Appliance review - Large family - little kids - help?

11 years ago

Hi, I've lurked for a while and am looking for input on our appliance package ideas. We are a family soon to be 6, with 4 kids under age of 4. Any thoughts or considerations would be great! Need to order soon and it's such a confusing maze of contradicting reviews out there! We are probably mid-range budget folks but we are not against upgrading an appliance or two.

*Ovens: GE Profile Advantium plus Single Convection Wall Oven
*Cooktop: GA Profile 30" Gas
*Venthood: Not sure! We have the cooktop laid out on the peninsula to the breakfast room so it must be an island hood. (We took our cooktop out of the island based on what I've read here to retain open feel to great room and avoid downdraft venting. However, the peninsula to the breakfast room was only other option).
*Dishwasher: Kitchenaid. (We need a large capacity DW that dries plastics well.)
*Fridge: 36" full depth French Door: Kitchen Aid, GE, Samsung or LG: We need lots of space and will probably also have a backup deep freeze and beverage fridge in the garage. Also 2 icemakers would be great. These are the only models I could find that offer 2 icemakers.

Thanks in advance!

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

sidpost
11 years ago
Instead of focusing on two ice makers in your fridge, consider getting a stand alone ice maker. I don't use my in fridge ice maker much and now use a table top model with bottled water, though I'm single so you probably need something larger then myself.

Why such a small cooktop for such a large family? How many burners do you currently use on average? In a few years when your kids have bigger appetites, you are going to need larger pans so skimping on your cooktop size doesn't make sense to me. Also, make sure you have one really larger burner for putting the hurt on an 8 or 12 quart stock pot for large batches of pasta, soups, and stews.

Side-by-Side style fridges are nice until you want to bring frozen pizza's home. A bottom freezer or French Door model has a real advantages here. "Gallon" door fridges are going to be a really nice thing for you in a few years, again as the kids grow up.

With vent hoods, you can never buy too big but you sure can buy too small. The cheap ones are really too weak and too noisy to be a good choice. It almost goes without saying to make sure it vents OUTSIDE, not in your attic or in your kitchen (indoors).
Cavimum
11 years ago
" We are a family soon to be 6, with 4 kids under age of 4."

I would suggest you also consider an induction cooktop instead of gas. With small children, I would personally (JMHO) want to take a live flame out of the equation.

Induction burners don't work if there is not a pot on it. This removes the worry of forgetting to turn off a burner (which a friend of mine is guilty of all the time).

Cooking temps on induction heat up and lower as quickly as gas, giving responsive and accurate temperatures without the flame. An induction cooktop is much easier and faster to clean up. Induction also will not throw off as much heat into the kitchen, like a gas flame will, thus keeping the kitchen a little cooler. (yes, I am biased and we love our induction cooktop-LOL)

There are a lot of topics here on induction that will come up with a search, if you are open to the idea. I never heard of induction before I started researching here at GardenWeb. Within an hour of reading up, I was sold.

This post was edited by Cavimum on Wed, Apr 17, 13 at 9:16
Related Discussions
Hoping for helping in designing kid-friendly, family backyard
Q
Comments (14)
Thank you all for your help! Saturday night we went over to a friend's house and I love their yard. Very kid-friendly, but also areas for veggies and fruits. We had him come over and help us with some ideas too. Between the ideas we got on here and the help he gave us with the shape of the yard, etc. we finally have a plan we like and can start implementing in stages. We are going to have the kids area (sandbox & playhouse) up by the house. That is the only area that gets any shade, and with these 100 degree days, well we need a shaded area for the boys to play in. We will move all the berries to the far east end of the yard, all together. We will build another planter box along that side for them. That will put the yellowjackets far away! He helped draw out a yard shape, kind of looks like a golf course green, and I like it. It will still leave most of the area lawn, which we wanted for as the kids grow so they can have space to run. But what it will help with is drawing everything together, making it look less fragmented. We now are just trying to decide what to use for the border between grass and the other areas: concrete curbing, pavers, etc. Thank you so much for all of your input. Thank you saypoint for the drawing you took the time to make. I would still love to see some pictures of other people's backyards, so if anyone has any, please post a link. I'm very visual. I do much better to say, do it like this person did, instead of creating my own ideas!
...See More
'Large family' appliances - input needed
Q
Comments (9)
Hi, we have a family of 10, and are home all day with homeschooling, so I can relate. Are your kiddos young, or, like ours, have most reached their full eating potential and bring their hungry friends? ;-) We put in a 48" rangetop with 8 burners and a double oven. I was planning for not only our daily needs now and holiday dinners, etc., but our lives down the road when there are spouses and kids, and possibly dinners for approx 18 adults and 40 kids. :-) We also have 2 dishwashers, and 2 Electrolux all-fridges (one for the cooking area and one with milk, sandwich and salad makings, fruit, condiments, etc. nearer our eating areas) and 1 all-freezer. In a 36" rangetop you should be able to get six 12" burners. Sometimes I think a big center burner would be helpful when we do stirfry or use our 15 1/2" skillet or our 16-qt pot, which is 12" in diameter, plus handles.. As long as the other 4 burners would hold the bigger pots, which are usually 9 or 10 inches, you could be OK. I didn't consider any rangetop or cooktop that had small burners. We just don't use smaller pans as often, and they do fine on the larger burners on the rangetop.
...See More
Appliance advice for new large kitchen
Q
Comments (8)
My steam range is waiting to be installed, so can't provide much feedback, but the showroom had it hooked up and functional as their demo and I was impressed enough to drop around 15k on it... I'd rethink the 4 oven setup. You could do a turkey breast in the steam oven rather than two full turkeys for thanksgiving. The small oven can fit a small whole turkey (12-14lbs or so). I cooked for 26 this year with my double oven standard sized 30" range + a counter toaster/convection oven + air fryer. Wasn't too bad even with that setup, would have been a piece cake with the new setup. Other options might be 36" range with a single oven instead of the 48." You lose 2 burners (or the griddle/grill) on the range though. rangetop + wall ovens keep the wall oven, but get a regular MW instead of SO
...See More
Layout advice for Large Family Kitchen, Please
Q
Comments (50)
1. Our living room is about that size. Works fine for us. In the remodel I did make room for a grand piano in the entry and will be putting the practice piano in the smallest bedroom that will become music/guest/sewing/etc. 2.Yes it is a full size fridge/freezer and the largest upright freezer in the pantry area. We will be moving the samsung french door fridge in there and putting a new fridge/freezer in the kitchen. Cant wait. I hate the Samsung fridge. Every single shelf on the doors has broken, all the drawers, the bottom ice maker twice. We have replaced every shelf and within weeks they are cracked again. Never again! We do have a chest freezer shared between family that stores things like extra venison, beef, etc. 3. This is a 70's sprawling ranch. All 8' ceilings prior to remodel. In the kitchen area we put in two 30' beams. At the highest point we now have 13' and in the family room we added one ridge beam and now we have just over 11'. The entry is also now vaulted. Absolutely worth every penny! Planning to do the same to our master bedroom! My dh is 6'7", my 12 year old is already 6'...very happy to have some extra breathing room. Of course with a bunch of tall kids the goal is now to be able to jump and slap the beams. I have threatened that I will go after the first hand print I find.... 4. We have done most of it ourselves as far as demo, framing, electrical, plumbing, etc. Have contractors for drywall, insulation, cabinets, and flooring. Living through a reno like this? I'll let you know if I make it! We have used a bedroom as a kitchen. Has our table, fridge and a stainless table I previously used as an island. Closet became the pantry. Honestly, it is horrible. I won't sugar coat it. I am so tired of paper plates. The best thing we purchased was the largest Blackstone flat top griddle. We cook outside on that as much as possible. With the weather nice I also like to eat outside. We lost kitchen, living, laundry, etc during the remodel. Thankfully my boys have a washer and dryer in their bathroom, but even that has been difficult. We have a generously sized room that we use as our playroom/library/homeschool room. It is now also doubling as the living room since we added a couch and a small tv on the bookshelf. Can I say again how happy I will be when this is all over?
...See More
jadeite
11 years ago
I second Cavimum's recommendation of induction instead of gas for your cooktop. Good friends have commented on how induction could prevent accidents with their small children.

We have an Electrolux Wave-Touch convection wall oven which was installed a year ago. So far it has been perfect. I bake a lot, often filling the oven to capacity, and my baked goods turn out consistently, evenly baked and browned. The temperature probe is excellent and will turn out big roasts with exactly the right degree of doneness.

You'll find many threads on both induction cooktops and the Elux oven on this forum.

Cheryl
aurorasur
Original Author
11 years ago
Thank you for your input! Definitely better to deliberate now, than after purchase. Any venthoods that are decent but not breaking the bank?

Appliance review - Large family - little kids - help?

Comments (4)

sidpost

Cavimum

Related Discussions

jadeite

aurorasur
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Appliance review - Large family - little kids - help?

Comments (4)

sidpost

Cavimum

Related Discussions

jadeite

aurorasurOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

aurorasur
Original Author