Home Improvement Today?

Oooofta! I hope a re-wire is in the budget!


My house was built in '65 so most of the wiring is acceptable. Just had to get rid of that old Square D split bus panel for a more modern one. Couple oddities gotta be fixed, but nothing like that

 

This reminds me. I visited my wife's place of work, and that's the kind of state the building is in. Luckily they are in the process of moving to a newer, larger, nicer location. I bet that place would've been shut down in a heartbeat if OSHA came through... Yeesh. I even saw the thermostat wire duct taped to a pipe, run across the room, then drilled a hole through the next wall to mount the thermostat on the other side.
oh yeah, and a nice 'vent' into the front room that was just a grille on the nice side, and a gaping hole in the drywall on the opposite side.

 

It looks ready to crumble at any time.

 

Mine built in '66 has that slot in the cabinet. Don't think that wall will be opened up fortunately, don't really care to see whats in there.


In other news, kitchen remodel is well underway.


Opened up the corner where the new range will go, and reframed the wall so that a stud isnt in the way of my hood vent to the exterior. This area and the ceiling are the extents of any drywall repairs. Once thats done and the cable run for the range, I will be good to rip out the other cabinets and start the fun stuff. Should move pretty quick once the drywall is fixed.

 

Is that water damage in the corner?

 

Yeah, little bit. Its dried out, and probably decades old. Not bad enough to warrant ripping it out.

 

And, I can hardly wait to get rid of my gas for an electric induction stove. Just installed a 50 amp circuit to power it. I always wanted a gas stove, until I had one.

 

Why didn't you like the gas stove?

Electric ovens are nicer I believe but I have never got along with an electric cook top.

 

I prefer gas/propane

 

I'm sure there are work arounds for these problems, but I'm hoping an induction stove will provide the best of both electric and gas.

The good part of gas is the heat is instant and controllable. The bad parts are: 1. cleaning is a lot more work than a glass top. There are nine thousand nooks and crannies to clean. I don't feel like the grates have been truly clean since the first use. When a stove takes more maintenance than my truck I draw the line. 2. There is a lot of heat that just flows around the pot into the kitchen. My 30 year old stock pot has some sort of heat proof plastic handles and now they are burning because of the fire. All these years with electric stoves and there was never a problem. 3. Hairy arms - I have singed my arm hair on multiple occasions while holding the the stock pot and stirring with the other. 3A. Burning hot pads - related to the burning hair, every pad in the house is singed. I've bought some silicone hot pads, but I don't like them as well.

 

Agree on the cleaning, most modern (average priced) gas stoves don't seem to be very well designed from the cleaning standpoint.

Honestly I'm scared of the glass tops, I would have it a week and drop a cast iron skillet on it probably.

 

I have an induction cooktop and I can say I hate the damn thing with a passion. Going out this week to look at stoves with regular burners...

 

I have an induction range and I wouldn't trade it for gas or standard resistance heating electric. Ever. What's the problem with your induction range?

 

I've used standard electric, glass top, a JennAire with modular electric elements, and gas. Of those gas is my favorite by far.

 

It takes way too damn long to heat anything up, won't stay consistent in temperature, and being a beige color stains really easy. I have a separate cooktop and oven, so that requires two 30amp 220 spots in my already cramped breaker box. Plan on taking out the oven and cooktop and replacing it with a standard stove.

 

I think removing the drywall from that corner would be wise for a good inspection.

 

How about keep the electric oven and get a propane cook top, best of both worlds.

 

I have the opposite experience with my LG induction range. It heats up water faster then gas.

Are you using pots and pans that a magnet sticks to easily? The only issue I ever had is when my wife wanted to dye something. She's got this 8 gallon pot that she's used for ever for these kind of projects. I happened to come home as she was waiting for the water to heat up. I guess she'd been waiting 30 minutes at this point. I pulled a magnet off the fridge and stuck it to the pot. It would not hold. Turns out that thing was aluminum. That won't work with induction. I ended up setting up the coleman 2 burner in the garage so she could get it done. lol

 

I would definitely love that, however the retrofit cost would astronomical and out of my budget. I think a good gas cooktop in itself is $2,000 plus getting a tank and running lines. Putting in an electric range would run me about $800 with running new 6/3 wire.

 

Hmmm, now that's something I've never thought of. I do have a dutch oven that works great on the cooktop...