Induction hobs

PeggyAnn_2

Firstly, this forum has already been very helpful and saved us a lot of time and money. So thanks everyone!

We've just bought a cottage that we're going to renovate and extend and so will probably have lots of questions, especially as we're on a very tight budget.

At the moment we're designing our new kitchen and have decided on an induction hob. One of Which magazine's Best Buys is an Indesit VIA640C, for which I've downloaded the instruction manual.

However in this it states "to allow adequate ventilation and to avoid overheating of surrounding surfaces.......kitchen cabinets adjacent to the appliance and taller than the top of the hob must be at least 600mm from the edge of the hob."


In case this is so with all induction hobs I also downloaded the manual to another Which Best Buy, the John Lewis JLBIIH603, and nothing similar is mentioned in that.


This seems quite a restriction, but is it simply a get out clause by Indesit, and nothing to worry about?

I would ask Indesit but don't trust them to give me the right answer as it may lose them a sale. I reckon you lot will be much more helpful!

mrschaucer

I'm not sure I understand the problem. Your hob will be installed into the worksurface, yes? So most people would try to have 60cm at least of worksurface each side of the hob for pan handles etc. If for some reason you have taller base cabinets/worksurface either side of the hob (at a higher level) then these must be 60 cm away each side. Ditto you won't be able to put the hob less than 60cm away from the wall, but that wouldn't be very ergonomic anyway. Surely your wall cupboards wouldn't be within a 60cm radius of the hob?

cddc

That seems like overkill to me. You should always aim to have your hob at least 30cm from a vertical to allow for pan handles etc. So 60 cm from the centre of the hob maybe?

I cannot see any reason why you cannot take wall cabinets up to the edge of the hob. The usual requirement is only that you should not have wall cabinets over a hob. But even then, you can have a bridging unit with a telescopic or traditional canopy hood underneath. There is no reason you could not cannot do this with any induction hob as far as I am aware, so either you are mis-interpreting their reccomendations or Indesit are are being ultra cautious with their requirements.

mrschaucer

Will you have a very small kitchen or is the layout such that you can't physically get 60cm each side of your hob? As cddc says, you'll be able to have the wall units up to the edge of the hob/over the top with a bridge unit so long as the vertical distance from the hob is at least 60cm. Most wall units are hung higher than this.

PeggyAnn_2

We'll end up with a reasonable big kitchen but with a number of restrictions as to the possible layout due to an odd shape to start with and support for an RSJ. Additionally, because the kitchen is next to the party wall we've a relatively small length of outside wall.

How high are wall units normally fitted above the work surface? It may be the property we're renting isn't typical as the radius here would be smaller than 600mm.

bluewater

There's another issue with the installation of induction hobs. We are in the process of putting in a new kitchen and have chosen a Fagor induction hob. The installation instructions say that there must be a gap of 5mm at the front of the kitchen unit between the top of the unit and the underside of the worktop.

http://www.fagor.co.uk/documents/if-900.pdf

There is a fan in the hob (I gather that all induction hobs have them) which should draw air in through a grill in the plinth and circulate it up the service gap at the back of the unit and then under the hob and out through the 5mm gap. Its clearly shown in the diagrams in the above pdf.

The hob we are going for is 90cm wide so there would be this amount of unsupported worktop (we will be having granite). Haven't really faced up to how this installation can be achieved - maybe by having slots say 6" wide followed by a 2" supporting bit.

I spoke to two big internet appliance sellers and was told they had never experience any problem with installation of induction hobs and not to worry about any ventilation gap at the front. But then I spoke to Fagor who said ignore it at your peril.

Incidentally, I'm sure I saw on one website that induction hobs cannot be installed above an oven - but the Fagor pdf above suggests this is not so.

markdavey

You can place an induction hob above an oven but you need to read the Warranty carefully. Whirlpool will only warranty their induction hobs when placed above a built under oven if the oven is of the same brand (i.e. Whirlpool). This is because the Oven is shaped to allow the fans on the induction hob enough space to draw air up to cool the hob.

OP, don't be put off. The induction hob was the best appliance I installed in our new kitchen. I would never go back to Gas or conventional electric hobs.

mrschaucer

Sorry, PeggyAnn, you're quite right. Have just been to look at my wall cupboards and they ARE less than 60cm from the worksurface. So I guess yours would have to be hitched along a bit to get that clearance. Didn't realise it was all so complicated with induction hobs - we settled on a normal ceramic hob with touch control as we couldn't stretch to induction at the time, which I was a bit miffed about. Hope you get your layout problems sorted!

PeggyAnn_2

Bluewater, I recall reading that you can't put an induction hob above a double oven as there wouldn't be a sufficient ventilation gap, but that a single oven should be fine.

Thanks for all the replies. It's enabled me to work out a number of options:

1) Buy a different but more expensive induction hob. However there doesn't appear to be as much difference in performance between induction hobs as other appliances, and all seem pretty reliable. If it were the John Lewis model I doubt that there would a problem as the oven we've chosen is an Electrolux (another Which? best buy), and I believe that most John Lewis appliances are rebadged Electroluxes.

2) We were already going to have 150mm pull-out base units for spices etc on either side of the cooker. We could increase this to 300mm units and have the bottom of the wall units 520mm above the level of the hob.

3) Raise the height of all the wall cupboards and possibly do away with a pelmet.

4) Have reduced height wall cupboards set higher just for the two either side of the hob. This should be easy to do as we're probably having made to measure units from a local independent as with all the various projections in our kitchen this gives us a lot more flexibility. Surprisingly, this works out at very little more than going to Benchmarx or Howdens (even with our builder passing on the full trade discount), plus we get colour matched carcasses too and a very wide choice of doors.

So I'd certainly recommend anyone having a new kitchen getting a quote from their own local independent. I was very pleasantly surprised.

We won't be able to decide which route to take until the structural engineer comes next week as what he says will effect the layout. However we needed to sort out the options before then.

So thanks again to all who replied.