ᐅ Kitchen consultation: granite countertop and Siemens appliances?

Pwnage619 schrieb:

My current question is, we have planned for an 80cm (31.5 inch) induction cooktop. Do you think 80cm (31.5 inch) is enough, or should we definitely go for 90cm (35.4 inch)?

How are we supposed to know if 80 is enough? That’s something you have to decide for yourself. I have had both; the 90cm (35.4 inch) doesn’t offer a big advantage. I would rather look into features like flexible zones and similar.

Pwnage619 schrieb:

Second question: if we go with the 80cm (31.5 inch) cooktop, should we also choose an 80cm (31.5 inch) range hood or rather something bigger, like 90cm (35.4 inch)?

Ducted exhaust or recirculation? Definitely something bigger than 80cm (31.5 inch). I chose 110cm (43.3 inch) for recirculation with the 80cm (31.5 inch) cooktop (a wall-mounted chimney hood). In my previous house with a 90cm (35.4 inch) cooktop, there was a 100cm (39.4 inch) island hood.

With the 80cm (31.5 inches) cooktop, you have a usable surface area of about 45 x 70cm (18 x 28 inches). Mark this out on a board and place your pots (up to 5) on it. That way, you’ll get a sense of the actual usable space. Also include the control panel in your drawing to determine the exact usable area.

We chose the 80cm (31.5 inches) model to keep a bit more workspace, and we find the usable area more than sufficient.

Next to the cooktop, we have other Siemens i700 series appliances: the oven with steam boost function, 4D convection, grill, microwave (up to 600 W), pyrolysis cleaning... (it’s not a steam oven, but the steam function is great for baking bread to get a super-crispy crust, etc.) and additionally, a steam oven with full oven and grill functions as well as a warming drawer. Having two cooking compartments has proven extremely practical for us. The steam oven with the steam function broke down twice and was replaced without issue; the new unit has shown no negative problems.

Regarding the extractor hood, you can also take a pragmatic approach. Will you be cooking with a lot of greasy steam across the entire width?

Above the 80cm (31.5 inches) induction cooktop with free surface, we have a Falmec Marilyn hood, which is theoretically too narrow. In practice, I simply move the pots producing the most steam to the middle under the hood. It works perfectly fine.

Thank you for your messages.
I have another question about the range hood.
How powerful should it be? We have an open kitchen and an open living/dining area on the ground floor, and there is an open staircase to the basement and the other floors.

We will probably use a recirculating system because of KFW55 standards. Since we are using the KFW loans, we don’t want to lose the KFW55 status with a core drilling (and we also don’t want to have everything recalculated). Our builder does not handle this.

Is an air flow rate of 409 m³/h (240.5 cfm) or 615 m³/h (362 cfm) sufficient, or should it be higher?

Pwnage619 schrieb:

Is 409 m³/h (240.6 cubic feet per minute) or 615.0 m³/h (361.6 cubic feet per minute) sufficient, or should it be higher?

At which setting? Free blowing? With activated carbon filter? Which hood manufacturer? What type of hood (island, wall-mounted, integrated into cooktop, etc.)?

This cannot be assessed in general terms.

Sorry, I’m not very familiar with this.

Manufacturer Siemens, like all other kitchen appliances
Type: wall-mounted angled extractor hood with a chimney design
Recirculation mode
409 m³/h (240 CFM) on the highest normal setting, and 615 m³/h (362 CFM) on the intensive setting

This hood was recommended to us by the kitchen installer and is one of the few that is actually 80 cm (31.5 inches) wide.

My question is: how strong should the extraction be, or how much air volume does it need to move at minimum, to be sufficient for us and effectively filter the air in our open-plan house?

If you are unsure about your kitchen builder’s recommendation, simply choose a size one step larger with a design you like. I wouldn’t make a big deal out of it.