A Real Comparison Test: Frank VS ??

In this article, we are going to make a comparison of the hand-made sinks among the Franks and Chica dragon. The test content includes price, material, size, manufacturing process, design, weight, accessories, and drainage.

First, let’s briefly introduce the background of these two brands.

Franke: The Franke Group was founded in Switzerland in 1911. The top ten global sink brands. The group’s business covers household kitchen systems, commercial kitchen systems, bathroom systems, coffee machine systems, beverage systems, and other industrial stainless steel fields. I used a small-size single bowl hand-made sink to do the test.

Model: Vela610

Size: 580*450*200mm

Surface treatment: Satin finished

Price: USD669

Chica Dragon: An unknow brand which manufactures kitchen sink in China, which enter the market in 2008 and offer OEM service. The main products are stainless steel sink and granite composite sink.

Model: XR70

Size: 700*450*200mm

Surface treatment: Satin finished

Price: USD79 (wholesale price)

Appearance

Analyzing from the brand value and product price alone, it is really huge challenge for Chica Dragon to do this test. Let’s have a look at the appearance of these two sinks.

Since Vela is a small single-bowl sink, it looks more delicate than the large single-bowl XR70.

Material Test

As a world brand, Franke uses the most high-end Pohang sheet material imported from South Korea, SUS304 stainless steel. Chica dragon uses the same material as the Pohang plate imported from South Korea, SUS304 stainless steel. From this point of view, at least the two are comparable. But what we want is accurate data.

We use the stainless steel material detection liquid to test the material.

First, turn the sink upside down and take out the stainless steel material testing solution. Then find a place and polish the back surface of the sink to expose the original material. This is to ensure that the test liquid can corrode the stainless steel body honestly and effectively. Then put a drop of test liquid on the polishing position and wait for five minutes.

We can see the effect, the corrosive liquid of the two polishing positions has turned green, and the color is consistent with the SUS304 material standard. Make sure that they are all authentic SUS304 materials. If you need to do this test, please pay attention to its corrosive.

Size inspection

Length and Width

The above is an overall size test conducted on Vela. 580*450 mm, plus and minus tolerance 1mm. The test result is in line with the requirements.

For the large single bowl XR70, the size test result is 700*450mm, plus-minus tolerance 1mm. The test result also meets the requirements.

Comment: For large-sized sinks, it is more difficult for dimensional accuracy. In this case,the Chica sink did a great job in the size control!

Here is a full image for the XR70. You may find no X-rays design on the bottom of the sink bowl while Frank has this design.

Many people know that the X-rays design is to help to drain the water well. Is the XR70 can not drain water smoothly without the X-rays design?

Let’s continue the evaluation of the bowl depth！

Bowl Depth

The Vela has a depth of 200mm, and both the front and back are the same depth.

The front bowl depth of the XR70 is 200mm, but the back depth is 195mm. What the hell?

It turns out that this is a unique design of XR70. You can see the pics below, on the right is the XR70. This unique design that the front is higher than the back can help the drainage! As the design of Vela, the front and back of bowl depth are the same depth-it can drain well only rely on the X-ray design.

We will test the drainage later. Now let’s measure the dimension of the thickness first!

Thickness

We can see both two models is in a thickness of 1.2mm. This is a standard thickness in the stainless steel sink. If the steel is too thick, it will lose its resilience. And if too thin, the steel is easier to deform. There are 1.5mm thick sinks in the United States and Canada, which are more prevalent in the local area. This is because their cabinet countertops are relatively thick.

Back

From the back images of these two models, we can see a welding trace on the Vela, and the XR70 is smooth. Because XR70 has made a chrome finished on the path. For this detailed process, I think the XR70 is better than the Vela.

Drainer size

We can see the drainer size for the Vela is 114/90mm. This is a standard size for the drainer. And it’s a front-position design for the drainer. From the drainer center to the bowl edge is 100mm.

And the XR70 is the same size of 114/90mm. A front-position design. From the drainer center to the bowl edge is still 100mm.

Let’s have a look at the overflow.

Overflow

The overflow of Vela is a conventional strip hole design. It’s easy to install. Just fix it with the screws is fine. But the disadvantage is one can see the screws from the outside, which reduces the aesthetics.
Look at the XR70. You can’t see the screws for the invisible overflow design. It looks nice.

Surface treatment

Both sinks are hand-made satin surface treatment, and the color and drawing lines are relatively uniform and delicate. There is the light reflection because of the X-rays design for the Vela, and the XR70 appears more smoothly without the water-conducting lines.
From the detailed surface treatment of the images, both are good stainless steel sinks.

Sink Rim Dimension

Vela is a small size single bowl, and the sink rim dimension is 20mm. And XR70 is a large size single bowl, and the sink rim is 25mm. The design is very reasonable.

Sink Radius

We measured the sink radius. Both sinks’ radius is R10.

Accessories

Clips

The Coating and Insulation

Good stainless steel sinks have an insulating layer. This layer reduces the amount of noise that flowing water produces in the sink. The coatings actively prevent the build-up condensation at the bottom of the steel sink.

Both sinks use good-quality coating with water-proof material. And the thickness is around 0.6mm. You can gently pinch it with the fingernails, and it will leave no traces. And they all use the EVA material (Non-toxic and environmentally friendly) sound-decreasing pads, which stick on every side of the sink.

Weight

The N.W. of the Vela is 5.7kg, while the XR70 is 6.7kg. The XR70 is heavier than the Vela because its size is bigger.

Drainage Test

First, put two sinks on the test area and make sure they are flat on the surface.

Next, we need to clean the sink with detergent to avoid inaccurate test results caused by dust sticking to sink bowl.

Now we can go with the test!

After the water flow, we can see there is some remain water around the drainer of the Vela. And the XR70 is relatively clean. How can it be?

You can see from this picture. There is a sloping arc around the drainer. Actually, when the drainer is stamped and formed, a large area around it will be pulled to form a sloping arc, which is conducive to the drainage.
In this test, we can say that XR70 is slightly better.

Conclusion

Franke Vela610 is a good sink. Anyway, Chica dragon’s XR70 is not bad. It’s even better than the big brand in many details.

How do you think?