Krion Countertops

[IEATRIO]

I'm redoing my kitchen and wondering if anybody has any experience with a countertop product called Krion, made by Porcelanosa?  Its a manufactured product made up mostly of natural stone mixed with resin, but is somewhat different than most of the other quartz based products like Caesarstone and Silestone, etc.  

 

I have used granite and Caesarstone in my kitchens.  The granite was very dark colored and would not be very fashionable today, but it was bombproof and I often prepared food directly on the surface.  The Caesarstone is bright white and much more attractive, and I am considering using it again, but I have found the maintenance to be more difficult and fussy than advertised (things like tea or tomato sauce are not easy to remove), and really don't like the visible seams.

 

I want something that is a pure white, and would prefer something without seams and is less fussy than the Caesarstone.  The Krion fits the first two requirements, as it is a very nice bright white and seamless, but I'm unsure about how it is to cook upon day to day -- this will not be a kitchen that will sit pretty but unused.  I've seen the Krion in the showroom, but I have been unable to speak to anybody who actually has it in their kitchen to get their experiences.  If anybody has used it, I would appreciate your views.  

 

Thanks.

[Katie Meadow]

Never heard of Krion, but I went to the website. There isn't much emphasis on residential kitchens as far as I can tell, so perhaps it has been used mostly in commercial venues up to now? Caesarstone is the only composite countertop I have any experience with, but my counters are a dark shade and staining has not been an issue at all.  I would expect seams to show more in lighter, uniform surfaces, 

 

Several years ago I saw a spectacular kitchen. The entire kitchen, and I mean ALL vertical surfaces --drawer and cabinets as well as countertops and molded sink-- were done in snow white corian. Never seen anything like it since, but it was very dramatic. 

[Tere]

18 minutes ago, Katie Meadow said:

Never heard of Krion, but I went to the website. There isn't much emphasis on residential kitchens as far as I can tell, so perhaps it has been used mostly in commercial venues up to now? Caesarstone is the only composite countertop I have any experience with, but my counters are a dark shade and staining has not been an issue at all.  I would expect seams to show more in lighter, uniform surfaces, 

 

Several years ago I saw a spectacular kitchen. The entire kitchen, and I mean ALL vertical surfaces --drawer and cabinets as well as countertops and molded sink-- were done in snow white corian. Never seen anything like it since, but it was very dramatic. 

 

I used to live in a super modern architect designed house in Tokyo and had something very similar. It looks spectacular but is an absolute pig to keep clean. I was very glad I had a lovely and industrious cleaner to do the scrubbing, as I do not have the knack of making kitchen surfaces look immaculate!

 

I was very careful never to put a hot pan down on it directly because we were renting amongst other things, so can't vouch for how well it holds up there.

[Lisa Shock]

There are special concretes used for countertops, they can be purchased in white. One advantage is that in many cases, seams can be avoided. You have to research each of these products separately.

[JohnT]

There is a DuPont product called Corian that we use on sailing yachts for countertops. It is also a resin/stone mixture which can take a lot of abuse, is easy to repair if damaged and can be shaped to fit. Do a Google search - maybe the same or similar to what you are looking at. The three counter top surfaces below are all Corian.

[lindag]

We put white Caesarstone counters in a smaller, well-used kitchen several years ago.  Never had a problem with seams showing or with any kind of stains. 

My kitchen now has granite in  a medium-dark tone.  I miss my pretty, bright Caesarstone.  The only advantage I have now is that I can slap down a screaming hot pan without any worries.  If I were re-doing my kitchen, I'd go with Caesarstone.

[&roid]

On 18 February 2016 at 2:36 PM, lindag said:

We put white Caesarstone counters in a smaller, well-used kitchen several years ago.  Never had a problem with seams showing or with any kind of stains. 

My kitchen now has granite in  a medium-dark tone.  I miss my pretty, bright Caesarstone.  The only advantage I have now is that I can slap down a screaming hot pan without any worries.  If I were re-doing my kitchen, I'd go with Caesarstone.

 

You probably should worry. You won't scorch it (but then you wouldn't have scorched the caeserstone either), if you leave the pan there long enough you might crack it though. Having been in a kitchen when a stone countertop fractured due to a large pot sitting on it I can heartily recommend against this!

[lindag]

3 hours ago, &roid said:

 

You probably should worry. You won't scorch it (but then you wouldn't have scorched the caeserstone either), if you leave the pan there long enough you might crack it though. Having been in a kitchen when a stone countertop fractured due to a large pot sitting on it I can heartily recommend against this!

Thanks for the info, I'll err on the side of safety and follow your advice.

[IEATRIO]

Thanks for all of the replies.

 

I am actually familiar with Corian, but I've never really thought of it as a high-end product like Caesarstone.  Krion looks quite a bit nicer than the Corian in my opinion, but it is priced very well -- about 50% of Caesarstone.  

 

At this point I'm inclined to just stick with Caesarstone, as I haven't found anybody with personal cooking experience with the Krion and don't want to take any risk.  Its not perfect, but the devil you know, etc.

 

   

[IEATRIO]

My wife and I went to the Porcelanosa showroom in Manhattan -- the only place I could actually see a live Krion countertop.  I have to say, it looks great, and seems really easy to keep clean, but the floor models exposed what seems to be the big flaw of this product -- it scratches really easily.  Apparently, it has little scratch resistance, and the countertops were filled with large and small scratches.  They say that the scratches are very easily removed through sanding, but I don't think I want to take that on.  Looks like we are going with Caesarstone, which despite its imperfections, seems to be a better choice.