Home And Kitchen Appliances Blog

One of the most common mistakes homeowners make when trying to design or re-engineer their kitchen is to assume that a single aspect - such as drawer, cupboard, or counter space - is more important that the appliances that surround it. In fact, the opposite is true. Designing the perfect kitchen starts with the perfect appliances and then surrounds them with the other things your kitchen needs. There are several reasons for this:
- Power requirements limit the available positioning of your major kitchen appliances like the fridge and oven.
- Venting requirements limit the available positioning of your stove.
- Water requirements limit the positioning of your dishwasher.
Can you see a trend?
In short, because major appliances need things like venting, water, and high voltage electricity, they need to be the ground work for your kitchen and not the afterthought.
Now that we know where to start the next part is relatively easy. The biggest decision about almost all of your kitchen appliances will be whether you want them installed into the wall directly or spaced out as their own units. There are two factors which may influence this decision:
1. Built in units are more expensive and require extra installation which can also cost. Maintenance fees for these units can also be more costly to maintain as a repair man will not be able to pull it out, unplug it, and diagnose the problem quickly.
2. Stand alone units are cheaper, but take up more space.
The Perfect Combination
While there are perfect kitchen which will use all built in appliances or all stand alone, the best option for most homeowners is somewhere in the middle. The two most common built-ins are stove tops and dishwashers. Ovens may also be built-in, but can get expensive quickly. Certainly a built in fridge certainly looks great, but the price tag can be double that of a comparable stand alone. Combine both stand alone and built in units in your kitchen to create the perfect layout.
Remember: While you will have some “wiggle” room with stand alone appliances, built-ins will have to stay put. For those who often like to mix it up with their kitchen floor plan, stand alone units offer the best solution.
Playing the Money Game
The last step of designing your perfect kitchen is playing the money game. Ask yourself how much do you want to spend on energy costs each month to run your kitchen? Buying a cheap set of appliances isn’t going to help you if your monthly energy and water bill goes through the roof. The easiest way to avoid this problem is by searching for appliances that carry one designation: Energy Star. Products with this seal consume at least 10% less energy over similar models. Smart consumers will not consider buying a major appliance that doesn’t have this rating.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 28th, 2011 at 6:46 pm and is filed under Chef, Home appliances, Kitchen Appliances, Microwaves, Refrigerators, cooking equipment, kitchen equipment, restaurant equipment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.