Again.

This is a new picture of our kitchen sink. More accurately - this is a picture of our new kitchen sink. It's just like the old one except it isn't dented from falling out of the cabinet back in 2007.

That old dented sink broke away from the countertop a couple of weeks ago ... Again.

The original Blanco undermount sink was installed with the Zodiaq countertops on December 14, 2006. After spending an entire year being afraid to actually use the sink the way I had always used kitchen sinks in the past (filling up with water and adding dishes, for instance) because the physics of the installation just seemed questionable to me.... I finally decided to add some water to the sink to use to wet my mop on December 13, 2007. Five minutes later the sink full of mop water exited the countertop & lodged itself firmly in the cabinet underneath.

Lowe's was great about honoring the installation warranty and sent out people immediately to reinstall the sink. We heard great stories from the installers about how the first sink was installed improperly and about how (of course) those guys who installed it no longer worked for them. I was assured by the main countertop man that when such sinks are installed properly - one should be able to float a full-size Thanksgiving turkey in them.

I never got to test the Thanksgiving turkey thing. This latest installation popped loose from the countertop two weeks before Thanksgiving this year. (Incidentally, we floated our turkey in an ice chest to thaw it... And it worked out great.) We made it through Thanksgiving with a broken sink. Again.

Lowe's sent out installers yet again to reinstall - this time a NEW sink considering the abuse the first sink has taken with all the falling and being beaten back into shape. This time we heard stories about the previous installer no longer doing work for Lowe's -- and/or no longer installing Zodiaq countertops. Regardless - Lowe's found a Zodiaq installer and got them here to stick the sink to the countertop again. I would be out of my mind to feel confident that this sink will last more than a year.....

But... What exactly can we do? Our countertops are cut for this specific sink. The installers were NOT happy with the option of cutting out the sink portion of our countertops and replacing it with a new sink cutout and sink free-of-charge. Therefore - we're living the definition of insanity here and repeating exactly the same action expecting a different result. How many times do we have to do this before someone comes up with a viable solution? The world may never know.

In the meantime - I should take a moment to say that I'm pretty impressed with Lowe's and how faithfully they've honored their installation guarantee. We're now two years out from the original installation and their contracted installers run like rabbits when they get a call about us...
But Lowe's has been dutiful about making the calls and staying on the case until something gets done. This time we even had two different managers from the store come out to personally look at our sink. I'm assuming they actually came out to see if there were any discernible signs of sink-abuse that may be contributing to the failures... Yet - it's good that they've taken an interest.

Now on the waiting list: Plumbing for a functional sink/dishwasher before Christmas. Again.