Today, home appliances are a fundamental and indispensable part of any home. We cannot imagine a house without a washing machine, a refrigerator, a freezer or just a blender. Within this field, the progress during the last years has been enormous, from robots that clean the floors of our houses without the interaction of humans to kitchen robots that can cook for us like a prestigious chef. In this post, we will focus on some guidelines that will help you choose the right kitchen appliances for your kitchen from the multitudes of appliances that exist in the market today.
Cold Appliances
One of the most indispensable appliances of the kitchen today is the refrigerator. Apart from maintaining food that would otherwise spoil at room temperature, it serves as a large storage space inside the kitchen. Fridges range from small ones that could go under the kitchen counter, for example for apartments or studios, to side by side models, which consist of refrigerators with two doors, which are about 60 cm wide per door and a height of up to two meters. Between these two extremes lay many configurations such as two door fridges, one door refrigerator, a combination of two doors, fridge integrations within the kitchen furniture, etc. Some of the criteria that we have to take into account when choosing our fridge would be to focus on capacity, exterior finish, and above all, on energy efficiency or consumption. In some models this could reach up to A +++. Another way to choose the best appliance is to read reviews of what others have to say. For instance you don’t want to buy a fridge that needs you to constantly visit a fridge repair shop all the time and by reading online reviews, you eliminate this risk.
There are other cold appliances such as wine cellars, vegetable and fruit displays, but these types are optional inside the kitchen and are not as important as the refrigerator.
Kitchen Appliances
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Oven
Ovens have evolved in an exaggerated manner over time; they have gone from being clay enclosures that worked with firewood in ancient times to become “self-cleaning” appliances. At this point in time, it is necessary to learn about the different kinds of ovens that exist today so that you can make an educated decision about which oven mostly suits your style of cooking. There is quite a wide range of ovens, ranging from conventional and convection ovens, to microwave ovens, to multifunction or fan ovens, to pyrolytic and cataytic ovens. It is also important to consider factors such as the other inclusions that a multi-function oven might have, apart from its self-cleaning program, which is raising the oven temperature to a high level to destroy the embedded dirt. This post merely states the different kinds of ovens that exist today but is by no means a comprehensive guide about all the differences between them. Such guide will need a separate whole post.
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Microwave
The microwave is a household appliance that works by generating high frequency radio waves, is a clean and fast appliance to heat mostly liquids. In the market there are simple models, models with grill until you reach the combination of this appliance with the oven function.
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Cooking tops
Cook-tops or cooking plates are divided mainly into 3 types:
- Gas cooktops: These are the most economical option in terms of energy saving, the fastest option to heat any food, although they are a little bit dirtier than electrical appliances. It is necessary to take into account the placement of a good extraction element for the exhaust of gases and fumes. At present, gas cooktops are the most popular appliances because of their great energy saving capacity.
- Vitroceramic cooktops: Known simply as glass cooktop stoves or glass cooktops, vitroceramic cooktops are made of vitroceramic glass. Glass cooktops are the ones that consume the most energy within this group. A glass cooktop or glass stove top consists of a resistance that is heated and that moves the heat up to the glass surface. This glass, which is in direct contact with the pan, is responsible for heating the contents. Being a heating resistor, the energy consumption of glass flat top stoves is quite high.
- Induction cooktops: These appliances are the cleanest within this group; they work by using electromagnetic waves which require a specific kind of pot with a magnetic base in order to operate. With induction cooktops, the glass does not need to be heated as much as the glass cooktop above, thus the energy consumption is less. You can have energy savings of up to 25% less compared to glass cooktops, however, they are slightly more expensive appliances.
Range Hoods
At this point, the main consideration for the choice of a kitchen range hood is related to the aesthetics of the kitchen. There is the bell decorative range hood which is shaped like a bell, the wall mounted range hood, the under cabinet range hood, the ceiling mounted range hood, the wall chimney hood, the island hood and the downdraft hood and also ductless hoods. It is necessary to take into account the capacity of extraction of the range hood in relation to the energy consumption and the noise, in order to choose the optimal domestic appliance for your kitchen.
We hope that this post has clarified the various different multiple appliances available for your kitchen. Mainly, as a summary, we would say that the differences lay in aesthetics, energy consumption and price.