Stoves and Ovens: Wolf? Thermador? Bluestar? Viking?

[Martin Fisher]

51 minutes ago, gfweb said:

@DiggingDogFarm my blue star has six inch burners. Their website will show the configuration. Lots of flameholes , ...if that's not a word it should be. 

 

 

Thanks! 

[gfweb]

 

@DiggingDogFarm I've wondered if one couldn't drill out the flameholes to enlarge them and get more BTU. Might be an issue with the regulator and gas flow though.

 

Somebody on eG must know.

[Martin Fisher]

 @gfweb Yeah! Oh, what I plan to set up—if I decide to follow through—will have plenty of potential BTUs—supposedly.

But the orifice distribution isn't as nice as what's on the the fancy high-end cooktops.

Hopefully the burners that I have in mind will work well with a very heavy cast iron skillet—if not I'll try a copper or aluminum plate (probably aluminum) under the skillet to better distribute the heat.

I'm still pondering.

A searing station outside with some nice long utensils sure would be nice!

Single burner outdoor hot plate cooker with a 6" diameter 40,000 btu/hr low pressure burner, appropriate regulator and a needle valve to permit temperature adjustment down to a simmer.

 

There are other potential options out there. 

Edited September 11, 2017 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[gfweb]

@DiggingDogFarm woof. That looks like some power cooking.

 

Thinking... how about a charcoal chimney...a PITA that requires planning but hot as hell and dirt cheap. Or using a propane turkey fryer ...gotta be a million btu there. 

Edited September 11, 2017 by gfweb (log)

[gfweb]

Induction gets pretty frigging hot.  And all things considered is cheap. 

[Martin Fisher]

I do have a turkey fryer burner which—in terms of turkey fryer burners— is a good quality one, but the flame ring isn't as large as or as well defined as the Tajas Smokers burners.

I'll dig the turkey fry burner out and try it, but it doesn't have a needle valve (but one could be added) for more precise temperature control.

I do work with charcoal a lot but I'd like to have a versatile gas burner that I can also use the my All-American pressure canners, etc.

I would also like to set up a charcoal salamander based a on a park grill and with some expanded steel mesh to better contain the coals.

Charcoal salamanders do an excellent job broiling. 

Check out the following short Alton Brown video—the important business starts at about 1:30...

 

Edited September 11, 2017 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Martin Fisher]

6 hours ago, gfweb said:

Induction gets pretty frigging hot.  And all things considered is cheap. 

I plan to have a nice, high-end portable induction burner some day—but that'll require it's own, new, dedicated circuit.

Edited September 11, 2017 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Martin Fisher]

The Edelmetall Brü® Burners are attractive and the burner rings are real nice.

But I don't know how small of a skillet they would accommodate or if a needle valve is readily available (I'll have to ask)—although I'm sure one could be easily obtained and added.

 

 

 

[Martin Fisher]

The Blichmann HellFire burners are also very nice.

 

 

 

 

 

[weinoo]

In the midst (well, the beginning) of a full gut kitchen renovation, I have done a fair amount of research on appliances.  

 

One of the kicks I got out of researching ranges is how much attention is paid to burner BTUs. From salespeople to literature, how high can they go?!

 

Certainly it's interesting that not as much attention is paid to ventilation, which is a huge thing in my book.  If you're cooking with 4 18,000 BTU burners cranked up all the way, you better be venting some major CFMs, don't you think?

 

As one who cooks a fair amount at home, I often wonder - who the hell needs all these BTUs for home cooking? Sure, sure, I get it - to wok cook properly, crank it up to 80K. But do it outside.  For me, I gotta think 15K BTU burners are plenty. And now that I found out I can do some interesting things in our NYC apartment vis-a-vis ventilation, I'm thrilled.

 

 

[gfweb]

 I agree, @weinoo And its hard to get a realistic answer out of hood sales people who complicate the hell out of things, I think for their own gain.

 

Another thing is hood specs always say to have it something like 36" above the range, which is way low if you have any height to you.  We mounted ours much higher and it does fine.

 

And there's the whole issue of "make up air"

[weinoo]

For years, and years, and years, I've cooked in an NYC apartment with no vent hood. Fortunately, my kitchens have always had windows - but they're far from the same thing as a proper hood.

 

Even the hood we're getting for our new range isn't the best or the most recommended; but I figure it's better than what I've had for decades!

 

As far as "make-up air" goes, I think that's really an issue in newer homes with much better insulation than in the past.  Or whatever code might be.

 

By the way, I learned a lot about hoods from a few places on the web:

 

http://www.kitchenhoods.ca/shop/

 

http://www.imperialhoods.com/Official_Site

 

http://www.futurofuturo.com/common-installation-mistakes-faq

 

There's a lot more, for sure.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 11, 2017 by weinoo (log)

[Martin Fisher]

I have lived here without a range hood exhaust vent for 7+ years.

Had a Panasonic ceiling vent installed about 3 weeks ago. Community improvement project.

It's no at all hefty (110 cfm) but it's better than nothing—the damn thing is so quite it's very easy to forget it's running. 

So we still have limitations.

I may fashion a high velocity fan that can be popped in and out of the window opening as needed.

Something I should have done YEARS ago!

 

 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2017 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[gfweb]

Our hood is a Vent-a-Hood. Whisper quiet and moves a lot of air

[weinoo]

Nice product!

[Porthos]

@weinoo I found this article from Fatguy interesting.

[IEATRIO]

22 hours ago, gfweb said:

@DiggingDogFarm my blue star has six inch burners. Their website will show the configuration. Lots of flameholes , ...if that's not a word it should be. 

 

I'm getting 6.25 (but measuring from the end of the burner head and not between orifices).  

Edited September 12, 2017 by IEATRIO (log)

[Martin Fisher]

There's this burner which seems to have a decent orifice pattern.

Mr. Heater 15,000 BTU SINGLE BURNER ANGLE IRON STOVE

[Norm Matthews]

I think this might turn out to be long and hesitated to even start but I'll try to keep it short.  I cooked on gas stoves in my 20's and 30's. I had a 36 residential one at home and a Garland at the restaurant we had for about 7 years.  For the last 40 plus years, I have cooked indoors on electric ranges.  The latest one is a glass top and although it was OK for the first couple of years, the cooktop is constantly needing cleaning and the main burner won't always turn down when I want it down.  I have decided to put in a gas stove in the next few months, maybe sooner.  The first one I looked at was Blue Star.  Then I looked at some others.  Technology has changed quite a bit since the 1970's.  I don't really need a tank in my kitchen. I rarely cook for more that two and most frequently,  just use the stove to make an omelet or two. I cook whole meals a couple times a week.  My turn at Thanksgiving meals comes once every three or four years.  I think I have settled on a GE double oven range with a 18,000 btu main burner and varying lesser heat on the other ones.  I welcome any comments on my thinking. I have not made a final final decision but I like what I see in the GE. 

[lindag]

I have a GE 30" slide-in duel fuel similar to this one, it has the warming drawer (forget that, it is worthless).  The range is now about 10 years old and going strong.  (I especially like the electric oven for baking breads.)

[Martin Fisher]

20 minutes ago, Norm Matthews said:

I think I have settled on a GE double oven range with a 18,000 btu main burner and varying lesser heat on the other ones.

 

Is it this one with convection, Norm?

 

[TicTac]

Have had Wolf ranges for the last 10 years and would never go back to anything else.  A solid piece of equipment.

 

 

[Smithy]

If you're looking at a double oven, you might consider this Samsung Flex Duo gas oven. It's expensive, but flexible in that it can be two ovens or one.  I have an older electric version of this.  What I like about it is that a partition can be added or removed to allow one to make 2 small oven compartments or a single 5.8 cu. ft. oven.  What I don't like about mine is that it has a single door, so that both oven compartments lose heat when you open the door. Samsung has solved that problem in its later models with a specially articulated door so that you can open only the top or open the entire door as one.  The handle latch seems to be foolproof. There are other pros and cons that I'll explain if anyone asks.

 

My best friend bought the single-chamber version of this oven earlier this year and is delighted with it so far.  The hottest burner is plenty hot for the stir-frying that they commonly do, and theirs came with a wok cradle. (The single-oven version was about $1000 less than this dual-chamber version.  I'd probably have paid the extra grand, considering the baking that I do, but to them it wasn't worth it.) They hated their previous smooth-top stove, and I haven't heard any complaints about cleaning this gas stove top.

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, Norm Matthews said:

I think this might turn out to be long and hesitated to even start but I'll try to keep it short.  I cooked on gas stoves in my 20's and 30's. I had a 36 residential one at home and a Garland at the restaurant we had for about 7 years.  For the last 40 plus years, I have cooked indoors on electric ranges.  The latest one is a glass top and although it was OK for the first couple of years, the cooktop is constantly needing cleaning and the main burner won't always turn down when I want it down.  I have decided to put in a gas stove in the next few months, maybe sooner.  The first one I looked at was Blue Star.  Then I looked at some others.  Technology has changed quite a bit since the 1970's.  I don't really need a tank in my kitchen. I rarely cook for more that two and most frequently,  just use the stove to make an omelet or two. I cook whole meals a couple times a week.  My turn at Thanksgiving meals comes once every three or four years.  I think I have settled on a GE double oven range with a 18,000 btu main burner and varying lesser heat on the other ones.  I welcome any comments on my thinking. I have not made a final final decision but I like what I see in the GE. 

 

A couple of cool points you make here, Norm.

 

But the one that I catch onto immediately is about technology. As I said before, Ioved the Bosch range I had; really worked well for me for 10+ years...my main gripe with the new prosumer class is the 5 burners...and the technology.  Because, in my mind, if anything's gonna break or go bad, it's a circuit board that's surrounded by high heat and moisture.

 

That said, I think a range is a pretty personal choice, so you go with what you like.  

[Norm Matthews]

1 hour ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

 

Is it this one with convection, Norm?

 

It looks like the same. I have it with one letter different : JGB890SEJSS