ideal sink depth?

[Island]

What do you think is the ideal kitchen sink depth? Last remodel I bought the deepest I could find and it's a back breaker. Any suggestions for next one? Thanks.

[wekick]

I think it depends how long your arms are and the only way to tell what is comfortable is to stand in front of the sink and your hands should be able to easily reach the bottom. The most comfortable sink for me was my grandmothers. It was a 1930s farm sink with a drain board. It was shallow, maybe 6 inches and she kept a plastic dish pan to do dishes in. The other consideration is how far away the sink is. I am short so I had apron sinks put in. I wish the sink was a little shallower than it is. I noticed some sinks with a marble counter top are further away because the marble runs across the front of the sink. The worst sink was my inlaw's sink. It was a butterfly sink in a corner and it was installed much deeper than it needed to be. It was a real back breaker doing dishes. I would just look at some kitchen centers that have installed sinks and see what is comfortable. If you are leaning forward, your back will hurt.

[Sid Post]

How deep is your largest pot? I had an 8 inch depth and had to buy and "elephant" neck faucet to wash stock pots.

[breadchick]

I don't know if you're asking me, but I do have a Moen pull-down with a really high neck. Have had it for years, so I didn't even think about that part of it. Although, I had a 8 in depth in my other house, and the pull out faucet on the side was just fine.

[ferret]

Depends on a lot of factors, not the least of which are your space constraints. Add a disposal to a deep sink and you lose a cabinet. You can also always do a double sink with one deep and the other shallow. There is no "ideal" different people have different uses.

[Island]

Maybe I should add more info about what I have. Double stainless sink, deeper side has the garbage disposal and is the side we wash dishes and other side has a stainless insink dish rack that I use all the time since with only 2 at home I rarely need the dishwasher.

I'm not asking about any other parameters than depth for washing dishes in for the average person. I'm 5'7" and Mr Island is 6'0" and it's uncomfortable for both. Not worried about losing a cabinet because I still have a lot of space now and won't be going this deep again. I realize there are a lot of parameters, but hoping others can shed some light on what depth they've been happy with.

[breadchick]

I actually just bought a s/s double bowl sink and I'm thrilled with it. Both sides are 8 inches deep. I was looking at a commercial version at 10 inches, but I'm vertically challenged so I didn't want to nearly fall in while reaching for a something. I made sure that the radius in this sink for the bottom/side was more square than rounded, which gives allows more room to fit stuff to wash (i.e. 12 qt stockpots.) One side is 18 x 14, other side is 14 x 14, so I can fit a dish rack w/o problem.