Your comments are easing the pain of this long drawn out reno we've been living in. I started the demo in Jan and have been working every day, night and weekend as I've done all the work myself. I've already used up all my vacation time for the year. I can't comment to much on the "actual" cooking experience as DW is the only cook in our house, I just reap the benefits. This kitchen is for her for because she deserves it and has always wanted an AGA and a beautiful kitchen. Our first meal was pancakes of course! The kids love pancakes. quiltgirl Regarding our counters, we have about 36" to the right and about 60" to the left. There is a large island directly across from the AGA. The granite was templated a week ago and should be ready for install in a week or so.

I have seen posts that say the kenmore "elites" are made by made by grand hall. I have the top of the line stainless premium kenmore. it has 4 main burners, 1 back, and 1 side burner. model # 15227. my grill is one step below the "elite" series. retail 549.00 . ive compared mine and the "elite" side by side and they appear to use the same parts (burners , grand hall regulator, and design features)it wasnt quite as fancy but just as solid. even the cooking grids are interchangable.does anyone know if they are manufactured by someone else? it is not one of the bottom of the line junk models. it appears to me that it is the same company.

I also was looking to buy a Grill recently. (See my recent post the Weber Comparison). At a price under $500, the two grills that seemed the most attactive to me were the Weber Silver Genesis C and the top of the line Kenmore premium grill. For the reasons I outline in my post, I am very happy with with my Weber purchase dicision. Although, I do not have any actual experience with the Kenmore Grill on Sale at Sears for $ 499. It looked very interesting for the following reasons: 1) It is also manufactured by Grand Hall like the Member Mark Grill. 2)It has many attactive stainless steel components and it seems to be very well built. 3) It has slightly more BTU's than my Weber for a similiar surface area, so it should get plenty hot if you live in a moderate area. 4) It seems to have more features for less money that the Kenmore Elite Model. 5) Most noteably: it has an IR Rotisserie Burner and and a smoker box that allows you to add wood chips without opening the grill. It you like the stainless steel look, are determined to stay under $500, you don't mind a short warranty period or live in a area were rust can be a problem, then the Kenmore seems like a good product. For me, I am very happy with my Weber and would not go back and buy any other unit in this price range. Good luck with your purchase decision.

Somehow, this thread went on for years without a mention of make-up air. Assuming a hood with sufficient flow rate, particularly for the larger cooktops, make-up air is another significant expense and (for an existing house) potentially an architectural pain to implement. Also, the claims of the VaH sales lady that the centrifugal extraction process of the squirrel cage blower removes ALL of the grease particles is beyond suspect. If it were true, the configuration would be a great help to commercial kitchens that have to pay to have their ducting inspected and cleaned once a year. It is true that the extraction efficiency is a function of the rotational air velocity, but the finer particulates would need something like a turbocharger impeller ( > 100k RPM) to be affected). Also, the VaH wheel is not moving extremely fast; if it were, then the acoustic noise from the air turbulence would certainly exceed that from the supposedly less effective baffles, yet in the testimonies above the VaH fans are described as quiet. The plot below shows a baffle example, and I would yield on any assertion that a squirrel cage blower could have a different extraction efficiency curve. But I won't yield on the claim that the VaH embodiment is 100% effective. The way baffles operate is to remove the larger particulates that would settle or impinge on the duct surfaces and hope that the remaining particulates would be expelled into the outdoors. There is a factor often overlooked in that commercial systems have external upblast blowers, and these can also perform some centrifugal grease particulate removal of their own. Wolf/Broan and Abakka down-roof centrifugal blowers may also achieve some effect there, but at that point the grease is outside anyway. One other comment on VaH squirrel cage blowers: These blowers are more affected by duct and MUA restriction than conventional blowers. They start out with the advantage of no baffles (this is a significant pressure loss in a conventional system), but when an entire system, including MUA is evaluated, VaH will start to lose advantage with added ducting or insufficiently controlled house pressure. Last, I want to remark on the claim that commercial hoods have vastly more airflow than residential hoods. What is important for containment is the velocity of the air entering the hood. If 90 ft/min is achieved, the Greenheck Guide table copied below suggests sufficiency for most residential cooking. One difference is that commercial hoods, which are very high, typically have only one bank of baffles, so the air velocity in the baffle slots can be two or three times that of a typical Wolf hood, say, with its expansive baffle arrangement covering the hood entry aperture. This will improve particulate capture somewhat.