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.

20170826_122135-1.jpg 20170825_163616-1.jpg

[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