above. We use a lot of oversized pots and sheet pans and wrestling them into a double bowl is a wet, sloppy, clunky operation. I was nervous about switching from a double to a single, but I don't miss the second sink for the drainer. If I did miss it, I could put a small drainer in a plastic dishpan inside the sink, but I don't. The only downside I see of our big sink is having to chase the "goodies" down the drain when I rinse it out. It doesn't rinse down as easily as our old double did. Ours is a cheapie, so maybe a more expensive sink would have a better design for draining. I'd definitely go for a side drain if I had a do-over.

Thank you, all. I'm pretty close to convinced. I think one thing that has hung me up are the holidays, when we get out the good china, silver and crystal, none of which go in the dishwasher and most of which I like to soak overnight. Of course, that's two or three times a year and seems to be happening even less lately. On the other hand, I use my "granola pan", for example, every week.

I'll finally have a trash pullout, leaving space in the (3'6") sink cabinet to store a drying rack and even a big Rubbermaid that I could repurpose for soaking if I needed it. So time to start over with the sink search. :)

Just in case you still need another single bowl opinion, we did some kitchen reno's last year. I got a lovely (and expensive) Kohler cast iron enamelled sink. It has a huge lovely bowl and then a very small one with a wire basket for doing veggies on the fitted cutting board that also came with it. The wire basket seems to stay set over the small bowl all the time and hold things like the apple slicer that we use almost daily and then rinse and a tea ball after it is rinsed out. Other than that the small sink never gets used. I treat my sink as a 1 bowl sink now all the time. Thankfully the large bowl is very large with the low divide and I can fit almost any huge roaster or frying pan in it. I love my new sink, but if I was replacing it, I would get a single bowl sink. I often use a large mixing bowl or pot to hand wash smaller items in before washing it up. I use the dishwasher a lot but when I am hand drying, I have a nice drying mat that I set on the counter beside the large sink.

Thank you silken1; I will look for that.

bbtrix, your sink is quite beautiful. What is the purpose of the shelf/mini-bench on the right side?

Linelle, the shelf is a part of the design which changes the way this sink works. It's quite versatile. Depending what I'm cooking, i place a tray there to push veggies onto from my cutting board accessory or I may use it during prep to push all my food scraps making cleanup easier. It's where I clean/prep poultry and meat. Easy to sanitize and not cross-contaminate. I have a dish drainer that I place there during cleanup. The Kohler Stages Video gives some of the uses for the sink, but once you have this sink, it's utility becomes clear. I've used it to bathe my puppy and now my favorite is my grandson's bath time!