36' induction cooktop: center under island hood?

15 years ago

Please help. Our granite guys will be here tomorrow to do the cutout for our 36" GE induction cooktop. The island hood has already been installed and the front edge of the hood is approx. 3" behind the front edge of the granite overhang. The only guidance the cooktop installation guide gives is to have a minimum of 2-1/2" of granite in front of the cut out. DH thinks we should line up the front edge of the cooktop with the front edge of the hood. Since the edge of the cooktop will overlap the cut out slightly this means we will have about 3" of granite in front of the edge of the cooktop and 3-1/2" of granite in front of the cut out. So we will be exceeding the minimum requirement for the cut out by about 1" (I hope all of this is making sense so far). With this arrangement, however, we will have more hood behind the cooktop surface. In other words, the cooktop will not be centered under the hood.

So here is the question: 1.) for best function should the cooktop be centered under the hood, or does it not matter if it is centered or not from front to back, and 2.) even if it doesn't matter will it be more aethetically pleasing to have it centered. I care about function first but all else being equal I would like to have it look right also.

Thanks for any help you can give.

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Comments (6)

rennovatorjen
15 years ago
Having 3" of granite in front is perfectly acceptable, if I understand correctly what you have said. Specs call for a *minimum* of 2 1/2" - you have more, which meets requirements. You don't want the cooktop further in front of the hood because it will be much harder for the hood to suck up the steam & grease. Mine doesn't even work at all because the top of the range protrudes too much in front of the hood.
flseadog
Original Author
15 years ago
Anyone else have an opinion? It's too late for me to change the range hood location without spending a lot of money. The granite guys can't get here until Friday so I still have some time to figure this out.
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OK, youall have succeeded in drawing me into another argument. Let's start with the purpose of the overhead vent. The vent is intended to capture and contain effluent contained in the rising and expanding cooking plumes. It has an overlap capture requirement that depends on height, and a flow rate containment requirement that derives from plume velocities and secondary factors. It is not for capture or blockage of grease splatter, as that could require enormous air velocities to achieve. Down-draft "venting" and pop-up side-draft "venting" cannot achieve the needed capture and containment provided by an overhead hood of proper specification for these reasons: Air flow velocity drops rapidly as a function of the smallest dimension of a slot air intake (see the 2003 ASHRAE HANDBOOK, HVAC Applications, Fig. 6). The air velocity in all cases is too low to significantly change hot cooking plume momenta except those plume portions close to the pop-up, so the overhead hood depends on the natural rise of the plumes. Deviation of the upward momentum to the side, or by 180 degrees to head downward, can only work if the plume has low momentum, as in steam from boiling water. Hot oil/grease/moisture plumes from wok cooking and searing will be poorly deviated sideways or in reverse. Fume hoods can have horizontal hood configurations, but the top and sides are blocked from allowing fumes to leak out. The turbulence issue is complicated. Up-rising plumes can be disturbed by side drafts, poor insertion of make-up air into the kitchen, and cook motion. Side-drafts will be pulling air across pan and pot clutter, so some added turbulence is possible, but I don't think it will be a significant addition except close to the pop-up due to the velocity fall-off introduced above. On the other hand, a pop-up can block splatter trajectories from the burner up the the angle between pan and the top of the pop-up and as far as the pop-up sides shadow the area beyond. For this function, no air flow is needed and much of the pop-up system hardware can be dispensed with. If a blank face is used (no vent holes/slots), cleaning may be greatly simplified. Underfloor ducting, blower, external cap can all be deleted. Some cabinet space for the elevation mechanism has to be sacrificed. While a pop-up splatter blocker is a good idea if the degree of blockage is deemed sufficient for the expense, the subject raises the question of why children are sitting in range of hot grease splatter. At a minimum they would need eye protection. There are requirements (that I don't have at hand) for desirable rises and/or runs of seating countertops connected to cooking surfaces. I recommend proper desks in quiet areas for studying. The student should be fully absorbed into the material to be studied without distraction (or at least as little distraction as a post pubertal youth can manage).
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*sigh* A hood is not determined by the fuel used to cook with - it's determined by the food being cooked! Does the blog's author actually think boiling water won't give off steam if it's boiled on an induction cooktop instead of a gas or traditional electric???? Or that browning meat won't splatter grease if it's browned using induction? As was stated previously, island cooktops/ranges really need an overhead hood that is at least 6" wider than the cooktop and 27" deep. In addition, the fan needs to be more powerful. Why? First, understand that cooking produces steam, odors, grease, fumes, etc., and that these things naturally rise. As they rise, they quickly expand. To exhaust them to the outside, hoods need to be able to capture them and hold them until the fan can remove them. On an island, you not only do not have a wall and surrounding cabinets to assist in the corralling process, but there are more and stronger air currents over an island than against the wall - so the hood needs to work harder! In addition, the hood must be installed per the manufacturer's specifications - even if it means it blocks your line of sight (which is another reason not to have a cooktop on an island or peninsula!) A downdraft is ineffective unless (1) it's telescoping -and- (2) all your cooking is done only on the burners right next to the fan -and- (3) your pots & pans are all shorter by a few inches than the top of the fan. I'm speaking from experience - we rented a place for two weeks with a downdraft - one of the ones that are supposed to be the "best" - Dacor - it was noisy and useless for most of the cooking we did! +++++++++++++ The blog's author is clueless - but that's not unusual when a blog is written by a salesman instead of someone who understands cooking, basic atmospheric physics, and the environmental effects of grease/steam/odors.etc.
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rennovatorjen
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I just want to add that the range with OTR microwave vent was not my idea - the house was built that way. I have slowly been rennovating my home as time and money permit. I will soon replace the OTR microwave with a vent hood that actually works. I have torn down many walls and jackhammered up many floors with my own two hands, as well as for $3m homes. Just didn't want you thinking I was making up stuff that sounds good ;o)
flseadog
Original Author
15 years ago
rennovatorjen, I don't doubt you in the slightest and I certainly sympathize with you on that OTR piece of junk. We had the same set up for years and it was totally worthless. This is the first time in my life that I will have what I'm hoping will be a well functioning cooking set up and I'm so worried that I'll do something to mess it up. The hood placement was chosen by DH and KD because they are both tall and felt that the squared off edges of the hood could gash a tall person in the forehead if they were cooking "enthusiastically." Since I'm the shorty I don't want to push the cooktop back to center it since my arms would probably be too short to cook comfortably on the back burners. I'm hoping that with the hood lined up with the front edge of the cooktop that this will be a good compromise for both of us.
weedmeister
15 years ago
You didn't say how wide the island is, and how much granite would remain at the back.

Exceeding the minimum is a good thing, not bad.

I assume the hood is bigger than the cooktop front to rear?
kaseki
15 years ago
The effluent from cooking rises and expands from the pan at an angle that can vary, but is in the 20-degree range. Collecting effluent from the controls is not necessary. Hence the hood location should emphasize dealing with the hob layout.

What you want the hood centered over are the hobs, not necessarily the entire cook-top, unless it is important visually. If the controls are on the surface to one side, then the hobs are likely equally spaced front and back and thus the hood should be centered front-to-back on the cook-top. Otherwise, for the many designs where the controls are at the front, the hood center should be a bit farther back to better encompass the effluent rising symmetrically from the pans on the hobs. (If your hood is very large front to back so that it overhangs the entire cook-top by several inches, this won't matter as much.)

Further refinement in layout might consider whether frying is done primarily at the back or the front, etc. For induction cook-tops, issues such as collecting gas combustion products are not relevant.

kas

36' induction cooktop: center under island hood?

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36' induction cooktop: center under island hood?

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