[TheOne®]

Originally Posted by vid6639

The concept of open kitchen is pretty popular in bangalore Sam. ...

Infact in the house hunt I am doing now, I see almost 70% of new constructions having an open kitchen.

AHA, here is the proof I was looking for: it DOES work for Indian households as well. Fantastic, I knew it!

Originally Posted by aadix

thank you jenny, have tons of doubts, will def pm you as and when am gonna implement things. currently still debating wheter to do the same, demolish the kitchen wall and put up a open kitchen.

sam sounds just like my dad when he spoke about the disadvantages of a open kitchen, lol.

Smile, Sam likes contemplating such matters from all sides and of course, he doesn't want to give any false image of such a concept! What he said is true but I guess it depends what you are used to from before as well. For me, neither of the mentioned points is a real disadvantage. Smells and heat building up - same in a closed kitchen I would guess. The only pressure - as Sam mentioned - is that when you have a party or dinner that you really need to make sure you quickly clean up again before the people come. That's it.

In fact, I see the open kitchen is an advantage lol. It always MAKES me clean up right after and keep things tidy, automatically. I hate it when people come and the apartment is a mess though I couldn't care less if it was the other way around haha. Trust me, when I was still in Germany my dishes from the morning would often remain there until the evening or sometimes the next morning.

Originally Posted by aadix

another doubt, how are the kaff appilances holding up? esp the dishwaher?, we have been using the ifb ones, and they are quite good. didnt go in for kaff, cos of lack of proper after sales service in hyd.

Originally Posted by vid6639

Yes even I'm interested in the Kaff dishwasher as well as hob and chimney.

From my personal experience the hob and chimney are quite good. We are absolutely content with both of these items.

With regards to the dishwasher I must say that it is also good but I have seen better in my life. The space it offers could be a tiny little bit better, meaning the set-up/construction of the trays inside is not 100% in my opinion. Plus, I made the experience that sometimes I need to quickly rinse the plates and bowls as it does not remove all the dirt if I don't do it and there is a lot of food stuck to it. I was quite surprised about that in the beginning as I am used to the opposite. Then Sam and I were wondering if this is the case because we don't put on the dishwasher every day. In any case, we are not sure.

I know that there is a Siemens dishwasher available in the same price range as we considered buying this first. If I had the choice again today I would go for that one!

Mods: if you feel that this does not belong here anymore but in the Home Appliance Thread please move my post. Thanks!

[carboy]

Originally Posted by TheOne®

We also extended our main bathroom to get more space and had to change the last bit of the aisle a little for that, it takes a little bent now. Due to this we were able to get a dry bathroom too. This was important for me as we don't have wet bathrooms in Europe at all.

One of the biggest irritants for me in all my years of stay in the US was
the bloody dry bathroom!!
I rented all through the time I was there - but I had ever purchased a house/flat, I woud have 100% converted the bathroom to a wet one.

The whole concept of a dry bathroom blows my mind even now when I occasionally go abroad. I absolutely hate it.

About the other washing machine & powder discussions, I have used different top loaders for close to 10 years now.
Most of the time have just used regular Tide Washing powder with it - both in the US & in India - never had a problem.

[Vid6639]

Just thought I would put down my experience on water heater purchase. Since mine is an apartment, solar option was out. So had to look at the next best efficient water heater. The area where my apartment is located (Sarjapur road) does not have cauvery water only borewell and outside tanker water supply.

The builder was offering Racold Eterno 25 litres which is the most popular model in the market. Then someone told me that if it's hard water make sure that the inside tank is not steel and is copper which does not scale or rust. So I started searching for water heaters with copper tanks. There are only 2 major brands that offer copper tanks. Remson and Venus. Both are available in 15/25L. The 25L costs Rs.6,500 for Venus and Rs.6,750 for Remson. The Racold is around Rs.6,800.

Another advantage of the copper tank in the Remson/Venus is that it is more efficient on power as it can heat water quicker due to the copper body and holds the temperature longer as well.

There is a new brand in the market which seems to be doing pretty good as well but I didn't opt for it as there was not much feedback available long term. The name is AO Smith. It's an American company but the water heaters are manufactured in china. The quality of construction is much better than Remson, Venus and Racold. The inner tanks are mild steel but they have a patented design. The tank is lined with glass which prevents rust and same goes for the heating element. So even though it's rust proof, the glass lining means it takes longer for the water to heat up.

The AO Smiths are also widely available but cost a bit more around Rs. 7,200 for the 25litre one.

If you are staying in an apartment with more than 8 floors then you may also want to check out the pressure rating the geyser can handle.

I finally purchased the Remson 25litres one. There are cheaper alternatives available but they were the old type metal body on the outside ones. They look like huge barrels. The plastic ABS ones look much better and Racold/Remson/Venus/AO Smith all have plastic ABS ones as their higher range models. Some of these offer LCD timer operation but I found out these are useless as the circuit gets messed up within months thanks to the steam/vapour in the bathroom.

A nice link I found: Best Water Heaters, Geysers - How To buy a water heater

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by muralisk

I went in for a Faber chimney and did not opt for the hob. I am still using my traditional gas stove. The reason for sticking with the traditional gas stove is because in the hob burners, the fire comes from the outer radius, where as in the traditional gas stove, fire comes from both outer and inner radius. And this is quite good for making phulkas.

Are you referring to Open burners vs Closed burners?

We have had enough with closed burners, they take forever to cook. So this time while renovating the kitchen we went open burners. It is a little hard to find, it took us more than a month and nearly 10 shops before we found something acceptable. We had found a very good model with Faber, but they have some supply problem.

Closed Burner: Slow to Cook


Open Burner: Fast


Eventually we went with Glen cook top since it was the only acceptable thing we could find. Since we live in a small town/village, our choices are few, we had to visit Mangalore to find it.

This is the one we got, Glen GL 1048 GT glass cooktop with open burners.


Why cooktop and not integrated hob? Simple, integrated hob is a pain to clean since all kind of debris can fall through the burners.

Originally Posted by trrk

But all along all my fridges were working without any stabiliser. My ACs work without stabiliser.

In my area that would be considered living dangerously. We have high voltage problem in Manipal. At nights when usage is low, the voltage often hits 280-285 volts. Most stabilizers and even Inverter can't handle it and hence cut-off. Imagine having power and yet AC doesn't work on a very hot & humid night. So I have replaced all AC stabilizers with V-Guard VGD series which can handle voltage up to 290 volts. Even my inverter is connected via VGD series since that too used to cut-off to battery power at night.

[filcord]

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

....

but the thing is front loading are costly. all above 21k. finally i dropped of the plan of buying the machine that day and decided to do some study and get back.

please help me guys.

In my experience, we had a top-loader before we started a family. It handled normal adult clothes pretty well. We gave the sheets and towels to the dhobi.
When the babies started coming, we also had problems with getting a reliable dhobi, so we made the switch to an IFB front-loader. This allowed us to wash nappies in hot water, and we started washing everything at home, towels and all. We found the hot water option is a must for towels and sheets, and of course child stuff. Incidentally, I still have the same IFB for 17 years now, albeit on AMC, which looks after the repairs it needs at least twice a year. Our average wash-load is about ten loads a week.

[amit_mechengg]

Originally Posted by filcord

In my experience, we had a top-loader before we started a family. It handled normal adult clothes pretty well. We gave the sheets and towels to the dhobi.
When the babies started coming, we also had problems with getting a reliable dhobi, so we made the switch to an IFB front-loader. This allowed us to wash nappies in hot water, and we started washing everything at home, towels and all. We found the hot water option is a must for towels and sheets, and of course child stuff. Incidentally, I still have the same IFB for 17 years now, albeit on AMC, which looks after the repairs it needs at least twice a year. Our average wash-load is about ten loads a week.

that is a great one. which ifb model do you have, seems that the wash quality of a front loader is always better than the top loading.
but these days there are many top loaders with a built in heaters.

[condor]

amit_mechengg : .. seems that the wash quality of a front loader is always better than the top loading.

while the heater may be added to a top-loader, the agitating effect in a front loader will always be Better than in a top-loader. Just visualise the action of both, and you should understand why.

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by Samurai

In my area that would be considered living dangerously. We have high voltage problem in Manipal. At nights when usage is low, the voltage often hits 280-285 volts.

That is interesting!

We hardly see a voltage of 200!

[aadix]

Originally Posted by TheOne®

Smile, Sam likes contemplating such matters from all sides and of course, he doesn't want to give any false image of such a concept! What he said is true but I guess it depends what you are used to from before as well. For me, neither of the mentioned points is a real disadvantage. Smells and heat building up - same in a closed kitchen I would guess. The only pressure - as Sam mentioned - is that when you have a party or dinner that you really need to make sure you quickly clean up again before the people come. That's it.

In fact, I see the open kitchen is an advantage lol. It always MAKES me clean up right after and keep things tidy, automatically. I hate it when people come and the apartment is a mess though I couldn't care less if it was the other way around haha. Trust me, when I was still in Germany my dishes from the morning would often remain there until the evening or sometimes the next morning.





From my personal experience the hob and chimney are quite good. We are absolutely content with both of these items.

With regards to the dishwasher I must say that it is also good but I have seen better in my life. The space it offers could be a tiny little bit better, meaning the set-up/construction of the trays inside is not 100% in my opinion. Plus, I made the experience that sometimes I need to quickly rinse the plates and bowls as it does not remove all the dirt if I don't do it and there is a lot of food stuck to it. I was quite surprised about that in the beginning as I am used to the opposite. Then Sam and I were wondering if this is the case because we don't put on the dishwasher every day. In any case, we are not sure.

I know that there is a Siemens dishwasher available in the same price range as we considered buying this first. If I had the choice again today I would go for that one!

yup, thats the same issue for which my parents are still thinking over the open kitchen option.


we use a ifb dishwater, we too had the same issue initally, but from later on, just a simple rinse before putting the vessels in ensures no dirt is left after the cleaning process. in terms of usage the ifb dishwasher is huge and takes the vessels for 4 people+thier per day consumption. very very happy with the ifb dishwasher, front load washing machine and the clothes dryer.


well, i have faced the opp with siemens. we have a siemens fridge, and suprisingly even though it was a new model, within a year the parts for the fridge stopped, plus most of the plastics broke within a year or two, added to the fact that there werent any spares available made the matter a small issue.

the fridge hasnt given us any issues mechanically, but the after sales service could have been better. atleast in hyd.

[manavdotcom]

Anyone using VOltage cut-off with Washing machines ? IFB guys are trying to sell one to me once the motor controller card burnt out. Which make/price can be picked up from market ?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Wet or Dry?

For years, in UK, I wondered --- why don't they just put a plug hole in the kitchen and bathroom floors? It just seemed the absolutely obvious thing to do, to cope with spillages and overflows, and to make washing the floor properly a simple job.

Then I came to India

One cannot have water swilling around the bottom of wooden kitchen units --- our solution was to have a concrete plinth, on which the wooden units are built.

There is only one reason I can think of to have such rooms 'dry' --- and that is that, in the case of flooding, these drains will be the low point through which the water will enter, and it will be very hard to stop it. Yes; we live on the ground floor!

Cookers, Chimneys

We have Kaff. Hob, oven and chimney, all built in. They work well. The hob top had to be replaced because the stainless steel started to rust --- however, we have found their customer service to be responsive and helpful. They even sent a man around to take the oven apart when my wife spilled a pan of oil into its ventilation slots (yes; it was hot, so thank god it was the oven, not her, that took the spill!)

I was concerned about stories that I had heard of modern hobs taking for ever to cook compared with the traditional work-top two-burner. This is not the case with the Kaff at all; it cooks quickly.

What I would have done (hindsight)...

Bought a stand-alone cooker, single unit including oven. It would have been easy and simple to do a house move with, instead of which we have sunk a considerable amount of money into built-in units.

Or even...

Bought a built-in hob, and a combination convection/microwave. I didn't think of doing this as I brought my microwave with me from UK. I never use its built-in grill, but a unit with convection oven would have done my roast chickens nicely at less cost.

Open Kitchens?

I hate them! Whilst it would be a very good idea for a family to have a kitchen big enough for a table that seat, at least, the kids, or even a kitchen/diner area, having the kitchen open to the general living area is something I hate the idea of.

But then... I would take a house with huge rooms and divide them into small ones! I hate the widen-your-horizons-by-knocking-walls-down school of house renovation.

I'd live in a valley, rather than on the plains, if I could --- just my personal taste!

[Samurai]

In all the dishwashers I have used in US, the dishes always came out dry and warm. But the IFB dishwasher (Neptune) gave out totally wet dishes, often unclean. Soon we stopped using it. I left it for the tenant when I rented out the flat in Bangalore.

It is 5.5 years since we bought it, and I see IFB is still selling the same model. I want to buy a dishwasher, but I don't dare buy that same model again.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by amit_mechengg

that is a great one. which ifb model do you have, seems that the wash quality of a front loader is always better than the top loading, but these days there are many top loaders with a built in heaters.

We had an IFB but the service was absolutely $h1t. One day about six years ago it just gave up with smoke coming out of the rear. Then we went and bought an LG. This has also worked very well and the only problem we had was a bad micro-switch in the front door. This was promptly diagnosed and replaced, Now I may call them again since the bearing is getting noisy. Totally satisfied.

Originally Posted by Samurai

In all the dishwashers I have used in US, the dishes always came out dry and warm. But the IFB dishwasher (Neptune) gave out totally wet dishes, often unclean. Soon we stopped using it. I left it for the tenant when I rented out the flat in Bangalore.

It is 5.5 years since we bought it, and I see IFB is still selling the same model. I want to buy a dishwasher, but I don't dare buy that same model again.

Looks like you have a failed heating coil.

Note: At one time IFB was OEM for Bosch

[aadix]

Originally Posted by manavdotcom

Anyone using VOltage cut-off with Washing machines ? IFB guys are trying to sell one to me once the motor controller card burnt out. Which make/price can be picked up from market ?

same here, but for the price they were quoting, i would easily get a good stablizer with some more money put in.what were you quoted? i was quoted 800 rs.

[manavdotcom]

They quoted 900 Something.I can better get a Vanguard stabliser in that money. Only problem was the KVA Rating. The machine has Watt rating and watt = 0.7 x kva . So Need to buy higher KVA. the regular ones won't work I guess.Minimum 3-4 KVA required.