kitchen designing - oven and fridge question

Cris1970

Hi,
I am busy redesigning my kitchen in the house I moving to.
I am considering building in double oven and fridge freezer.

Has anyone got views about integrated ovens, fridges against free standing?

Has anyone experienced problems putting them next too each other i.e heat of oven effecting fridge?

ryder72

Can I respectfully ask why you aren't getting a kitchen designer to design it for you. They have more experience, knowledge of available products.

Cris1970

I have spoken to a number of kitchen designers who express the benefits of built in appliances.
However I have a built in sceptism due to the fact they were wanting to sell me appliances from there range.
Whereas free standing appliances I can shop around.

cddc

Hey, it is a free country, you don't have to buy from them, you can buy built in appliances elsewhere you know....

For what it is worth...my opinion would be that oven and hob are better integrated..no gunk falling down the side of your freestanding cooker....

Dishwasher....purely a question of if it looks better integrated...no difference in capacity between freestanding and integrated and very little price difference either.

On all other appliances there is normally a slight trade off between capacity and looks and costs. Freestanding are normally cheaper, larger capacity for the same footprint, but you have to look at them all the time. In most cases a fridge or a washing machine is not a thing of beauty.... Whereas integrated become a seamless part of your kitchen, but you pay a bit more for them, and you will get a bit less capacity for your money.

Personally I prefer integrated, but can perfectly understand why many people swing the other way!

redmalc

Cris we have just agreed with a local company to fully re fit our kitchen and supply all new Siemens integrated appliances,the price i got was £700 cheaper than any online supplier,sometimes the kitchen company want the business on the units they will do a good deal on the appliances

wallbash

Has anyone got views about integrated ovens, fridges against free standing?

Has anyone experienced problems putting them next too each other i.e heat of oven effecting fridge?

I have a double integrated oven next to a large freestanding fridge freezer, no problems in eight years.

Can I respectfully ask why you aren't getting a kitchen designer to design it for you. They have more experience, knowledge of available products.

Tried to get a 'kitchen designer' to understand that I wanted a sink in the corner , most things go straight to the dishwasher , this allowed the space under the window ( who looks out while washing dishes?? ) to become the breakfast bar . This layout has worked well for us for eight years , pity the kitchen designer could not agree.

osdset

Having two appliances next to each other is bad practice and looks awful, wherever possible there should be a unit between each appliance,

ryder72

Shame you couldn't get on with that one designer, but did he/she explain their train of though? Perhaps there was some logic to it?

For instance-
Corner sinks throw some challenges-
Very limited and relatively expensive selection of sinks
Laminate worktops end up with joins in the vicinity of the sink storing up problems for the future
Loading & unloading of dishwashers next to sink cabinets becomes inconvenient

Were any of these mentioned?

After all its your kitchen and you are free to stick a sink next to a hob if you insist but there are some design principles which a good
kitchen designer will try and highlight.

Tried speaking to another designer?

jamesd

Integrated ovens can allow more efficient vertical and perhaps horizontal space use. Can potentially use all of the space above and below the oven efficiently. You can offset a hob unit from the oven if that makes sense for your layout. Can be particularly interesting if the layout means that placing a lightly used oven adjacent to a door is sensible, when it would be desirable to move the hob away from the door to reduce the chance of door/pan handle incidents if the hob gets more use, but when say a convection microwave elsewhere is used for a high proportion of all cooking.

Fridges and freezers come in a range of sizes that can make it possible to use vertical space efficiently anyway, using a tall model. If you freeze a lot, using an under worktop space for more freezer capacity might work well for you.

How does loading and unloading of dishwashers next to a corner sink cabinet become inconvenient? I'm assuming that the dishwasher might be underneath the drainer and one cabinet width away from any wall, providing trivially easy access.

Why is it hard to find a corner sink unit when standard sink units fit in a corner and cost no more than the same standard sink unit in any other location?

scottishblondie

All my appliances are integrated, including the double oven which is fitted at a high level right next to the fridge. Ovens are very well insulated, so there is no need for concern over putting them next to each other. I prefer the look of integrated as I think it gives the kitchen a sleeker look, but its really a personal preference.

As has been said, you don't need to feel tied to the kitchen designer for purchasing appliances. You could source them yourself if you can find them cheaper. Either way, don't rely on the designer to pick them for you. I read up on all the options and decided on which appliances I wanted independently, although they were all purchased through the designer (new build, so I had no choice).

-taff

It depends on what kind of look you're after fopr the finished rpoduct. If you want it to look homogemous and everything matches, get buillt in, if you don't mind about different colour appliances [because no manufacturer uses the same colours, even whites are different] dotted round your kitchen, get freestanding.