Bev

Too late, I'm afraid- we've already ordered the ducting from Gutmann, as well as the Abajo. I was thinking we could box it in underground and wrap the ducting in lagging to stop it rattling around. Do you think this is feasible/dangerous? I suppose if it end up too bad we would have to buy the bits to make it re circulating and cut a hole in the plinth

I've just bought a Gutmann Abajo with 2 induction hobs and the extractor in-between. It's not been delivered yet, but is proving a nightmare. You can only buy it through a recognised Blanco dealer, which I did, but they had never even heard of the Abajo and it took a week to get a quote. They said get in touch with the tech guys for tech help about installation, but they refer you back to your kitchen planner. Our kitchen planner is building our kitchen, but he won't be up to date with putting in a ducting system. The real problem is we want it on an island and the ducting to go underground to the until just inside the outside wall when it can come back up in a cupboard and be vented out through the wall. Bora have a section about putting it under the floor- Gutmann have nothing. Bora says putting under the floor can be done in certain conditions, and has reinforcement to withstand loads- Gutmann doesn't. Apparently the bends we need to put in will lose 20 pascals(?)Tech guy suggests boxing in the plastic ducting to protect it from weight. With a vertical joint taking the ducting down, and another taking it horizontal, it looks like it would end up about 180mm below the floor. I wish I'd gone with Bora now. Has anyone dealt with underfloor ducting before?

Went to see the BORA stuff. The classic has flexi as well and you could probably get 3 small pans on one zone. Rather than go for the classic 2 zones, extractor, 2 zones, extractor, 2 zones, the BORA professional 2 is wider and you can get 2 pans side by side on each zone with one extractor in the middle. It's cheaper too ( but still expensive). Still want to look at the Gutmann though

Thanks Ryder. I'm going to go to the BORA lab to see the real thing. I was going to try and see the Gutmann Abajo, but it appears no one in Surrey or Sussex has it, and it means a journey to St Albans. It also looks like I would have to get the Gutmann ordered through a UK dealer kitchen company rather than go to Blanco direct (so I expect they have their cut too), as the kitchen will be made by a local small kitchen and carpentry outfit. Also- and this might sound daft, but I've never had an induction hob before- I notice that the Abajo has a big cross on each hob. I presume that the induction works if any pan is touching any part of the cross. Otherwise, if you had to cover the centre of the cross the Abajo would only manage 2 pans (I'm talking about the Abajo that is cooking zone, downdraft and then cooking zone, and all the pictures show only one pan on the zone.)

Has anyone know of any reviews of the Miele KMDA 7774 or the Miele Smartline range? I'm not sure whether it's even available in the UK yet. I would like 3 x 2 zone induction hob, but would only need 1 extractor unit, as the extra 2 zone would only be used when I need all 6 pans going, not that often an occurrence, so I don't feel I need another extractor unit. I've read what's been said about the BORA and Gutmann, but it looks as if the Gutmann 3 x 2 hob, plus 2 extractors comes in at about £7500. It looks as if the Miele Smartline 1 x 4 induction hob, downdraft extractor and 1 x 2 zone induction hob comes in (or will come in) at about £4000. Anyone any thoughts?