The Stain Library

Material

Ceramic sink

A thick glazed fireclay or china bowl, tougher than a basin, where the residue ends up in the waste and the grey marks are metal rather than scratches.

  • SurfaceNon porous
  • WashingSpot only
  • Colour run riskLow
  • Reviewed7 September 2026

What ceramic sink can and cannot take

  • Heat Use with care
  • Water and soaking Tolerates it
  • Acids, including vinegar Use with care
  • Strong alkalis Tolerates it
  • Solvents Use with care
  • Chlorine bleach Tolerates it
  • Abrasives Use with care

General rules for ceramic sink

Warm soapy water is enough for a milk mark on a glazed sink, because nothing soaks in.

The kitchen difference is what else is in the sink. Lift solids out with paper before running the tap, and check the waste and any strainer basket, because milk residue in a kitchen waste sours quickly.

A mild cream cleaner is safe on fireclay and is the right tool for the grey metal marks a ceramic sink collects, which are deposits rather than damage.

Check the label

A ceramic kitchen sink is fireclay or vitreous china with a thick glaze, and it is tougher than a basin. The glaze still scratches, and metal pans dragged across it leave grey marks that look like scratches and are actually metal deposits that come off with a mild cream cleaner.

Stains on ceramic sink

A ceramic kitchen sink is fireclay or vitreous china, glazed and fired to a thick hard surface.

Nothing absorbs

A milk mark is a surface deposit and warm soapy water removes it. The glaze is chemically inert.

Grey marks are usually metal

Pans and cutlery dragged across a glaze leave metal behind, which looks like scratching and is not. A mild cream cleaner takes it straight off, and that is one of the few appropriate uses of a cream cleaner in this family.

The waste is the problem

A kitchen sink has a strainer, a basket and often a disposal, all of which trap solids. Milk residue there sours within a day.

The glaze still scratches

With a scourer or a scouring powder, and a scratched sink stains more easily afterwards.

Sources

What we checked and when. Where a manufacturer instruction disagrees with anything here, follow the manufacturer.

  1. Bathroom care guide, Carryduff Designs manufacturer

    UK bathroom supplier guidance that acrylic is softer than china and scratches, that scouring products are not recommended, that chemicals including nail varnish remover, household bleach, perfume and strong disinfectant must never be used on acrylic, that warm soapy water or a mild cream cleaner is the correct clean, that mild limescale removers are acceptable occasionally, that bleach must not go in a cistern, and that cleaners must never be mixed because they give off poisonous gas.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  2. Norovirus: what to do and how to stop the spread, UK Health Security Agency authority

    UK public health guidance establishing that illness related vomit can carry norovirus, that contaminated laundry should be washed with normal powder at 60 C where the care label permits, and that compatible hard surfaces should be disinfected with a bleach based product.

    Checked 7 September 2026

  3. Melamine dinnerware and staining, G.E.T. manufacturer

    Melamine manufacturer guidance that staining is caused by food left to dry on the surface and by protein and hard water minerals building up, that an oxygen releasing soak or an overnight soak in warm water with dishwashing granules removes the stains, that a non abrasive pad is used afterwards, and that bleach, green scouring pads, steel wool and metal scourers must not be used because they dull and scratch the surface.

    Checked 7 September 2026