Who dries dishes in a sink? Look to the left or right of your sink plans and you'll find a space for an appliance called a "dishwasher". You dry dishes there nowadays.

We are looking for a 39”-42” double basin 70/30 (or 60/40) split fireclay sink. I found a Rohl RX4019 but it is $3300 - which is high for a sink.

You found the sink that meets your needs. Bite the bullet and spend the money! Btw, $3,000 is not particularly “high for a sink,” especially one that will be a workhorse in your kitchen.

We don’t want stainless steel or copper. Do you guys have any other ideas? Do companies customize sinks?

Sure you can get a custom sink, but you’re not getting one that meets your requirements for less than $3,000.

Thanks for that wonderful and constructive comment! Dishwasher sometimes contains dirty dishes (I know - must be really hard to believe :). Dishwasher is activated when it is near full or full. And certain items are not dishwasher safe.

@JosepsCorlett. Thanks for that wonderful and constructive comment! Dishwasher sometimes contains dirty dishes (I know - must be really hard to believe :). Dishwasher is activated when it is near full or full. And certain items are not dishwasher safe.

Stainless looks great when new. I am told its hard to maintain - scratches easily.

"Stainless looks great when new. I am told its hard to maintain - scratches easily."

It does scratch fairly easily, but the scratches are easily removed. You scratch or nick that fireclay and you'll see it until you replace it.

I put a scratch in the bottom of this beauty when installing it last week. I got it out before they ever saw it.

It’s true, stainless steel will show scratches; that is the nature of stainless steel. While Joseph Corlett says he can buff them out, that’s really not practical because within a week there’ll just be more scratches. What you need to realize, and come to terms with, is that after a while you have so many scratches that they blend together and you don’t notice them. I mean it.

Every sink material has its pros and cons, and stainless has many other pros - lower cost, forgiving of boiling water and acidic foods, glasses are less likely to break when you drop them. Re the OP’s search for fireclay sink - please do a search for “fireclay and crazing”. Crazing is way worse than SS scratches. With a stainless steel sink, the first few scratches are horrifying, you will be upset. After a month you‘ll have many more and you won’t care, or notice.

Drying area? sigh...why do people continuously inconvenience themselves over the need to have somewhere to put hand washed dishes, pots , pans and the like to dry?

RCKsinks - if I put my pots and pans in the DW, I'd have no more room for the dishes. Ideally, I'd have 2 dishwashers, but I don't. Therefore, I handwash my pots and pans. I don't think it should cause you the handwringing that it appears to.

To me, handwashing pots and pans (and also my knives - no way would I ruin my expensive knives with a dishwasher, especially since it takes 10 seconds to wash them) means either (a) laying them on a towel and within an hour they are dry and can be put away, or (b) drying them with a towel immediately and putting them away, it's about 20 seconds per pot or less.

I would never design a kitchen or purchase a sink with the main criterion being a drying area for pots and pans.

@ Shannon- and why not a dishrack? you prefer to a towel over a drying rack sitting on your counters for hours?

"and why not a dishrack? you prefer to a towel over a drying rack sitting on your counters for hours?"

A dishrack takes up room, and needs someplace to store it when not in use. And, as I said specifically above, the air drying takes an hour, or, I hand dry them immediately. Assuming 6 pots for a meal (usually fewer), and 20 seconds of hand drying with a towel per pot, that is 2 minutes. Add a fudge factor and double that time, that is 4 minutes to dry the pots and pans used in a meal. OK, RCKsinks?

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/3472458/hand-washing-dishes-towel-dry-or-drying-rack

This is a Houzz survey, not mine.. That people use a dryng rack 3 times out of 4 is not something I made up. Also because i have paid for the research - in 2017 1.398 million drying racks were imported into this country. That does not include domestic production, which is harder to verify." I don't thinks' dey be all be usin' them as doorstops"

"A dishrack takes up room, and needs someplace to store it when not in use" on this point I could not be in more agreement. But the over all general impression given on may of these posts that somehow sink racks are not routinely used is simply not correct.

I agree with Shannon. I used dish pad to dry my pots, pans and knives if the pots and pans won’t fit in the sink. Even if i had a dish rack my large pots wouldn’t fit inside or on top of it However I do agree it is silly to buy a sink to dry dishes in, especially a $3000 Sink!

We use a dish pad as well. We actually had a dish rack and a dish pad out but just recently put the rack away and just use a dish pad. We always have some hand washables-pots, pans, knives, some jumbo prep bowls and certain glasses. Doesn't bother me in the least having them sitting and drying on a dish pad that’s on the counter.

"or, I hand dry them immediately"

Back in Home Ec in (omg) 1967 or so, I [s]learned[/s] was taught that hand drying isn't sanitary, except for maybe the item first dried on an unused clean dish towel.

That might have been one of those Old Home Ec Teachers' Tales, but it has stuck with me ever since.

I do hand dry the fancy German knives to avoid water spots, but everything else is rinsed in painfully hot water and air dried.

À chacun son goût.

I prefer a double bowl sink. We have no dishwasher so everything is hand washed. I pre rinse on the right side and wash on the left side, then rinse soap off on the right side and put in the dish rack to dry. The water is so piping hot that the dishes typically dry very quickly unless there’s too many in the rack and the water pools inside something.

I'm using drying pads as well. In my old kitchen with butcher block counters I used a drying rack, because I used towels (I had never heard of drying pads) and towels would get wet and stay wet, damaging the butcher block. I hated those drying racks though, as after using them just a little while they'd start to look filthy from lime residue. So then the darn rack needed scrubbing to look decent again, arrgh.., they're a bear to clean. I guess I could have schlepped home several gallons of vinegar once a month to immerse the whole unwieldy rack into, but I never did do that.

Now with quartz counters, I use the drying pads which just get thrown in the laundry along with the towels and dish rags. So much more convenient.

Thanks everyone for helping articulate my point. (:

Used a dish rack in my former home. Hated it, as it eventually got gunky, and I thought the rack unsightly. Discovered the old Garden Web, learned about dish pads, and that’s all I’ve used in my new home. Bought two, in black which blend in with my soapstone counters. When one goes in the wash, the other goes on the counter.

Everything BUT good chrystal, large pots, and my good knives, goes in the dishwasher.

Must add, had a 60/40 double sink in the old house. Hated it. Had to hold my largest pans and pots vertically, in order to clean them. Not the case in my 30” single SS sink in the new home. All my largest pans and pots fit nicely along the bottom, making them easier to clean.

@ darbuka- that is the problem with the countertop dishracks. No good way to keep them clean.

If I were the OP, I would get a large single basin sink, designed with a ledge to hold cutting boards, drying racks and so forth. And a rack that will fit it.

That is what I do with my 28" sink, although it doesn't have a ledge - I use a drainer/colander that hangs on the counter edge. Plenty of room for my biggest pots plus smaller saucepans to wash, then set on the drainer to dry.

Large pots and pans won't be hidden in the 70/30 sink, they just won't take up counter space, which is what I think the OP wants.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Whitehaus-Collection-Reversible-Series-Farmhouse-Apron-Front-Fireclay-42-in-60-40-Double-Bowl-Kitchen-Sink-in-White-WHQDB5542-WH/308489088

https://www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdx/whitehaus-collection-glencove-42-l-x-19-w-double-basin-farmhouse-kitchen-sink-xbti1046.html

https://www.wayfair.com/home-improvement/pdx/whitehaus-collection-glencove-42-l-x-19-w-double-basin-farmhouse-kitchen-sink-xbti1046.html

Thanks. I actually purchased that 42” Whitehaus sink from Wayfair yesterday in white! Plumbing/Appliance told us to jump on it. We won’t need it until Jan/Feb but that deal was too good pass up....

Already received an email from Wayfair saying it’s on the way.

Enjoy your new sink!