Cleaning sinks
Stainless Steel
- Cream cleaner works quite well, as do plastic & copper scourers.
- Never use steel or iron scrapers, scourer, etc, these tend to permanently scratch the sink.
- Avoid acids.
Ceramic
Pretty much any cleaner can be used on ceramic sinks, but avoid iron & steel scourers & scrapers that would damage the surface. The best possible final finish cleaners are acids, but these tend to attack the finish on the metal plughole.
The ultimate ceramic sink cleaner is chromic acid, but its far too dangerous and toxic to be considered for diy or professional sink cleaning use. Other strong acids also give a great finish, such as Sulphuric & Sulphamic acid. HCl is best avoided though, it can discolour the microcracking often present on ceramic surfaces, leaving a permanently poor looking result.
Coated steel
These are plastic coated stainless steel sinks, found as a prettier alternative to bare stainless. They come in various colours.
Colour coated steel sinks are terrible to clean if the right cleaning chemicals aren't used. With the right chemicals its possible to keep them nice and clean.
Manufacturers recommend a cream cleaner with bleach. This works quite well.
More effective is biological washing powder paste. Wet the sink, sprinkle a little powder on, and wipe all over, including the sides as well if needed. Just leave it for as long as practical, overnight if possible, hours at least. Very effective indeed.
Bleach doesn't remove dirt, it just decolourises it. And the rough absorbent dirt surface becomes visibly dirty again relatively quickly. Its a quick effective way to deal with any remaining stains, but restaining soon reoccurs.
Surface scale builds up in hard water areas. Any powerful acid will remove this. Low strength acids require repeated application to remove visible deposits. If desposits are heavy, eg around taps, a plastic scraper can be used to scrape over the scale surface, pressing down on the scale to help break it up, but don't let it scrape the plastic sink surface at all.
Don't use any type of metal or plastic scourer or scraper. The sink's plastic coating is much softer than the steel under it.
Plastic
Plastic sinks aren't very popular. Its important with these not to scratch them. A good general purpose clean is to wet them with water & washing up liquid, and wipe it off after a couple of minutes. The same methods work with these sinks as with plastic coated steel.
Safety
Never let acid and bleach mix, either in the sink or the drainage trap. The 2 together produce chlorine gas, and a couple of breaths of that can kill.