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Minimum height of hot zone or heat gap above an induction hob


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I know that for a gas hob, the hot zone needs to measure 75cm from the hob surface to the cooker hood, whilst electric hobs this only needs to be 65cm. But a kitchen designer told me that for an induction hob this distance can be even less because of the way it heats the pans (i swear she said something starting with a 5), but I can now not remember the exact amount.  Does anybody know?

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Because 

6 minutes ago, markc said:

Why would you want to go less? it will be like cooking in a pizza over

Because i want a straight run of cupboards above the hob, to achieve a certain design aesthetic, rather than one elevated cupboard above the hob that contains the extractor unit, i want all the cupboards on that side to be level (without having to raise them all to meet the 650mm height). I may have answered my own question in that this AEG model specifies the minimum should be 500mm; although many other models don't specify this in the installation manual. I wouldn't go that low, but i would keep it at around 540 or 550.

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I always set a cooker hood as high as possible so I can lean over a pan on the hob without banging my head (and it is not as though I am tall, far from it).  The recommended height of some is ridiculously low.  I had to modify ours to make it go higher that it's limited adjustment would allow as when initially set to it's highest setting I hit my head.

 

So quite why you would want low cupboards above it beats me?  Are you planning an extractor built into a cupboard?

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3 hours ago, PeterW said:

You will hit your head on the cabinet - and the bottom of the cabinet will pick up grease and condensation which will damage it. 

 

 

The cabinets are shallow (300mm in depth, plus 20 for the door, makes 320). Not deep ones, so the only way to hit my head whilst cooking would be if I wanted to burn my face on the frying pan or, steam my face whilst steaming some broccoli. It's just not going to happen. We are having slightly deeper worktops , but even with standard depth worktops this wouldn't be an issue.

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On most induction hobs you can go down to 500mm (check spec) but in practice this is too low.

 

Condensation and delamination is not a huge concern with induction hobs provided you have a powerful extractor installed with a 6 inch ducting and this is used correctly.

 

Our cabinets provide a height of 560mm and wall unit cabinet depth of 360mm. We regularly do this set up for clients provided they are no taller than around 5ft 10in. We supply good quality extractors and provide detailed use instructions and have NEVER has a delaminated cabinet.

 

The operating ergonomics are largely a personal issue but the mechanics are not a problem provided basic principles are observed.

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6 hours ago, ryder72 said:

On most induction hobs you can go down to 500mm (check spec) but in practice this is too low.

...

Our cabinets provide a height of 560mm and wall unit cabinet depth of 360mm. We regularly do this set up for clients provided they are no taller than around 5ft 10in. We supply good quality extractors and provide detailed use instructions and have NEVER has a delaminated cabinet.

Thanks @ryder72. I agree 500mm is too little space. I’m 6 foot and my wife is 5’8”, so 5’10” is our average. If we only had 560mm of space between the induction hob and the bottom of the wall units, are you saying this would be a problem for me! Our wall units are not very deep, only 300 plus 20 for the door.

 

Which re-circulating fan do you recommend? I need it to be recirculating because I will have MVHR. Ideally, the quieter the better.

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It sounds like you are having an English kitchen from the fact that you have 320mm units, so your gap between worktop and units will be around 490mm. You may have to go for shorter wall units to get a bigger gap but it wont be 560. It will probably end up being more like 730mm unless you ignore top alignment.

 

We have used, Gutmann or Novy hoods in this situation. Novy are quieter.

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39 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

I need it to be recirculating because I will have MVHR

 

Why?  I have found that cooking creates a fair amount of heat and odours and a ducted extractor see to them both very well.

 

We have one with the fan mounted externally and rigged up with 6" ducting so it is both quiet and powerful.  Filtering the smells to recirculate is not efficient and means the motor has to work even harder.

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15 minutes ago, ryder72 said:

It sounds like you are having an English kitchen from the fact that you have 320mm units, so your gap between worktop and units will be around 490mm. You may have to go for shorter wall units to get a bigger gap but it wont be 560. It will probably end up being more like 730mm unless you ignore top alignment.

 

We have used, Gutmann or Novy hoods in this situation. Novy are quieter.

Kitchen will be from DIY kitchens. We will use their taller 900mm wall units, and position them so that their tops are slightly higher than the fridge and oven unit that are on the same run. It will look a little bit like this:

image.png.da19d8f435addf76fa8f63f8d4a940e5.png

 

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13 minutes ago, Mr Punter said:

 

Why?  I have found that cooking creates a fair amount of heat and odours and a ducted extractor see to them both very well.

 

We have one with the fan mounted externally and rigged up with 6" ducting so it is both quiet and powerful.  Filtering the smells to recirculate is not efficient and means the motor has to work even harder.

I have always preferred an extractor that actually extracts, rather than recirculates, but then the MVHR purists on this website gave me the impression that having an extracting hood would unbalance my MVHR system. Have I misunderstood that? I thought @joe90 you had gone for a recirculating hood for this very reason? @Mr Punter do you have MVHR?

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3 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

but then the MVHR purists on this website gave me the impression that having an extracting hood would unbalance my MVHR system. Have I misunderstood that? 


I’d prefer those who understand how MVHR works, nothing purist about this ..!
 

The answer is yes, the SFP and flow rates of an extractor hood is significantly larger than a full house MVHR system. Ergo it will unbalance things and you have the chance of pulling warm moist air from bathrooms into your kitchen as the hob extractor reduces the pressure in the kitchen to the detriment of the MVHR system. Basic fluid dynamics and flow/pressure calculations, not rocket science. 

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3 minutes ago, PeterW said:


I’d prefer those who understand how MVHR works, nothing purist about this ..!

Thanks @PeterW. I should clarify that I didn't mean "purist" in a negative sense. Fluid dynamics is ultimately the application of mathematics, which is ultimately the purist of sciences, so one needs to pay deference to the purists if you want the system to work well.

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16 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

thought @joe90 you had gone for a recirculating hood for this very reason?


Short answer is yes. Charcoal filters in a  Recirculating hood, extract from  MVHR along same wall. We don’t fry a lot and have never regretted not having an extract. Following the odd “oops I forgot I put that on” either boost on the MVHR or open a couple of windows for a short time, but happens very rarely (when I concentrate!!!).

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2 minutes ago, joe90 said:

“oops I forgot I put that on”

I think that if I install the Novy hood as @ryder72 suggested, there is an option to get a Novy induction hob that then also controls the recirculating hood (an option they call "inTouch"). So less concentration required. But £££££!

 

 

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6 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

I think that if I install the Novy hood as @ryder72 suggested, there is an option to get a Novy induction hob that then also controls the recirculating hood (an option they call "inTouch"). So less concentration required. But £££££!

 

 

Novy hoods are not the cheapest around, but they are the quietest. Their hobs are reasonably priced when you consider three elements - higher grade ceramic offering much better scratch resistance, the octagonal induction coils providing much better cooking performance and longer warranties.

PM me if you'd like it priced up.

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  • 2 years later...
10 minutes ago, Jackofhearts said:

@Adsibob did you solve this in the end? We have the same problem and also want low cupboards to line up rather than have a big gap for an extractor fan. We have about 490mm to play with which seems to be not enough...

Just read the instructions, each one is slightly different, but an installer will set at 750mm unless asked to do differently.

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@JohnMo Our kitchen is about to be ordered, the clearance is 490mm in the designs...I've found some samsung hoods that allow 500mm

 

What issues are we likley to run into with our installer? We can maybe raise 10mm like @Adsibob apparently did though it may look odd. Does kitchen refit need approval from building regs? I.e is this something we can ignore...?

 

Edited by Jackofhearts
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It's near enough +/-10mm is neither here nor there.

 

Be there when they install; our hood was supposed to slot in-between cabinets and top and bottom, align with the top and bottom of cabinet. Turned my back for 10 mins it was set at 750mm, because they always are.  They had to buy new parts to resolve so took an additional week.

 

Just watch them like a hawk would be my advise.

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