Needs: Dishwasher, Range, Hood vent
Goals: Appliances that look great and have some positive name recognition and performance that might additionally help with resale appeal. Keep the budget reasonable...not high end, but certainly not 'cheap.'
The initial choices:
Dishwasher: Bosch Integrated, stainless ($1105) or custom panel ($1035), 500-Series.
This is the series dishwasher we have...We actually have 2. They're quiet, good performers, and have adequate cycle options for almost any dirty-dish circumstances.
Hood vent: Zephyr Cyclone ($420)
We had a Zephyr Whirlwind hood in our last house over our ceramic-top electric range. It was quiet and did a decent job for being the bottom of the line in the Essentials Power Series. For this one, I went up a notch for more CFMs, a quieter decibel rating, and 2 halogen lights instead of 1 incandescent.
Range: Bosch HEI7282U Electric Range, slide-in ($2400)
I think Bosch should be a reliable choice with a good history for True European convection, and they boast 'Ultra Speed' ribbon technology for burners that are supposed to respond more quickly than the typical electric burners. There is a full-extension warming drawer underneath the oven. I had considered the Electrolux range with the 2nd oven in the bottom, but read too many negative things in a discussion on the Gardenweb Appliances Forum about the usefulness of that shallow oven you have to crawl on the floor to access. I'm not sure I'd find a warming drawer that much better at floor level...but oh, well, it might be nice for the future owners to have. What happened to storage?
Previous posts that may be of interest:
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| Remodeling In-laws' Kitchen, Part 1: The Before |
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| In-Laws' Kitchen, Part 3: The Final Plan |
It's a nice choice of appliances for the kitchen. Wondering if they couldn't get a sexier hood in the same price range? That small cabinet over the range is never really usable anyway. Just a thought. But they are so lucky to have you help with it. Jane
ReplyDeleteHmm. Good point. I was looking for something that blended rather than made a statement, but maybe I should rethink that. Thank you! Any suggestions? The hood will be moved a bit off of where the vent pipe is for the original hood location, so it may be necessary to have some sort of cabinet to cover? Not sure.
ReplyDeleteHubby says the vent was all taken care of and lines up perfectly with the new location, so that won't be a factor in the style I can choose.
ReplyDeleteI guess we've not had any reason to discuss dishwashers before, but I didn't realize you had a Bosch. The first one you listed above, the integrated SS one, is almost identical to the one we ended up with, except I have 4 instead of 6 cycles. I have no great love for this appliance. It seems much smaller than our previous KA; I can't stand the cubby size on the silverware baskets and if I use both I hardly have space to put a decent number of dishes; and I was hoping that if I washed immediately I wouldn't have to pre-rinse the dishes... not so. I can see why you need 2. I've never heard you utter one complaint about yours so you must be happy with them. Perhaps I need a tutorial?
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a lovely well-designed renovation. We keep hoping my in-laws will choose to remodel their 50 yo kitchen (cosmetic changes and used "new" appliances only), if only to make it possible for them to age in place (a phrase I just recently heard for the first time but which is no doubt familiar to you). You know I'll be back on GW if they ever agree to it!
Are you saying I'm old? ;-)
ReplyDeleteOur dishwashers are wonderful and I have no trouble fitting in things. Seems like we get a lot of dishes in each to me! The racks aren't the best, and I prefer the ones we had in the Bosch in our last house, but I guess I can make do with most anything. I never had KA to compare to, but in the mobile home while we were building, we had a Frigidaire and then a GE...and when we added a 2nd dw in our last house, we put in a top of the line Maytag, and the Bosches beat them all, hands down for performance, and certainly for sound. The Maytag was the worst for loading and not fitting in dishes.
Pre-rinsing is sure not something we do around here! LOL I can barely get the kids to scrape. Even so, we have no problem with the dishwashers cleaning. Pre-rinsing, in fact, sometimes keep the enzymes in the dw detergents from working properly, as I understand it from the appliance forum.
Of course, I also don't know what differences there might be between your dishwasher and our 500 Series ones. They may well have different racks, and maybe the automatic cycle on ours that we use all the time is better than what you have in some way?