Lol...looks awesome!

“If rust trapped under Glacier White Corian for over a decade doesn't stain Corian, Corian doesn't practically stain.”

Hi Joe! Beautiful job. We do get posts here about solid surface sinks staining. I know a sink gets a lot more use and abuse than counters, but are those posters just wrong?

@eam44...My friend had white Corian counters and sinks in the two houses she lived in, one on Long Island, one in North Carolina. Her sinks always looked stained. Big coffee drinkers, heavily used kitchen. I just didn’t get why she would use the same material in the second home, when it performed so poorly in the first. Guess she just liked the uniform look.

Joseph - beautiful job! Wish they could replicate you here.

The material does not stain. It’s the very small scratches in the material from polishing that hold small particles at the surface plane. Polish it again and they go away.

Darbuka there are so many people with the same complaint. i don’t understand why people still buy white Corian sinks.

So while technically correct that the material does not stain, it is practically untrue in a sink application, unless you plan to re-polish your sink often. Is that accurate? Why do they continue to make light colored solid surface sinks if they perform so badly when used in this application? But then they still make fireclay sinks as well...

My SIL drinks coffee made in a French press all day long. He dumps the grounds in the sink where they stay all day long. Their Glacier White Corian sink cleans up very easily and is not stained. They have had it at least 8-10 years. That house could be a test kitchen for Corian damage and there is none.

Then to what would you attribute the variability in the end result? There are plenty of threads on this site that show images of stained Corian sinks. There are articles in newspapers on how to remove the stains that your sil never gets.

Corian is generally polished only to a matte gloss. That’s where polishing to a higher gloss level can help. It’s easy enough to do with a random

orbit on the flat areas. The corners may need a drill with polishing attachment.

" I know a sink gets a lot more use and abuse than counters, but are those posters just wrong?"

Memphis is correct. The material itself isn't really stained. The abrasions hold particulates which are mistaken for stains. Nothing a little elbow grease won't remove, unlike olive oil on some stones.

I hear you Joe, and I respect that you know more about this than I do. I look at the sink pictured above and it looks like there’s been plenty of elbow grease. DuPont recommends the use of a bleach solution (50% consumer bleach/ 50% water) to deal with those stains that aren’t stains.

I don’t particularly like the look of solid surface sinks, but I would never recommend one to someone who did because whatever you call the above, to a lay person that looks awful. Stainless steel doesn’t stain, elbow grease or no.

Stainless, or silgranite, or cast iron, takes the same exact elbow grease to scrub out as a Corian sink does. People just don’t like to scrub their sinks, really scrub them, no matter the material. It’s more about the user‘s habits than the material. A daily wipe out is fine, but a bit more muscle power every couple of days to every week, is needed, no matter what the material. It depends on use and habits for that too. Who dumps coffee or juice or toothpaste spit or anything else down a sink without running water at the same time to rinse it out? The same people who dump pasta water down without running the water I guess.

Holy wow. Beautifully done.

lwo is correct. I've refinished tops where the 30-year-old sink was still so pristine I didn't even touch it.

Great job Joe!

What beautiful work, Joe! I only wish everyone took such care and pride in workmanship as you.

Thanks everyone, but I don't come here to compliment hunt. I want readers to know the different qualities of different materials and the trade-offs inherent in making choices. Corian remains an excellent choice for countertops and if I can kill the staining myth in the meantime, all the better.

Well it’s not really a myth though. Wouldn’t you agree that if a Corian sink can end up looking like this, then yes, de facto, it does stain? That the material doesn’t technically stain, but it is soft enough to collect food particles in micro-scratches is kind of irrelevant - not the point I’m making. If that sink can end up looking like this, then gross. It’s great that it can be bleached and polished, and it’s clearly a much better surface than enameled cast iron as a result, but this does happen, and not just because people don’t run the water.

I have to disagree with live_wire_oak. A blue scrubby sponge, and a sprinkling of Bon Ami, or Comet, and...with a modicum of pressure...rinse, and my Franke stainless steel sink is sparkly clean. Never brown and dirty looking.

Doesn‘t matter if, as Joe says, the Corian is not really staining...that, what one sees is food particles caught between ”abrasions.” I’ve seen my friend scrub her Corian sink. The results were still a discolored, dirty looking sink.

And, live_wire_oak, water has always been running, when she dumps anything into her Corian sink. Makes no difference. If various items can abrade the surface to the point that it will have to be polished (service call to a pro), every so often to restore it‘s appearance, I‘d hardly call Corian an ideal surface for a sink.

"Stainless, or silgranite, or cast iron, takes the same exact elbow grease to scrub out as a Corian sink does."

live_wire_oak - I completely disagree. Have you experienced this directly, or are you going off of hearsay, marketing, or? I have lived with all 4 of the materials of sinks you've listed. Ranking by ease of cleaning, Silgranit is the easiest, then stainless steel. Though I need to put a caveat on the Silgranit ranking that I am talking about the dark Silgranit colors like anthracite and cafe brown. The lighter colored white and cream Silgranit sinks behave differently and are harder to clean. Most of the time, the Silgranit sink I had in anthracite appeared not to get dirty - the Silgranit material makes grease and minerals not stick as easily. Cleaning Silgranit was effortless. My stainless steel sinks all were easily water-spotted by the minerals in my water. Easy to clean with a wipe, or with Bar Keepers Friend after more greasy cooking and dishes, so that the stainless gleamed like new. That gleam of SS is hard to beat (see Joseph's pic above). Enameled cast iron needs more elbow grease of black pot marks, and stains from wine, coffee and the like. I have also found enameled cast iron loses its shine after a couple years even though it stays looking clean. Corian is the worst of this bunch in the way of elbow grease required for the reasons already mentioned in this thread. I admit though that my Corian experience was in the '90s, so maybe it has improved, but since then there have been other materials to choose from, that I haven't wanted to go back to it.

Eam44: You’ve pictured customer abuse, not a product failure.

The sink and tub pictures above look like a lazy person lives there that *never* cleans *anything*. If you never clean something, it's dirty, not necessarily stained, I'd think. And after a while, dirty becomes filthy--and that's going to take longer/more effort to clean, regardless what surface it is.

OK Joe. But would you agree that the identical customer usage wouldn’t have any affect on a stainless steel sink?

No. Just like acrylic, stainless steel scratches. The more "abuse" the more scratches, however, stuff doesn't cling to the scratches in stainless as it does with acrylic which is why acrylic appears to "stain". The scratches are easily removed from each.

Stainless can dent. Acrylic won't, but it will "bruise" which is creating a brighter white spot at the point of impact. If you keep a grate in a stainless sink, scratching and denting are nearly nonexistent. Composite sinks won't dent, are difficult to scratch, but if you do scratch one, I doubt you'll get the scratch out and still match the factory finish.

Only cheap, thin stainless dents. Many a heavy object has been dropped onto my SS sink. After almost 5 years, there’s not one dent. Most people I know have SS sinks. Not a one has dents.

When it comes to SS sinks, you get what you pay for. A hardworking surface like a sink, is not what you want to scrimp on.

As an aside...I’ve since gotten a grate (grid) for the bottom of the sink...mostly to raise the surface a bit.

Joe, @darbuka, the stainless steel sink in my house is over 50 years old. I wasn‘t alive when it was manufactured or installed, but that sink could be re-installed anywhere tomorrow as new. It is perfect. I am replacing it with a 36” Rachiele work station sink made of high quality stainless steel. I hope it will outlast me. Brushed stainless doesn’t really show scratches, but then I’ve never really made a huge scratch in a sink, any sink.

Hey, what do I do with the sink I will be replacing? I am starting to feel a little bummed about pulling out a perfectly good sink - small, but good. I guess I could donate it.