Changed our Cooktop

[Gil_J]

As many know, my wife loves to cook and , yes, I love to eat. Our coach's appliances certainly weren't intended for a cook. Our only oven was a microwave! I changed that out with a full size microwave/convection shortly after taking delivery. This was not a simple exchange as it required significant changes to the the upper cabinet that was designed for a shelf mounted unit. The cooktop was a 120V unit and there's no 2 burner 120V unit made that can quickly heat water.

As many have already done, I changed out our standard cooktop with an induction unit. While many have been successful with the unit commonly available on eBay, it just would not work in our countertop. I ended up finding a good deal on a 15" Wolf induction unit. It too would not be a drop in replacement, but its dimensions were far closer to what was in the coach. Front to back, this unit is shorter which resulted in a big gap on the front and back. So, I had a piece of #4 stainless steel cut to form a base for the new cooktop. I must say, it turned out quite good. I'll know the level of success later this week when the chef gets to try it out.

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[Pete]

Nice job Gil, now Durlene can be off to buy new cook ware.

[Prodriver]

Would never know you added the trim, looks great.

[GoneCrazy]

Looks great ! Be sure to post feedback from the cook after She uses it.

[gdub]

Looks really nice, wife would like to do same thing. Were the actual electrical changes a big deal? i heard they take lots of power to run.

[TheGadgetGuru]

Nice Job Gil!

Let me know if you want to do the same to my coach!

[Gil_J]

Gary,

Great question on power needed. The answer is both yes and no.

Simply by the numbers, the 120V unit draws a maximum of 2.4Kw while the 240V unit draws a maximum of 3.7Kw. BUT...there's more to the numbers.

The 120V unit draws all of its power for one of the two 120V legs that support the coach. So, the 240V unit, any 240V unit, will balance their current draw across both legs of 120V coming into the coach. Back to the numbers one last time, the 120V unit can draw up to 20A@120V and the 240V unit can draw up to 15.4A@240V.

Good quality induction cooktops are said to be 40% more efficient than resistive cooktops. That should mean lower current draw for equal cooking time or much faster cooking time. Time will tell. I do know it took forever to boil water with the old cooktop and the new one boils water in what seems like seconds. And that's on the smaller burner. BTW, the smaller burner is 1400 watts, just 200watts more than the 120V unit.

Yes, load shedding should be considered. My winter project is to reconfigure my AC distribution system to include automatic load shedding. Today, my simplistic Hoffman conversion (which is one of the reasons I like Hoffman conversions) leaves load shedding to the user. That's' not the best idea. My system will build upon the Hoffman simplicity and use current sensors and solid state relays. At least that's what I have drawn out right now.

[gdub]

Gil
Wow that's a lot of numbers for a non electrical guy. Looks like 20A vs 15.4. Would our current cooktops be 120 or 240v? In a nutshell is it a close to plug and play, or require significant installation changes ($$$)? I do know I am still waiting for the water to boil from our trip 3wks ago. Wife hates the current cooktop. In your opinion which is the better way to go 120 or the 240?

[lrebholz2016]

Gil,

I replaced the Gagenau Unit in mine over a year ago with a similiar Wolf/SubZero Induction cooktop with two different size burners. You will love this unit. The neighbor lady can boil a bunny in no time flat. Sorry, I just watched that old movie with Michael Douglas last night. Swapped out my Calphalon pans for a couple of ScanPan non stick and a combo All-clad or two. Easy to clean as well as long as you wipe it off right after use.

[lrebholz2016]

Gary, All controls are built into the top so you just need to eliminate the knobs (if they are remote) from your current unit, then switch the circuit breaker from a 220/20 to a single pole 110/20. Took me one hour from start to finish as mine fit perfectly in my 2004 Royale

Larry Rebholz

[Gil_J]

Gary, it depends on what you have. My unit was a Seaward, and any change many some easy cuts in the counter top. Unlike many, I was left with a gap regardless of replacement unit I picked. That's why you'll see the border piece of stainless on the counter. It matches the unit, so most wouldn't even notice it.

Some factory installed units were 120V while, while others were 240V. As long as the current wiring is of the correct gauge, and it should be, you're good to go. If the one you have is 120V, you can use the same wire, just put domes red tape on the wire wire and take it off the neural bus and move it to the circuit breaker. A 240V breaker has 2 power connections instead of 1 that is found on 120V breakers. You may have to move breakers given a 240V breaker has to straddle a line 1 and line 2 connection tab. Okay, if your current unit is 120V, the circuit breaker change may be more than some want to tackle.

Check your current breaker our the unit and see if it's 120V.

And yes, we had to change our cookware.

[BenC]

Gil, that's exactly what we do for retro of a 220v induction. May I suggest to anyone thinking about this to check out the Summit unit. It is more of a drop-in replacement as far as size goes, and requires the least amount of hassle physically. Plus, at least the last time we put one in for someone, the unit came with cookware also! So a win-win. Just a thought.

[gdub]

Thanks everybody
think that is the next upgrade.

[Gil_J]

Conclusion...

We just returned from a long weekend trip and the new cooktop received two thumbs up from the chef. It's just too bad we had to change the cookware.

[lbriant]

Wow your backsplash tile and your countertop look exactly like my bus nice job

[Eddie]

Hey Gil, the stovetop looks great, what’s the Part number and when can you install it , ha ha, ok just the part number
thanks Ed

[Gil_J]

Eddie,

Here it is.

https://www.subzero-wolf.com/wolf/cooktops-and-rangetops/induction-cooktops/15-inch-transitional-induction-cooktop

[Dtjoint]

We have a similar success story replacing the 220vac Gaggenau quartz two burner unit with a 220vac two burner induction unit that I selected because it fit in the same hole requiring no modification at all. Took all of 30 minutes to do the change over. For those times when we are on 30 amps or dry camping and don't want to run the generator, we purchased an inexpensive 120vac single burner counter top unit selected because it is a proper width to fit into one of the kitchen drawers. I shortened the power cord so it can plug into the 120vac outlet at the end of the kitchen without excess cord dangling all over. It is also easier to store with the shorter cord. No problem running it off 30 amps or the inverters when no other appliances are in use. My wife loves that because it frees up all the counter space when she does not have to remove the stove top cover piece. We spent two months on the beach in Mexico this winter and even though we were plugged into 50 amp power she used the counter top unit most of the time. Be sure you have pure sine wave inverters as some, if not all, counter top units electronic controls won't like modified square wave inverters. These induction units are not only way faster than the quartz units (so you use fewer watts to accomplish the same task), they are also easier to control since you set the temp by a 1 to 10 scale that is very repeatable. So, for cooking things like fish or scallops that burn easily or get tough if over cooked, you can learn the proper setting/time and then know it will be the same amount of heat each time you cook them. Boiling water for french press morning coffee takes 5 to 6 minutes on the 120vac counter top unit and 4 minutes on the 220vac unit. This all worked so well for us that I bought another cheap countertop unit that stores in the outdoor entertainment space for when the weather is warm in the mornings or for when we want something done on the stovetop to go along with BBQ outside. BTW, we have used the cheap induction cookware and expensive stuff with equal success. Can't tell any difference.

Jerry

[Hoffman]

Jerry, Can you provide more details on the specific unit you used to replace your Gaggenau?
Model number?
And what year/model/builder coach do you have?