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When it comes to your cooktop you can choose from gas burners, electric
coils, glass ceramic surfaces and modular burners.
Gas burners
The heating power of gas cooktops and ovens are measured in Btu (British
thermal units) and will greatly affect how quickly your water boils and your sauce
simmers.
For everyday cooking, 9,000 Btu should suffice. But if you plan to do a lot
of sautéing, stir-frying, or other high-heat cooking, you’ll want to reach a
Btu of 12,000 or more. You’ll need to buy a pro-style cooktop to get that kind
of heat. You may want some of your burners to cool down to 5,000 Btu so you
can simmer without scorching. | |
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Glass ceramic surfaces
Whether you opt for radiant, halogen or magnetic-induction, they all heat up
using electricity. Its flat, glass ceramic surface has patterns on the surface
to indicate where to place your cookware and it operates using knobs or a
touch pad. The pros to ceramic are they’re easy to clean and add a sleek look to
your countertop. The drawbacks to using this surface is that you can easily
burn yourself, it scratches and you’ll need to use good cookware like steel and
cast iron if you opt for magnetic-induction. If you can’t stick a magnet on
your cookware, they won’t work with this option. Average cost is $500 to $700.
Modular burners
These kind of burners can run on gas or electricity and allow you to vary the
placement of your burners. The benefits to a modular burner are you can use
them on an island counter and you can vary the type of cooking you do on the
same cooktop. You can expect to pay about $450.
Ranges
A range combines an oven and a cooktop and they generally use the same heat
source - gas or electric. A professional-style range affords you the luxury of
having a gas burner and electric convection oven. The same pros and cons of
oven and cooktop features apply to ranges as well.
When it comes to installation, you can choose from freestanding, slide-in or
drop-in. The price varies depending on the style - electric coil ranges will
cost between $425-$650; electric smoothtop ranges between $650 -$1400; gas
burners between $550-$2000 and $4000 and up for a pro-style model.
Ventilation
No matter what you’re cooking in your kitchen, you’ll generate grease,
smoke, steam and gas byproducts that you don’t want lurking around your kitchen.
The system you choose will depend on the layout of your kitchen, personal
preference and local building codes. You’ll pay more for systems with higher airflow
and lower noise ratings. That’s where it’s handy to know about CFMs and
sones. CFMs refer to the amount of cubic feet of air a vent system can move per
minute and sones measure noise level. You have two options when it comes to
ventilation - an updraft vent hood or a downdraft vent.
Updraft vent
An updraft vent is located over a range or cooktop and cleans the air by
either pulling the polluted air up by a fan, then through filters and out of your
house through a metal duct or by a fan that filters the polluted air and then
recirculates the clean air back into the room. The benefit of an updraft vent
is that they are very effective and are available in a wide array of
decorative models to spice up your kitchen. The only drawback to this system is that it
is generally hard to clean and you need to remember to change the filter
regularly. Vents can be as cheap as $100 or as costly as thousands.
Downdraft Vent
Instead of being placed over the cooking area, a downdraft vent is built into
a base cabinet and expels air by pulling it down through vents located on the
sides and back of the cooktop. While they’re more subtle in appearance, they
don’t work as effectively as updraft vents because they only catch the
byproducts directly around the vent. Average cost is $500. |
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