30" gas cooktop: Wolf, Viking, or ???

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As a baker that oven makes my heart go pitter pat!

Beautiful! I really love wall ovens, I grew up with one in my mom's house and I just really love them, can't wait until I can have one of my own! I like being more at eye level with the food, and when I first moved away and started using a range, I'd burn the tops of my arms!

I see it has a proof function too, mine does and it works really well, I use it just about every time I bake bread.
 
So anyway I'm going to start up a pool so that sympathetic DC members can help me pay for this stuff... ;)

I'll let you know how the installation works out. And of course I'll post pictures sometime soon. I hope they get it done tomorrow but I'm sure if not it will be within the next few days.

I still have a problem of the hood. I have a cheapo recirculating model (probably GE) and I'm told I'll need a pretty big duct to get the hot air outside. I'll have to through a couple other cabinets to reach the side of the house... Apparently not having a good hood is not s show stopper, although I probably won't be able to turn all the burners up all the way. Not that I would ever need that.
 
The best thing I ever did was put in a hood that vents to the outside. They can be ducted to go over the tops of the cabinets to an outside wall. Make sure you get one that has more air moving power than you think you need. The more CFM the better. A quiet fan is nice too.

You will turn the burners up all the way. That's why you bought a stovetop with a 15K BTU burner.
 
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Love your new toys Greg! Congrats! I hope you enjoy them for many years!:)
 
The best thing I ever did was put in a hood that vents to the outside. They can be ducted to go over the tops of the cabinets to an outside wall. Make sure you get one that has more air moving power than you think you need. The more CFM the better. A quiet fan is nice too.

You will turn the burners up all the way. That's why you bought a stovetop with a 15K BTU burner.
And if something starts to smoke, you can get the smoke out of the house fast. Sometimes fast enough that smoke detectors don't start howling.
 
The best thing I ever did was put in a hood that vents to the outside. They can be ducted to go over the tops of the cabinets to an outside wall. Make sure you get one that has more air moving power than you think you need. The more CFM the better. A quiet fan is nice too.

You will turn the burners up all the way. That's why you bought a stovetop with a 15K BTU burner.

I've been thinking this thing over and I didn't mean to give the impression of being casual about it. It's just today and for a while I'll have to make do with the old hood, but I've been thinking.

The kitchen has a 9' ceiling and the cabinet tops are 8' up, so in theory I could go over but that would be very unsightly. My closet is directly above (and the vent would be right in the corner) but that too would present an unsightly appearance going between cabinet and ceiling.

In the end there's only one way to add an exterior vent: I gotta lose the top shelf on the cabinet between the cabinet above the vent and the exterior wall. I'm not very happy about that because I don't have a lot of space but I guess the top shelf of that cabinet is going to have to go.

By the way, they're installing it *RIGHT* now! They've been here about 90 minutes and they just slid in the oven. The cooktop is still in the truck but I'm pretty sure they'll be bringing it in shortly. In fact they'll probably be done and gone before an hour more.

Now my biggest problem: What to cook tonight? Somehow hamburgers just doesn't cut it. :)
 
Greg, if the space between the ceiling and the top of the cabinet is open, you can run the vet pipe across the top of the cabinet then cover the space with a panel the extends the face of the cabinet to the ceiling. Sort of like the picture below.
 

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Greg, if the space between the ceiling and the top of the cabinet is open, you can run the vet pipe across the top of the cabinet then cover the space with a panel the extends the face of the cabinet to the ceiling. Sort of like the picture below.
That's what I was thinking, but you described it better than I would have and even furnished a photo to further comprehension.
 
Well Andy you have given me much to think about. My kitchen is smaller than your example and I've been worried that sealing the area between cabinet tops and ceiling would decrease the feeling of space. But maybe not... I'll think it over. If I did that it would certainly be the perfect solution to my venting problem. Although bigger than my present hood, same width, more vertical (currently 5-1/2", Wolf is 10"), and sticks out more (currently 17-1/2", Wolf 22") it would appear to be a good match. Sticking out more lines up the outer edge of the hood with the outer edge of the cooktop too close to call. With the Wolf hood I'd have 25" from the cook surface to the bottom of the hood... It might just work, and I'm sure all will agree that the symmetry of Wolf cooktop, Wolf oven and Wolf hood is ... well it's perfect!

MSRP is $1530. PS doesn't charge MSRP so I figure that would work out to about the same amount after showroom discount is applied and tax is added. I think for this one I'd do the installation myself. But it's easily looking at another $2K after adding cost of materials... Oh well, like I said, in for a penny in for a pound.
 
Oh, I forgot!!! :) I promised pics of the new gear:

new_oven.jpg


I've just finished run-in (convection mode at 500F for an hour to burn off any factory greases).

I decided to roast a chicken as the first meal to be cooked in the new oven. I'm going to get that going in the next 30 minutes or so.
 
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Oh, I forgot!!! :) I promised pics of the new gear:

I've just finished run-in (convection mode at 500F for an hour to burn off any factory greases).

I decided to roast a chicken as the first meal to be cooked in the new oven. I'm going to get that going in the next 30 minutes or so.

Gorgeous! Now you can use yesterday's leftover chicken sashimi! ;)
 
Your new toys look right at home in your new kitchen. I can almost smell the chicken roasting.
 
Nice! If I ever get to put in new appliances (read that, new kitchen), I want two wall-mounted ovens (one gas, one electric/convection), and a 6-burner gas range with a grill top option. I'd go to a restaurant supply place and buy used. Really nice. Years ago I bought a Husqvarna Viking sewing machine (600 + stitches, embroidery option, 9 button hole options, tells me when the bobbin needs rewinding, etc.). I wasn't a great seamstress, but believed having a good tool would help. It has. Even though I don't use it often, I would not part with this sewing machine. I'm willing it to my cousin when I die (she's a very accomplished home seamstress/designer).
 
Thank you DL. Yes I really put my foot in my mouth yesterday about the chicken sashimi. You see, chicken and and tuna start out with almost the same letter. Look at it yourself and you'll discover that both are left forefinger keys. ;)

Thanks Chopper, actually we have a breeze here and most of my windows open, here in my family room I can't smell much... but I know my whole (stuffed) chicken is there in the oven on convection roast! :)

I stuffed my chicken with some commercial stuffing mix, don't even remember the brand, don't even remember if it was turkey or chicken stuffing. (Probably turkey.) I sauteed some chopped onions and sliced celery for my mix, and I was amazed how the Wolf goes from zero to 180 mph in mere seconds! With so much heat available you can get any pan up to any cooking temperature in mere seconds! Using my new burners was like revving up a race car!

CWS I think you gotta get a whole lot more money to get what you want. I just blew about $7.5K on this "starter" Wolf setup (or probably almost the same for Viking or Thermidor).

So either win the Lottery or consider trading in hubby for Tom Cruise or one of the other Hollywood or Wall St. elite.

I know at this instant in time that I have the best cooking gear I will ever have and that I'll have this for the rest of my life, and that I'll never change. This is my final setup. (Except for the hood.)

I marvel that I have been so fortunate. Yes this is the plan I had for the last 30 years of my career, but for the last 1-2 years it looked like I had failed. Yet I got my dream house, I got (almost my dream kitchen) ... an island would be nice, I got (almost my dream master bedroom suite) ... a whirlpool bath would be nice.

But the most important aspect of this all is that I got almost everything I ever wanted, and I have it now, and everything I have I'll have for the rest of my life.

Thanks all for putting up with me through my last few very difficult years, my two years of living in a fifth-wheel trailer and house hunting and never knowing where I'd land. My worst fears had me in a little squat, ugly house in the middle of suburbia...

Yet I ended up in my dream home, in a better community than I ever imagined I'd end up in, I got an architecturally interesting house and I got (almost) my dream kitchen. And best of all, what I have is mine forever.

I came through the eye of the needle and I survived. Got the house, got the dream kitchen, got almost everything I ever wanted, and I got the rest of my life and all my DIY energy to make my new home the place that I want the end of my days.

...

Just a few more thoughts:

The acceleration of the burners is amazing! You can put a pan with some fat and whatever, and hit the heat, and it will be sizzling in 30 seconds.

The appearance of the blue porcelean in the oven almost chokes me up in its beauty!

The sealed cooktop looks like you'd have to go out of your way to make a mess that wouldn't be easy to clean up. The burners are sealed, they don't even come out without tools. Everything else is stainless steel.

It's understood that you need special stainless steel care products to clean our gear outside of glass cleaner and paper towels.

The expense was totally worth it to me. And even better, me being a sr. citizen who intends to live in this place for the rest of my life, I'll get all the benefit of making the investment on this top end cooking gear.

Writing the checks and running the card charges made me gasp but I'm glad I did it!~
 
Ya know, Greg, you have the right attitude. You can't spend it when you're dead, why not enjoy now what you've worked so hard for all your life?

And I want that stove.....
 
Ya know, Greg, you have the right attitude. You can't spend it when you're dead, why not enjoy now what you've worked so hard for all your life?

And I want that stove.....

Thanks DL! And thank you for setting it up for a point I wanted to make, lest anybody have any envy. I worked a 40 year career so I could get the very nice house I finally found (although I still don't understand how I was so lucky to get the nice place I got after so many dogs and losing bidding wars even over the dogs). The gear you see here, and I'm sure the hood it will need, I worked most of a year of my life just for this one thing, the cooktop, the oven, the hood I'm sure it will need, and to pay taxes on the income for the money that went into my savings to pay for this, and for the living expenses I incurred while living and working that year.

I spent the best part of a year of my life to get this setup. I just want to make that clear to everybody. I didn't just "get" this stuff, I worked my butt off for it. I'm glad I have it now, but the only reason I have this nice stuff (even this "nicest" stuff) is because I worked hard and scrimped and saved to get it. But the best part about it, after considering how long I worked for it, this stuff is so durable that it my age (I'm a junior baby boomer) it will probably outlast me. I'll be lucky to last another 25 years and I'm pretty sure this cooktop and oven will last 30+ years.

So it was probably worth a good part of a year of my life to get this nice setup. I'll never ever need to think about buying another cooktop or oven ever again.


Oh on another practical matter, there are only two grates. One covers the two left burners, the other covers the two right burners. You can slide pots effortlessly from any burner to any other burner. Take the two grates off and you are exposed to a single stainless steel surface. At that point you can take off the four burner tops and wash them. Everything else is sealed. Cleanup on this cooktop will be the easiest of any stove I've ever had. Wipe it up with paper towels, use some soapy towels if you've been a real cooking slob.

That's one nice feature of professional gear, the easy cleanup. It's designed for heavy cooking and quick clean-up because people who use this gear (or use the "real" professional gear it's modeled after) have to spend real labor every day cleaning their kitchen to serve another day of customers every day. While my gear is not true professional gear it is modeled after it and it has many of the professional features, and one of the very nice features is that it is designed to be easily and quickly cleaned, and all the cooking area is sealed so that any spills or splatters are confined for easy clean up.

That is one feature that will save me huge amounts of time over the coming years, that this gear is designed to be "rode hard and put away wet" (to borrow a horse term). It's designed to be splattered and spilled and then easily wiped away and cleaned for the next day of work. That is one of the big features I've already noticed, after noticing that the burners heat so hot that I can get a pan up to cooking temperature in mere seconds without waiting for the delay you usually experience with ordinary consumer gear.

I expect after reading my praise there will be other forum members who aspire and eventually get this really good gear. It's worth it. Don't worry, work hard and scrimp and save as I did and you can get this good stuff too. And if you're lucky you can get it before you become a senior citizen and before you retire. At least I'm happy that this is one of the big things that has validated my career and has validated my many years of hard work.
 
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Greg, you did what today's young folks haven't learned yet. You have to work hard and save. Things don't fall into your lap just because you want them. You are not entitled to things just because you think you are so special. Get out there in the real world, work hard to get those promotions that come with a raise, and save your money. The first person you should pay every payday is yourself. Even if it is just five dollars a week.

Congratulations Greg on your new home and kitchen toys. Enjoy them to the fullest. And do try to keep your KA away from the toilet. There isn't a member of DC that doesn't wish you the best and are a bit envious. :angel: And one for you in your new happy home. :angel:
 
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