what am i gonna do without my franke?

What am I gonna do without my Franke was the marketing slogan of Franke faucet and sink products during the Euro craze of the early 90s here in the US. It was a period when American found infatuation with everything European.


I moved into my second home and couple of years later I began my first kitchen renovation. I have always believe in buying the best quality I can afford and invest in the long run. While I have a limited budget, I wanted to put money where it counts. Doing all the renovation work myself it was easier to justify buying a few pieces of very nice appliances and fixtures and convened myself I was investing in the long run.
my current kitchen

Not satisfy with the run of the mill appliance and fixtures I found a small builder's supply catered to well-heeled Lake Oswego residence (i.e. the Portland old money). At that time KWC was the rage due to it's very clever marketing campaign exploiting the fear of lead in drinking water. I was pretty well sold on the KWC faucet and were ready to depart with my hard earned cash. In the course of shopping for the appliances at this builder appliance suppler the lady showed me the Franke faucet and sink. Just not long ago my friend had renovated their kitchen and Robin did the design herself and it was very impressive - better than all the so called professional kitchen designers most of which are decorators. She had this Alkay double sink with drainboard and I thought to myself how beautiful and sensible it is. I want one too.

well, i do have a KWC bath sink faucet which i bought at a nick and dink sale at a plumbing supply

Flipping through the Franke catalog I found this beautiful double sink with built-in drainboard and I immediately knew that is what I want. While I was quite set on a KWC faucet, the lady said I should look at the Franke. She said she has one and she loved it. It is the most unusual kitchen faucet design I'd ever seen. When she proceed to show me how it pulls out I immediately got it.

in the 1993 franke catalog showing the unique features of the articulations of the spray head

 cover of the catalog - very clean and tasteful publication for top of the range products

 the double sink with integral drainboard - available in LHS or RHS versions

 this version has the control lever on top - note the joystick-like lever made possible by the ceramic valve that was quite novel in the US at the time

the beauty of the design is you can hold the spread head in many ways - this is my favorite grip; just pull it out and aim where you want the stream of water and you can toggle the spray pattern level without changing the grip

another way of gripping it

 it articulates even in very tight spaces - even in this restaurant size stock pot

 the toggle level for two spray patterns - can be control with the hand that holds it

you can also pull out the spay head with the handle if you wish - i never do as i prefer the very nimble pill-shape spray head

To make a long story short I bought a few thousand dollars of kitchen appliances and fixtures from her. These would include 2 Frankie double sinks, 2 faucets, a Miele convection oven, a Miele dishwasher, and two European Frigidaire Euroflair refrigerators. Till this day I still have all of it except one of the two Frankie double sink that I sold with my former house. I bought all of them with me to my current home and I still love them all.

Over two decades later I am still in love with my Frankie sink and faucet. It is always a pleasure to use and the design is so cleaver and understated. For some reason in North America sinks with drainboard is very uncommon. Julia Child's kitchen has one - in fact she had one with double sink and a drainboard on both sides. I love Julia and I'd like to think my let-it-all-hang-out kitchen is inspired by her love of cooking as well as a great educator.

julia's kitchen - photo linked to wikipedia

There is one shortcoming with this Frankie faucet. While it is incredible versatile and ergonomic after a couple of year the hinges of the toggle level would develop a leak. Frankie had lifetime warranty and I had been able to get free replacement of the entire spray head assembly. In recent years after the economic melt down Franke USA must found the sales is no longer as lucrative as it was during the go go years. They now stipulated that the lifetime warranty only applied to a very narrow year range. Fortunately I notice my most recent replacement spray head had lasted at least 5 years without leak. I infer they have finally improved the seals (or o-rings) after 2 decades.

Recently I checked up on their current products. Alas Franke USA has dropped this series of faucets (there were a few groups based on the common spray head design). Instead what I found are the common rustic designs that caters to those like the vernacular instead of very restrained clean aesthetics and functions. Yet the product range for Germany are much more in tune with my taste. Still this range of faucets are no longer available. It is such a shame that Franke finally refined the reliability of the spray head, it decides to discontinue it.

So what is the obsession with double sink or the drainboard? The answer is hand washing.

a note about the stainless steel dish tray sitting on top of the drainboard - it was the most unlikely find at a local upscale kitchen supply purveyor; it was made in italy and it is a perfect fit for the franke sink as it it was meant for each other; i paid a lot of money for it; i do a lot hand washing for items that i don't want to put through the dishwasher

with 2 tubs of water i can wash a lot of dishes and pots

 here is one example how much i can wash with two tubs of water - left one to soak the dirty dishes and the right one to rinse them; then they go onto the drainboard rack to drain/dry

my miele dishwasher i still have after twenty years - the cattery tray is the best feature

my european-size (fits into a 24" x 24" cabinet space) miele convection oven - i like to call it my $2500 egg timer because the timer is the feature i used most

my former kitchen - i did all the renovation work down to the studs and building all the custom cabinets with sheet goods; the grainy picture was taken with a gen-one DSLR

"before" picture of my former vernacular kitchen