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When renovating the kitchen, it's important to factor in how resistent to damage your choice of benchtop is.

Kitchen benchtops have to be tough.

They've got to stand hot pots, spills, impacts and cuts, and carry on looking good.

Now, Consumer has put nine different benchtop materials to the test attacking them with knives, weights and scouring pads to find which performed best.

"There are no absolute winners or losers, but the results may make you think twice about which benchtop is right for you," Consumer says.

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Consumer tested: high-pressure laminate (Formica and Laminex), solid surface (made of plastic mixed with other materials like marble dust), engineered stone (crushed quartz bonded with resins), granite, marble, polished concrete, "ultra compact" (made by putting the raw materials found in glass and porcelain under extreme heat and pressure), stainless steel, and timber.

To test them, Consumer attacked them with scouring pads (1000 scours each), drew blades across them in slicing and dicing actions, placed hot pots on them, poured beetroot juice on them, and dropped heavy weights on them.

It then scored them for either very poor, poor, borderline, okay, good, very good, or excellent on how they performed on each attack.

It also gave each a cost rating.

Granite, one of the most costly materials used in benchtops, performed well, getting excellent, or very good, scores in every category

"Granite is one of the hardest materials available for benchtops and, if cared for properly can look good for years, but it is porous, so it needs to be sealed to resist stains," Consumer said.

That meant resealing it once a year, it said.

Marble, which was more expensive than granite, was softer, and scored a "poor" in impact and stain tests.

"There's a reason marble counters are generally found in bathrooms rather than kitchens," Consumer said.

Engineered stone, which was cheaper than granite, scored well on everything except that it chipped when a one kilogramme weight was dropped on it from a height of 60cm.

The ultra-compact benchtop, which was priced similarly to marble, actually shattered when the weight was dropped on it, Consumer said, but it scored very good, or excellent, on the other tests.

Solid surface benchtops were pricey as each is custom-made, but scored well in all tests, except the scouring test.

Concrete, which was used to get an "industrial aesthetic", needed to be polished and sealed once it had been cast in place, and would need regular resealings, Consumer said.

It was prone to cracking, and Consumer's testing resulted in the sealant used bubbling under 200 degree heat, chipping when the weight was dropped on it, and showing obvious scratch marks from the knife test.

Consumer found stainless steel, the other industrial-look benchtop material, easy to keep clean and hard-wearing, but easily dented by weights, and scored by scouring pads. The cutting test left faint marks.

Timber could look stunning, Consumer said, but Wood dented easily, was damaged in the scouring test, and marks were left in the cutting test. Timber scored worst of all materials for resisting heat.

High-pressure laminates were far more susceptible to abrasion and impact than marble, but were cheap as chips.

"Laminate benchtops can be made in continuous runs and come in a huge range of colours, patterns and textures, including stone and wood effects. It can look like a cheap and nasty imitation of wood or marble, or as elegant and crisp as a solid surface or engineered-stone benchtop," Consumer said.

The full report is available here.

 - Stuff