Chrome Versus Stainless Steel Home Improvement Investments

Chrome Versus Stainless Steel

February 16, 2011, 11:47 am

I personally like the look of chrome on a ‘67 Mustang or a Harley-Davidson. When you go trying to chrome up your kitchen or bathroom with fancy fixtures, though, youre just begging for trouble.

I like my plain old stainless steel faucets because they are attractive yet simple. I can go to a Wal-Mart and find a million things that go with it, and if I need something a little exotic, Lowe’s or Home Depot probably has it.

Chrome is shiny. I like shiny. Give it two months of childrens chocolate-covered hands or your husbands weekend-tinkering-with-the-car hands grabbing them and suddenly your chrome is looking flat. The longer you let chrome sit dirty, the less likely youre going to get that shine back. Why? Not because its not there, but because the amount of elbow grease needed to get it increases exponentially the longer you neglect it.

If you are the type of person who will take soap and water to all your chrome at least once a week, then you should be OK, but who has that time? We have soccer practice, late nights at work, childrens plays, working out the gym and the countless other little things that constantly weigh us down.

What if you have a particularly nasty stain that is refusing to get off, so you grab your toughest rag and start scrubbing? Oops, you just scratched your chrome. You either get to spend your afternoon buffing it out, or you have to give up the ghost and leave it scratched.

Oh, by the way. Make sure to dry the chrome after each use, or else it will develop water spots and streaking. Wonderful, right?

Stainless can get dirty, and you can scrub it with anything you want, but if it gets scratched, oh well. Its just stainless steel. I am not trivializing the beauty of stainless steel. I am just saying, it’s less expensive and easier to clean.

If I was Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt and had more money in the bank then the county of France, then I might go for a little chrome. Especially if I had a platoon of maids to clean it. Until that day, I’ll have to “settle” for stainless. Image Source: flickr.com/photos/charlesonflickr/3921457862

Home Improvement Investments