Kitchen Help
 

I think there are a few Iron Chef's here so I figured it was worth a shot. I'm planning a kitchen addon and am looking for some advice.

The fancy range I want requires a high horsepower range hood. It seems you can spend as much as you want on these things but I cant see the difference in most. Does anyone have a Proline range hood? They seem reasonably quiet, look good and have the power I need. I'm concerned how the hood would work if on high when I have the woodstove working. I've read you need a complicated make up air system, any experience with that? I figure I can just crack a window but maybe I'm missing something.

Another piece of the puzzle is what to do with the microwave? I currently have the standard setup with the microwave over the range using the built in fan/hood. With the fancy hood in place, where does the popcorn maker go? Mount it in a cabinet? Behind a door?

I realize there are a ton of options but I'm curious how you've done it and if you would do it again.

Thanks for any ideas

We went through this all last year.

We have a bluestar range which is fantastic & hugely powerful. If you have all burners on it puts out something like 200K BTUs which required a large hood. We found a great place in NJ that offered incredible discounts when bundling multiple kitchen components together so we essentially got the hood and microwave for free and the dishwasher for 50% off if you were to compare to local companies like Bray & Scarf and others.

The company name is AJMadison. Call and talk to someone and tell them you want to buy many things. They'll be able to help you out.

We went with the Vent-A-Hood 900 or 1200 CFM hood. You really only need one of the two motors running on low for regular evenings, but when we have 4 or more burners going plus the griddle, then we turn it up to full blast. You can buy all sorts of fancy finish options, but our contractor was able to skin our hood with a nice built in for a quarter of the cost.

We don't have to worry about make up air in our house. It's 160 years old and we'd go broke trying to close it up tight. And you're right, the make up air vent and fan systems can all be mitigated if you happen to have a window in your kitchen. I know that it's very unusual to want natural light in a house, but we feel it was worth the trouble. ;)

As for the microwave, we ended up with the sharp microwave drawer. Gets it off you counter and works great. When was the last time you watched something cook in your microwave? The 80's? No need for it to take up valuable kitchen real estate. :)

Good info, thank you. I'm looking at a Blue Star too, if I can get over the $$. Seems like the old unit I cooked on in college and I like the no frills approach. Problem is there are too many options; griddle, grill, burner btu.... Oh well.

Thanks again

The price is higher, but the quality is exceptional. Plus the options allow you to match just about any kitchen for size, color, and needs. Much better than the other "Premium" brands like Wolf and Thermador. Reach out to AJ Madison. They like to bundle which is really the only way to get the price down as BlueStar forbids sales and price reductions on their stoves.

I'll try to remember to post a picture of the setup later.

Be very carefull with AJMadson. I guess itis part of getting a smoking deal that they don't always do as expected and are dead slow to make things right.

I recommend having an exchanger system installed on the wood stove. We have a soap stone stove and with the exchanger set up it pulls no air thru the interior of the house.

Exchanger or outside air intake? A good stove pulls such a small amout of combustion air as to make it almost imposable to get an ROI on an outside air intake. OAI setups can cause issues unless well planned out and maintained. Even then they can cause problems. You do not want a too tight house. Some of the worst air is the air inside a house.

If you can, test the hood for noise levels. We put in a "high end" stove (Wolf?) with a honking vent hood, but you only want to run it when absolutely necessary because of the noise levels. "Low" is loud as hell, "High" makes you want to leave the room.

We went with a Vent-A-Hood for our Bluestar when we renovated. One of the better bangs for the buck. Usually use one fan, but sometimes need to fire up both when frying (we only have burners; no chargrill or flattop). We often need to crack a window for makeup air when we have a pan or two smoking.

Ordered our wall ovens from AJMadison. Good price and all went smoothly, so I can't comment on difficulties when things go wrong.

Amen to that. We have a 36 inch Viking set up with matching stainless hood. At full bore it practically lifts pancakes off the griddle and is very loud. Can't even talk to someone in the room when it is on anything but its lowest speed. Also keep in mind ease of cleaning. Sauté a piece of chicken and have to practically break down the whole thing to get it looking nice again. All very a good stuff and has been trouble free. Just sometimes would rather not use it because I know I will have to clean it when I am done. All purchased through Brey and Scarf. Nothing negative to say about them.