New oven/hob

brandyslad · 18 August 2008 at 10:31PM

We are in the same process, thinking of a new kitchen, I have my heart set on an induction hob, I have read some reviews on the net and people seem to rave about them. Like cooking with gas but safer and as they don't heat up no cooked on food to clean of so easier to keep clean. They are expensive though and not that easy to get, Argos doesn't have them and one kitchen fitter we had round had never heard of them. We got a quote from Homebase for a kitchen, we only have a 8 foot by 10 foot kitchen and they quoted us £3200 this was minus a fridge freezer and a washing machine!! To install it was £1500, total rip off. We only went to them as they had a two year plan to pay them of. We have been quoted £1700 for a real wood kitchen by a local fitter and his stuff is lovely, so just going to save or maybe do a card transfer. And a joiner will be max £100 a day to fit. They have all come down in price now work is scarce.

majjie · 19 August 2008 at 12:59PM

Abode (British made taps) do quite reasonable filter taps ... they don't have a separate lever for the filtered water; the cold lever can move two ways ... they also do a "Swich" which can be used with a filter and any tap.
Look here for the details and then Google for prices:
http://www.abodedesigns.co.uk/aquifier.html

As for induction hobs - I did a blog on hobs recently. I hope the link to my own site will be forgiven! (I don't sell hobs - or kitchens come to that)
http://www.advancedkd.co.uk/blog/blogentry.asp?blogID=74&blogTitle=Gas+and+Induction+Hobs+%2D+Praise+%2D+and+a+Complaint

Chewbumpkin · 19 August 2008 at 4:34PM

Are induction hobs worth getting?

Most definitely yes! I have had mine about 4 years now and would never go back to a more conventional hob. So easy to clean and looks super. Boils water as fast as a gas hob, is just as quick to respond to the controls and food never seems to get burnt on.

See if you can pick a hob which comes with a set of saucepans, otherwise, just take a magnet with you when looking at pans - if the magnet sticks to the pan, it will work on the hob. I use a mix of stainless steel and old Le Creuset pans (the cast iron ones).

gnatschuffed · 20 August 2008 at 3:37AM

Thanks for all the replies.

That blog is very useful actually. I didn't realise you could get a mixed ceramic/induction hob so I'm going to have a look. I would love a miele hob with free pans but the costs is astronomical!

gnatschuffed · 20 August 2008 at 3:42AM

That swich looks very interesting too.... I might speak to my kitchen fitter. I can't remember which sink I've chosen to see if it would fit....

gnatschuffed · 21 August 2008 at 2:00AM

Thanks to the links/blogs above, I've found a Stoves 'hybrid' hob that has 2 ceramic and 2 induction plates, which would suit me fine as I still have stuff like soup pans that are pretty new and would obviously cost to replace.

However, I can't find a decent Stoves oven I like for a decent price.

Would it look daft if I have a hood, oven and hob all from different manufacturers? At present the hood is hotpoint (coming with kitchen)

Also, I see De Dietrich are doing a free pan deal with their hobs. Expensive but don't know anything about them other than they sound expensive !!!

majjie · 21 August 2008 at 10:19AM

Well ... they might look a bit odd if they were all different colours

The hob is going to be mostly black and the hood and oven aren't going to be directly next to each other ... so I don't see any problem.

You have to be a bit careful - with gas hobs - if you're fitting a hob directly over a single built-in oven. There isn't always room to connect the gas pipes when you combine two different makes with different configurations. I don't think electric hobs are a problem, though.

De Dietrich used to be a very upmarket French brand ... but it was bought by the Spanish Co-Op that also owns Fagor ... they probably bought it to compete with the likes of Neff and AEG. I think they are very good appliances ... but service engineers don't like them, because they don't come across them very often, they're sophisticated and spares are pricey. In short they don't have the same good reputation as Miele.

Knowing who makes what ... in appliances ... is a minefield which UK Whitegoods helps everyone to negotiate
:beer:

gnatschuffed · 22 August 2008 at 6:19AM

Thanks for the link, that turned up a handy snippit of information namely that you can't really fit an induction hob directly above an oven due to space requirements for cooling. That rules out induction then! The site continually recommends Neff or Bosch which I kind of suspected. I am still strangely drawn to the John Lewis stuff as it looks smart and has a 3yr warranty. I have never seen a Neff or Bosch that looks as stylish as the JL stuff IMHO.

majjie · 22 August 2008 at 10:42AM

Well, I'd never heard of that problem before

You'd think that the manufacturers would make it clearer ... wouldn't you?

Actually the problem is only with built under double ovens - not single ones

... and the UK Whitegoods engineers seem to think that cutting away the back of the carcasse material on the kitchen unit will provide adequate ventilation ... but perhaps best to steer clear of induction hobs above built under double ovens.

ic · 22 August 2008 at 11:37AM

I've just installed an Ikea kitchen with Ikea parts. I have an induction hob above a single oven. There was nothing in the instructions to say this was a problem. I have the required air gaps - in fact the Ikea cooker unit actually has a huge cut out of its base at the back, and a metal bar at the front that prevents you installing the oven too high (in all other cabinets this is a wooden baton).