Bump. Thank you to anyone that has any insights!

My one fear would be that the drain size or some other element would not be "euro-friendly" - the North american standardized sizing for cabinets, appliances etc. is very unique to north America and different from Euro stuff --do you know for sure if plumbing is compatible? Am I being silly?

I am in Canada and went with a Franke Kindred steel queen and love that thing BTW.

Hi stepanj, thanks for your message. No, not at all silly! I have the same fear. I'm fine about the cabinet space because it would be going in a 9ft x 4ft island, but wonder if the incinerators in Europe fit differently to the US ones etc. Or if there's some compatibility kit i'd need that I don't know about., but i imagine it should be workable. I haven't seen a comparable sink in Europe, love the depth, width and shelf function!

I'd say the shelf holds an average amount of stuff. It's hard to say. I tend to stack things perilously. It wouldn't hold a whole dinner's worth of dishes but maybe about 5-10 things depending on their size.

Yes, the stuff does get re-wet when using the sink. It's not perfect in that way. I guess that means I should empty the dry stuff before I use the sink again, but it hasn't bothered me THAT much because I've yet to learn that lesson.

My sink side soap dispenser has dish soap. I use it to wash my hands too. Hope I haven't committed a kitchen no-no all this time. Here is one thing to think about regarding the soap dispenser or really any plumbing accessories behind the sink. I bought the Frankie cutting board and didn't think about my soap dispenser placement. I put the dispenser in the far upper left corner of the sink and the cutting board bumps against it so that it doesn't fit as snuggly into the sink as it's supposed to. I can fix it by cutting a little notch into the board (which I plan to do) but it's something to think about if your were planning on getting both these things.

Have you seen the new Kohler sink called Prolific? I have not seen it in action but it sure looks cool. It also has a drainer shelf. But this shelf could go on either side of the sink unlike the Frankie. I love my frankie but I'm a little bummed the Prolific came out just after my remodel finished because I would have liked to at least consider it.

That Prolific would be great for a really small space, with all those accessories.

beanpiele you just blew my mind! I've determined the Prolific isn't available via Amazon so the odds of getting it to Europe just diminished by a lot.

If the Orca was undermounted with a reveal of the sink edge it would be great to have a grid that would sit that high across the sink for draining.

Well I do like that the Frankie drain shelf sits a little down into the sink because I use the side of the sink to balance my precarious tower of dishes. Did I mention that I heard a crash while in bed the other night (cue the scary movie music) but did not have the nerve to investigate (unlike my cat). Yup, you guessed it...In the AM I discovered my tower had crashed.

I thought I'd chime in because I used to have a Franke Orca and now I have one of those roll-up drainers beanpiele mentioned. I lusted after the Orca and I LOVED that sink to death. It was beautiful and oh so practical. Now we have a rectangular sink and got the roll-up drainer and you know what, it's fantastic too!

Lol! I think I'd be a perilous stacker too :). I have seen the franke roller mat, it's one of 2 draining options available here, the other is the mobile drainer but the showroom didn't have a sample

sjhockeyfan, does the roller mat sit on the sink reveal or from counter to counter on either side of sink?

I think my options are:

Order Orca from Amazon

Order a 19 or 21" x 15" sink with adjacent undermounted draining board (pic attached of draining board beside 17" sink

Order a 19 or 21" x 16" sink with adjacent 12x15" sink with drainer basket in it or roller mat over

All these sinks are 16" from front to back and 6.8" deep, the Orca is 19" deep on the large side and 9" deep throughout

l

Beanpiole do you think leaving a positive reveal of the edge of the orca would be any use as an idea? I was thinking I could use it as a lip for a higher up drainer on the right side like the rollamat or something similar if I got one with dimensions that worked?

I can get this here, thoughts? I'll make a new thread with my new questions about the orca and kohler maybe!

That could work. Hard for me to say but I don't see why it wouldn't.

If you've read the other discussions on here then there's not much more to add to what I've previously posted (if you haven't read the older threads here use google to search and include gardenweb as a search term).

As to your specific questions, I'll add this info. Yes, things on a ledge can get wet while using the other side depending on what/how much is on the ledge and what you are doing in the other part of the sink. The bottom grid is helpful, especially when using colanders, or as you noted, draining. We also frequently set a pan to soak on the grid and push it under the elevated grid to soak, and can continue to use the sink as normal.

This sink holds a -ton- of stuff too! We have a DW and also keep a drying mat next to the sink for our cookware since it has to be hand washed. We also frequently eat dinner after 9:30 pm due to our work schedules, so it is not uncommon to have dishes and cookware from 2-3 nights laying around to be delt with all at once (which is a lot of stuff since we cook almost every night). Most of it ends up in the sink, and unless we use several of our larger pots it all fits in the sink. It holds more than we can stack on the drying mat.

I too have a Franke Orca sink, which I love. The idea of the ledge/drain was very attractive to me in the planning stage. However, it really doesn't hold much, and makes a large sink very small, since once you put things on the drain side you're cutting down your cleaning area. So I don't use it anymore.

On a positive note, the sink racks are amazing. They are SO sturdy and heavy. I had a Blanco sink with their rack, and it was much flimsier than the Franke. To be fair, it was much heavier than the ones you buy in Bed, Bath and Beyond or the other big box stores.

Hi Diana, thank you for that. In the end I went after going for the Kohler Stages, hope it turns out ok! I could get it here in Europe and it looks like it has lots of function. I have over 4 ft uninterrupted prep space beside it on the island do that seems ok proportionally too.