Unscientific Sink Survey

[petek]

Must have missed this the first go round.

Double sink, no garbage disposer, dishwasher to the right. 

 

I'm right handed, he's a lefty.  I try, oh I try, to get him to leave any dirty dishes in the left sink so the right one is always empty for what ever needs an empty sink at the time. But it not always successful. 

 

[stan]

Guess in living in the dark ages..

For those who haven't seen my kitchen...very old porcelain single bowl..no dishwasher..no garbage disposal.
I use a enamelware dishpan. Food scraps get caught in sink strainer, then wrapped up in paper...then taken to outside garbage. Coffee grounds go into flower beds..Sink gets scrubbed out with BonAmi/Clorox.
Don't miss what I don't have. LOL

 

[gizmo]

double bowl stainless with double drainer - Oliveri PE353 in following link:

No dishwasher, wash on left, rinse on right. (partner does it the other way round...)

I'm left handed.

http://www.oliveri.com.au/au/petite.cfm

 

[countryguy]

Double deep bowl stainless steel sink, no disposer (never been in a house that had a disposer...not at all common in Canada), dishwasher to the left, wash in the right hand bowl, rinse in the left (on the very rare occasion that I actually wash dishes), dish drainer on the countertop above the dishwasher. I'm left handed.

 

[thomasortega]

Double bowl, equal size, the new disposer is on the left and the old is on the right just waiting for the day it dies completelly. Both of them are crappy BOL super weak "S**t King" and they were both bought by students traveling in the US and then both had the same excuse "I know you asked me to buy an ISE Evolution Excell but then the salesman said it would be much better if I got this one because it was much cheaper and disposers are all the same." (WTF?!?!?!)

I use the left bowl more, because the right one is just next to the dishwasher, plus the water filter so it's a little messy to use it. (But of course I also use it sometimes).

Dishes go straight to the dishwashers but when I need to do some dishes manually, I use the left bowl.

I'm right handed, as most Brazilians. This country still has a strange (not to say awful and ridiculous) culture that using the left hand is a sin. Being a left handed here means trouble even to find a job.

 

[fan-of-fans]

Double bowl stainless, both same depth and size. No disposal, dishwasher is to the left. I typically use the left bowl only, sometimes right side for draining/rinsing if actually doing dishes manually. Sink is an Elkay Celebrity from the 70s, reused after kitchen remodel.

 

[volsboy1]

I have a under-mount sink Elkay one larger than the other..Uh I have a huge old Wasteking SS7000 disposer on one side and a small high speed 8000Rpm G.E. on the other...Yes I know I am odd....I can't stand wet trash in my compacter.

 

[rapunzel]

Hi Thomas,

Just noticed a couple of interesting things in your photo. Firstly the location of your power socket right behind the tap and above the water connection for the dishwasher. Is that legal? I didn't know that you use Australian/Chinese power outlets in Brazil.

 

[thomasortega]

It's kind of difficult to explain the Brazilian outlets because the standards changed a lot. first original Brazilian outlet was the two round prong for small appliances and the reverse Y for heavy duty appliances like dryers, air conditioners or diahwashers but as many people used to to buy American small appliances like blenders and stand mixers, several manufacturers decided to include the two flat prong standard on outlets so our outlets had a mix of both flat prong and round prong then Brazilian government decided to change the standard here in Brazil the standard since 5 years ago is exclusive it can't be seen anywhere in the world. Only Brazil has this kind of of outlets and plugs. there are two different kinds of outlets and plugs 10a and 20aa, with three round prongs.
The 10a plug has thinner prongs and it will fit both 10 and 20a outlets, but a 20a plug won't fit a 10a outlet because the prongs are milimetrically thicker.

About the outlet behind the tap, its very common here because of the electric faucets. 95% of homes in Brazil don't have a water heater and a hot water pipe. Most people use electric showerheads and electric kitchen faucets that heat the water 1 second before its used. They are very safe, even mixing water and electricity and you can adjust the temperature by either opening the tap more or less or by adjusting the electronic selector these electrical showers and faucets have.

As I installed a tankless water heater in my laundry room, I just ran a pipe under the counter for hot water and I put a T connector on the lower dishwasher hookups for cold water.

The Y outlet you see is because I had some 220v argentinian small appliances (a hand blender and a waffle maker) and they come with the Y plug. To prevent damages, I put that outlet for the 220, so the other 127v appliances would never be plugged in the wrong outlet to be fried.

The two prong outlet on the right is 127v and its the only "old style" outlet I kept in the kitchen, because of my Ka stand mixer (I broke the ground prong)

All the other cupboard outlets are the new standard.

And the small tap where the dishwasher is connected is the original pipe for the faucet. I simply didn't want to have an ugly cap closing that pipe on the wall, so I put that small tap. It saved me from drilling a hole on the granite cupboard for the upper dishwasher inlet hose.

And the upper dishwasher drains in the right sink.

 

[rapunzel]

Thanks for your explanation Thomas. How confusing can it get? You have different voltages and sockets in your homes. That must be a wiring nightmare. When you buy appliances do you have to buy the plugs separately and put them on yourself? Like they do in England.

 

[thomasortega]

No, the appliances come with plugs.

It's a little messy because Brazil has changed the standard plug, and in my case, I live on the borders with Paraguay and Argentina, so it's super easy for me to buy appliances in a different country (and obviously with different plugs).

But it's not a total nightmare. Oh, I didn't mention I also have a Schücko outlet in the balcony for my Electrolux Professional portable Wok induction cooktop and in the laundry room there's aa 4-prong insert and twist commercial outlet for the Frigidaire dryer. Nightmare will be, in a few weeks, to make some small appliance plugs (toothbrush, shaver, hair clipper,cell phone charger, ultra book ac adapter and maybe a philips avance collection juicer for my father in law and an Electrolux mini silent washer for my husband) fit Californian outlets.

But that won't be a nightmare because I'll take some plug adapters with me and an outlet for the mini washer.

 

[supersuds]

To add to the confusion, the Argentinian outlets have the polarity reversed compared to the apparently identical Aus/NZ/Chinese versions.

The site linked below has a breakdown of different voltage standards in all parts of Brazil. It is kind of a mess, though I suppose if you aren't traveling it doesn't matter.

http://www.worldstandards.eu/electricity/plug-voltage-by-country/brazil/

 

[thomasortega]

Do you want something worse?

100% of my outlets and light switches were "addressable", when my apartment was built back in 1997. Those you can simply eject from the wall, by Siemens.

Years later I decided to install a home automation system by Bticino.

The electrician looked at the outlets and gave up saying that was beyond his knowledge.

It took several days but I rewired the whole apartment myself.

At the beginning it was a PITA, but then things started to work and I got excited. I ended up updating the system even before it was ready, adding some fancy accessories Bticino offers, like gas detector, emergency lights that can be ejected and used as flashlights and silly digital clocks.

If I can control almost everything here, except those old outlets, using an app.

I means I can even turn on the A/C when I'm driving home or set a timer to fill my bathtub minutes before I wake up.

It was super cheap (Bticino is considered a luxury brand here in Brazil but not in Paraguay, where its super cheap) and the most expensive part of the project would be labor, but I did it myself, including some walls I had to cut to replace the wiring ducts because they were too thin for several cables.

 

[thomasortega]

My secret isn't a secret. Think simple, do one thing at a time.

After I finished I hired an automation company only to check what I've done and they were impressed I did everything right in only a few days.

My next project will be fixing my husband's house in CA... Who wants to join the project?

Basicly I'm going to fix a broken fence, but I want to surprise him with a whole new garden, a water feature, maybe a hot tub or a small swimming pool, replace a small part of the roof, rewire the whole house and reorganize the garage and maybe build another wall to make his furnace more efficient.

I need to discover what the codes apply in Tehachapi CA, because I also want to build a rainwater recycling system (for watering the lawn). And install a vacuum tube solar water heating system.

 

[thomasortega]

Back to the sinks...

What is that super small sink for?

Here they are becoming a trend, several architects are suggesting them, usually two large bowls and the mini bowl between them. Some even come with accessories like a wire basket, almost like a dishwasher rack or a perforated tray.

Are these mini sinks really useful? For what?