This keeps your sink beautiful

Like in grandma's days

Our grandmothers used to clean everything with vinegar. They would get some rags ready and fill up a big bucket containing a little vinegar essence with lukewarm water. You can still buy vinegar essence in the shops today, but you’ll find lots of other cleaning products ranged alongside it. Kitchen cleaners to combat stains, special cleaning agents to remove limescale. Some cleaners have antibacterial properties, while some don’t. But many cleaning products are simply unnecessary.

What do I need for generally looking after my kitchen?

The cleanliness of our kitchen not only helps protect us against bacteria, but also ensures that we feel good in a clean, orderly kitchen. Once the used cups have been stowed in the dishwasher and the pots have been rinsed with washing-up liquid, we still have the worktop, cooker and sink to deal with. Now it’s a matter of getting rid of the greasy oil spatters or slight limescale deposits caused by droplets of water. Generally speaking, natural cleaning agents such as lemon- or vinegar-based cleaners are perfectly up to the job. Both vinegar essence and vinegar-based cleaners are superb, highly efficient cleaning agents, while also being very environmentally friendly, as the acid breaks down easily. The difference between vinegar essence and ready-mixed vinegar-based cleaners is simply that the vinegar-based cleaners contain pleasant fragrances and other ingredients that ensure even more thorough cleaning.

The problem with too many additives

Yet these very ingredients can cause problems when used with certain materials. Highly promising, antibacterial cleaning agents may be too harsh on surfaces, while scale-dissolving agents contain small abrasive particles that frequently cause scratches and can wear coatings away. Such additives can be detrimental to the longevity of your kitchen, as once coatings are worn away you may start to get rust, water damage or other problems.

What should I do to prevent limescale deposits on granite sinks?

Different materials need to be cared for in different ways. Silgranit consists of 80% quartz sand, the strongest component of granite. In short: your sink is extremely resistant. However, those who live in regions with hard, chalky water will soon become familiar with the consequences of limescale deposits. A milky-white layer forms on surfaces and is particularly noticeable against dark materials. If you want to be clever about it, you might go for lighter kitchen worktops and sinks, but unfortunately that does not solve the problem of limescale deposits. The deposits won’t become apparent immediately so you’ll spare yourself the need to rub everything dry every day with a microfibre cloth, but the lime spots are still there all the same. The porous surface of the limescale provides a layer that easily becomes stained by black tea or coffee. As such, staining in granite sinks is often the result of limescale deposits, rather than a colour change to the material of the sink itself.

To combat this, you should make regular use of a mild acidic cleaner or BLANCO DailyClean+ to loosen the limescale deposits.

Polishing scratched stainless steel clean

You can use simple means to restore stainless steel sinks to their former glory, removing even stubborn, dried-in marks gently and effectively. If you really want to get your stainless steel sink shining again, you could buy a special stainless steel cleaner and follow the instructions.

Apply the cleaner across the entire stainless steel surface with a cloth, leave to act briefly, then wash off with plenty of water and wipe the bowl dry with a soft cloth. Regularly polishing your bowl will give it an even patina, so that any scratches will disappear over time.

When cleaning stainless steel bowls you should avoid harsh cleaners like scouring agents and scratch brushes and sponges. These can cause scratches and damage the surface of the stainless steel sink.

Lustrous ceramic sinks

Ceramic sinks are generally very easy to look after, as the surface of these sinks is particularly smooth, hard and completely sealed.

You should simply avoid the following cleaning agents:

• Scouring agents or powder
• Aggressive, highly concentrated drain cleaners
• Strong mixer tap and steel cleaners
• Prickly brushes or steel sponges

These cleaners and tools are unsuitable for ceramic and can cause damage to the surface. This causes the sink to lose its shine and appear matt.

For deep-cleaning or freshening up the dirt- and water-repellent ceramic surface, we recommend a biological calcium carbonate- and aluminium oxide-based cleaning and care product.