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

[Greg Who Cooks]

Nice range Greg

Thanks! Although it's not quite a range. I've never given it any thought until faced with the current dilemma (both cooktop and oven broken) I've come to realize that built-ins have advantages over stand alone ranges. If nothing else when you have stand-alone stuff you have to clean around and under it.

When I used to have a stand-alone range I would occasionally move it and clean under it, behind it, and the side that butted up against a counter. Gross! Particularly since stoves splatter grease and pets shed fur, so the two combine over time to produce a very yucky substance.

I'm glad to have built-ins now. Particularly since I bought quality stuff that is quite likely to outlast me. I also like the professional features focused upon easy cleaning. Cleaning this cooktop is virtually effortless compared to cleaning my old (non-sealed) stove.

Cleaning the stove required (1) remove the grates, (2) remove the burner toppers, (3) remove the burner cores themselves, (4) lift out two trays that each sat under a pair of burners, (5) clean all that stuff separately, (6) clean anything that spilled under the cook surface and got between the burners and trays.

Cleaning the Wolf cooktop requires (1) remove the grates and clean them if needed (dish washer works fine), (2) remove the burner toppers and clean them if needed (dish washer works fine). Everything else is sealed and stainless steel. Common kitchen cleansers such as glass cleaner or bathroom/kitchen cleaner work fine removing grease from the impervious steel surface.

One note about stainless steel appliances: While they are virtually impervious to most food spills they can be stained by acidic spills, which should be cleaned up quickly. Other than appearance an acid stain has no consequences. And the other thing, at least consumer stainless steel appliances have a "grain" and require special stainless steel cleaners to keep the surface looking factory new. And you have to rub your cleaning cloth along the grain not crosswise. Although if you ignore all this it won't affect the utility of your stainless steel, only the appearance.

For the range hood, I have chosen a Broan Elite E60000. High Performance - Range Hoods - Broan

That looks like a much better match for me. The Wolf "low profile" hoods are 10" tall. My GE hood is 5-1/2" tall, and my calculations and experiments show that the 10" hood results in a very low hood, low enough to be a problem. I see from the Broan spec sheet that their hood is 7-1/4" tall, a great improvement for me, losing less than 2" of line of site to my cooking surface. This is important to me because all this is around my eye level.

Both hoods extend to about the same horizontal footprint as the cooktop, farther than my GE consumer hood but acceptable if I can get the front lip high enough to not be too close to my face as I'm cooking.

I'll be sure to check out the Broan hoods soon.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I've had a Broan hood since February 2000. Works great and still going strong. I run the filters through the DW once a month and have had to replace them once.

Do the filters cover the entire surface exposed to splatter?

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

Just one comment about counters. I know absolutely nothing. I've seen a lot of nice looking counters in my house hunting and I wish I had taken pictures.

Anyway a counter remodel is probably 1-2 years away for me. The tile will work perfectly fine while I attend to more important matters such as getting the house properly furnished.

 

[Andy M.]

Do the filters cover the entire surface exposed to splatter?

No, there are ample areas that need to be hand cleaned.

 

[taxlady]

No, there are ample areas that need to be hand cleaned.

Sounds like mine. I have no idea what brand it is. I think it was installed when this condo was built in the early '70s - it's "coppertone". When I remember, I put the filters in the dishwasher. I washed them by hand before we got a dishwasher, never again.

 

[roadfix]

No, there are ample areas that need to be hand cleaned.

Same here. We have a Vent-A-Hood wall vent which came with the house. Must be 35 years old but since it's all stainless it still looks very clean and up to date.....although the rest of the kitchen looks very dated...

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I haven't seen he Wolf hood. It would be interesting to discover how much of the overhead surface is covered by the filters. In reading their product description they claim all you need is to run it through the dish washer, but there was no discussion of coverage.

I could fit in the Wolf hood if I wanted. I could shorten the cabinets above the stove and accommodate the Wolf at the same height as the present hood (bottom height) by shrinking the cupboards above. You can see from my picture that the above hood cupboards would become about square. I'm not sure how that would look. Perhaps I can do some fancy photo editing and depict how it would look. Here's the present situation:

I guess you can't see the tops of the cabinets so you can't really imagine how low the Wolf cooktop would look, but you can double the size of the GE hood and get an idea.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

ROTFLMAO! I was just today realizing that I haven't had a dishwasher for almost 40 years! Yeah it costs utilities to feed it, but I'm currently washing stuff from my old house move, and from the trailer.

It's just push the button and an hour later it's clean!!!

You must think me so provincial but I haven't had an automatic dishwasher for almost 40 years!!!