From: pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis)
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking,misc.consumers,misc.consumers.house
Subject: Re: Vulcan stoves
Date: 21 Jul 92 22:33:29 GMT
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle

In article <1992Jul21.145320.41786@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> richard@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu writes:
>>Does anyone out there have a Vulcan stove
>>in their home?  How do you like them? 

>A restaurant range is much heavier than a domestic range.  You'll need to make
>sure your floors will handle the load.

We have only puny 2x8's as the joists to our 1916-built Seattle home.
They seem to be handling the 450lb or so of our Viking just fine,
despite a wierd vertical bridging at one end of the rearmost
supporting joist. Vibration is more of a problem - the metal parts of the
stove sometimes shake as we walk across the floor. Bridging should
help this.

>Restaurant ranges have much higher burner outputs than domestic ranges, and
>need a heftier exhaust hood.  Otherwise, you could end up with serious carbon
>monoxide in your house.  Also, the normal domestic hood is only 17" deep, and
>would only cover about half of the cooktop.  We had a hood custom built.  It
>works great,  but it wasn't cheap.

I'd be interested to know how much you paid for this.

>Commercial ranges, as opposed to restaurant ranges, are designed to be
>installed only in areas with fire-resistant materials.  You definitely don't
>want one of these in your home kitchen.  A restaurant range that's reasonably
>safe for home use  will be marked as "Approved for Installation in
>Non-Fire-Resistive Locations" or something to that effect.  Even then, your
>local building inspector may not agree.  (Ours didn't seem to mind, though.)

Frankly, I think its none of their damn business, so long as the stove
is approved for such things.

>A new Vulcan 36" range with six open burners and an oven cost around $1500 the
>last time I checked.  There are models with restaurant-range-like features and
>appearance, but designed for home use, and I believe these cost even more. 
>Some will fit in a 24" deep space, though, so that may be your only option.

Mucho dollar. Our 4 burner+griddle Viking cost $5000 (incl. 8.1% WA
sales tax). We saw unused but marked Wolfs for $3400, but these are
not as insulated as the Viking.

>If you have the room, and a hefty enough floor, you may want to look for a used
>range.  Major cities have used restaurant equipment dealers, and they generally
>sell overhauled ranges for about half of the price of a new one.  Since they're
>made for hard, continuous use, a refurbished restaurant range should last
>forever in your home, as long as you don't mind a few dings and dents.

Our experience in Seattle was that all the 2nd hand stoves were in
pretty bad shape, and would need close to $1500 to get them fully
operational again. That could be a reflection of the local restaurant
economy, though.

Overall, I have to agree with Richard. These are the *best* ranges for
serious cooking.

-- paul


-- 
		     Paul's housebuilding credo:
     Measure it with a micrometer, cut it with a chainsaw, fit it
			 with a sledgehammer
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