We're about to redo the kitchen. It's a small space and I can't decide whether to bother with a built in hob in or to get summat like this.
Anyone any input?
You say you "rarely" use more than two rings at a time. What will happen on the odd occasions when you *do* need to?
If you're re-doing the kitchen, you really ought to install a cooker hood - to catch the fat and get rid of the steam from cooking. It will look pretty silly if there's no hob under it!
When we re-did our kitchen a couple of years ago, we put in a 4-ring inductive hob alongside a 2-ring ceramic one - so that we can use the inductive one most of the time but can still use the pans which are not inductive-compatible when the need arises. We rarely need six at a time, but it's jolly useful when we do. A 900mm-wide cooker hood spans both hobs.
Micriwave/steamer?
I'm guessing you have more space than we do.
We have a spare cooker for when we need extra capacity :-) (actually the kitchen isn't that big, but we do have a good sized pantry).
It was because this house just has a standard gas oven, and cooking things like roasts that limits you really to 2 shelves of stuff (ok you can shift stuff around, but when it's on the bottom it's hardly cooking)
We were having family xmas here with dinner and the oven wasn't really going to cope very well. So managed to get an old electric cooker off Freecycle about a week before xmas
Built in hob and piece of board to sit over the top when you're not using it?
I have a double hob but that is built-in to a very small space. As a single person I can manage with just two hobs and a microwave but I am not sure how well that would work for a larger family or anyone who entertained at home a lot. Personally I would find getting something out of a cupboard to use it and putting it away after just too much trouble unless the use was very occasional, so it would probably end up always on the worktop. YMMV
Our kitchen is tiny and this is what we do. Plus it protects the glass.
Lee
My mother has just done that. Widowed last year and at 80+ found keeping the solid fuel Rayburn fed with wood/Phurnacite and consequent ash cleaning all getting a bit much. Already had experience of one portable induction ring I gave her a couple of years back so she purchased a twin one. This gives her 3 if required. Also uses a largish Panasonic combination microwave oven and something called a Remoska which is an electrically heated cooking pot,and a small bread maker. With these she finds them more than adequate to do her own needs plus most of family visits. Sometimes a bit of forward planning is required cooking things ahead to be frozen and then defrosted and heated up on the day. In her case it makes things a little safer too,arthritis and general stiffness of age made bending and lifting things out of the oven awkward and wrist /arm burns were getting a little too frequent. So all the old heavy stuff has gone. Got a nice small pressure cooker last week . Only thing she can't really do now is revive a frozen newborn Lamb to life in the Rayburns warming compartment but there is no likely hood of that need anymore.
G.Harman
Sounds quite practical if you need the space. These days a microwave can do most jobs a hob does, so 2 rings is fine.
NT
They aren't.
An update,
I bought a 2 'burner' induction hob from ebay,
It is counter top but can also be fitted in to worktop. It performs far better than I expected, it boils stuff in a frankly astonishing time and if it is set to temp rather than wattage the lowest setting (60 C) setting provides a very gentle heat (it seems to pulse the power on and off).
It's one of those rare occasions where something is miles better than expected.
The only thing I don't like about it is the fan noise, do they all suffer from this?
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