Hob on a kitchen island? Any experiences?

[moogdroog]

We're in the process of buying a wreck of a house, which gives me the opportunity to totally remodel everything. Once we've knocked the totally botched two room extension into one, we'll be left with a quite large kitchen diner.
Been thinking about having hob on a kitchen island, as it will give me a view of the garden, playroom and dining table (and I do like to cook, me). Any experiences? Good or bad idea? Is an extractor fan solution going to cost me the earth?? Any tips?

Disclaimer - you might be hearing quite a lot from me in the next month or two!

Friends of mine have a mahoosive kitchen in a Scottish pile they bought as an investment. That has a 4 oven aga against the wall, and then opposite a huge island containing a hob. Have never experienced any problems with it. I always think a veg rinsing sink in an island would be great as well - oh, and you could have one of those fabulous tap thingies with a long hose and swizzly end.

Though I always reckon those long swizzy hose taps would be a nightmare in a hard water area - you'd have to be so vigilant about lime scale, as once it settled, you'd never get it off all round the swizzles.

Hot vinegar, Northey. Mug of the stuff in the microwave, then dunk the scaled-up spray end for as long as it takes.

A water softener will ease hard water problems for all your equipment.

But yes, an island hob seems to make cooking more social and avoids the bent-over, inward-looking feeling. The extractor hood just gets relocated over the hob, so that shouldn't be a big thing, not for you at least, but others who actually know about fitting may think differently!

4 oven aga!! Don't give me ideas above my station! [covet emoticon]

We have a crapo pull out tap in this place and it is quite handy. Might upgrade to one of the fancy ones in the next house. Luckily, the place we're moving to has the silkiest, softest water imaginable (tasty Welsh mountain water )

our house was done up by the previous owners with entertaining in mind - they knocked small kitchen and small study together, knocked down as many walls as possible and we have a big open plan kitchen diner. the kitchen is at the front of the house - the sink is at the window against the wall so i can look out over the front and the hob is in the island with the dishwasher and a couple of units so i can look over the dining table when cooking.

I have 3 small children so it's perfect. the only thing i'd like to change is to have a bar seating area on the other side - people end up leaning against it perching drinks on the narrow top edge.

the extractor fan has been an issue because it was badly fitted and is very low because the previous owner was very short and i'm very tall. i don't know how much it cost or any details but the problem was it wasn't extracting properly/going into the ceiling/floor space above so caused big cracks across the ceiling. it's right in the middle of a massive ceiling so no idea how they fitted it or where it goes!

I have an island hob and sink. In fact most of the kitchen is on the island though i have a bank of wall cupboards which includes the fridge/freezer/ovens/dishwasher.

As it's open to our dining & living space it's very sociable though the kids do have a habit of sitting on the island and pinching food helping me cooking.

I have this hood over the hob.

Oooh Beanbagz that hood is very nice. I'm assuming it's the sort of hood that cleans and recycles air rather than the sort that ducts it outside (technical me)? IKEA have one of that sort (though not half as nice as yours). Does it work well?

Naturalbaby - that sounds like a good set up. Though the seating on the other side sounds worth thinking about...

If you have an island hood, please please make sure it's one which ducts to the outside and not just a 'cleans and recycles' one as they're not worth the money. Even if they do look like a chandelier. (Sorry, pet hate! ).

If you're completely remodelling, this shouldn't be an issue as no doubt the floor in the room above will have to be taken up for wiring, allowing for the ducting to be run to an outside wall.

3 issues

1. the obvious one, what to do about the hood. Depends how much you dislike the thought of something coming down from the ceiling really.

My parents have one which is embedded into the ceiling and doesn't hang down but a) it's not cheap and b) it requires a mega powerful fan which can be very noisy.

You can get hoods which have a lot of glass in them like this which is a bit less obtrusive, but I expect they get covered in grease quickly.

I agree with fresh about having a proper "ducts to the outside" hood if you possibly can ...

2. Think about how much space you will have either side of the hob for putting pots, colanders full of veg, serving dishes etc on while cooking and serving out. Depends on the size of your island of course but there is a risk you would not have enough space.

3. Any empty pans etc left on the hob are in full view to the rest of the room. So for example when you have finished cooking, you would need to move all the pots and pans to the sink area unless you want to look at them all through dinner.

However this can be solved if you have a breakfast bar which is raised above the level of the island - this would then mostly hide the pots and pans from view when you are sitting at the table.

I never use the hood while I am cooking. I hate the noise of the fan.

Could you possibly have it without a hood? Except for deep frying, I have never really had an issue with smells. And I do cook all kinds of meals, including curries, thai, stir fries. There is a smell of course, but it is a nice aroma. And at night I always leave the kitchen window open, so it is fresh and lovely in the morning.

Oh yes, the grease and dust. In fact, we one found baby mice in the hood because it had rarely been used and mama mouse had decide to use it as a nursery

We have just had a hob put into the island on our lovely new extension - no regrets whatsover, it has made the kitchen a really sociable, welcoming place. We had all sorts of extraction issues as the ceiling to the extension is vaulted and the steels cross one another at the very point where the hob is. We didn't come up with a solution, but actually, we haven't needed an extractor. We have once had to open one of the velux windows, which provided brilliant extraction!

I have a hob in the centre island. The extractor fan is activated by pushing a button, and it then 'rises up' about 12" from the back of the hob. When I am done cooking, button is pressed again, and extractor fan retracts into a recessed spot and is flush with the counter top.

I didn't want a big hood hanging down over the hob, so this was a good solution.

That sounds great earlybird, do you have a link to it?

Does anyone have any preferences/thoughts/experiences between an island or a breakfast bar between a kitchen and a dining area?

Yes moondroog, we do have a hood that recirculates. I realise it probably isn't as efficient as one which vents to the outdoors but because of the direction of the joists above, it was the only one we could fit.

Plus we have a heat recovery ventilation system throughout the house so smells are never a problem.

If you are going to get one that vents to the outside, make sure the fan is on the outside end as it'll be less noise just above your head when you're cooking.

Some great food for thought here - thank you all so much!

I think I've come to the conclusion that kitchen island hob is a good thing. Space wise, the hob will be in the middle of a run of 3 units so a far amount of space either side (well, as much as I have in my current kitchen). Really like the idea of being able to see what the kids are up to whilst cooking. So it's just a matter of practicalities...

I did um and ah the need for an extractor at all - I'm guessing I could live without . I of course think that everything I cook smells utterly divine (unless I'm frying something). Is smell the only consideration? I could open a widow if things are getting steamy? Do they magically trap grease???

Earlybird - I'd spotted those pop-up ones in my preliminary research. Does it work well enough. And, this is utterly cheeky, but do you recall how much it was? (Struggling with spreadsheet that currently says 'Everything = lots of money', but need to break it down a little more).

Could I share a screenshot of my IKEA kitchen plan for any thoughts? Could I? Could I??

Oooh, definitely yes to sharing your ikea kitchen plan, always happy to nosey advise in someone else's kitchen

Ok!

If I've done this correctly, you should now be able to click on my name and view profile with pictures.

This is just an early sketch really - I'm working off the estate agent's measurements and the dimming memory of just one viewing...

The last house we lived in had a large kitchen island, big hob with wok burner in the centre, kids really enjoyed cooking and could show off on pancake day etc, it had the extractor that minipie linked too. Does get greasy but is easy to clean and not intrusive and has really good lighting in it.
Also had 3 deep and wide pan drawers beneath the hob, very good idea, cupboard and recycling either end, the other side had shelves opposite the drawers and cupboards either end, also had a breakfast bar at the end. Was very very big island now I come to think of it 10ft + long. very of you

Can I just suggest that if you were to get an induction hob, and get it set flush with the worksurface (might need to be granite/marble/stone/corian/silestone rather than wood) - like the first picture here then it would be 1. safer (no/little heat) and 2. wouldn't 'stand out" so much.

This looks as if it has a pop up vent as well.

This is taking it to the extreme

moondog what did you use for the sketches? I want to do something similar for DD's bedroom.

Crikey - bizarre misreading of your name OP.

Sorry - wrong glasses on!

Exit - I just used IKEA's kitchen planner. Was saying to DH it would be great if you could draw up the whole house using it. They're missing a trick there.

Faith - not really looked into induction hobs, mostly because my mother's one is totally useless. Although I've heard they've improved greatly in recent years. Looks good though!

Mmm, your last link is quite some kitchen isn't it!

Hi moogdroog... Yes I have a hob on an island with a cooker hood over. It's this one - series 4 on the right - and was a Which? best buy. It is ducted outside and is actually, I think, a bit of a feature.

As for hobs, I have a large induction hob set into granite. Lots of granite companies don't like setting a hob into the granite...( they would rather have a rim to it) because it has to be pinpoint accurate but I went for it and I have to say it looks fab... black granite and black induction hob and it just all runs into one expanse.