We’ll I’m back .. this time around .. bz with my new house renovation …
Typically focusing on my Kitchen … we’ll … that’s the place for me to chill out after a shitty day at work … so I’m thinking to make it abit plush ….
I don’t know about you … but I spend months in research of the best of the best … cheap, workable, versatile and beautiful glass top burner or simply called it a Hob …
So my journey ends up selecting a 5 nozzle/injector drive burner rather then the typical 2 cylindrical outlet (venturi type), this saves about 10% of the gas by study… 5 nozzle/injector drive burner are the ‘IN’ thing now … typically the 2 Brands that patented these are Arda and Sabaf
Both are reputable Italian company with similar design, I however chooses Arda because Sabaf design utilize brass and stainless steel, to cut down the production cost … overtime the brass ring will deformed due to the wear and tear of 2 different material creates differential warp, based on interview with pre-owned Sabaf design hobs.
For the Arda design, it is 100% brass, so there is no stress of foreign material that ties to is working body
Still the basic of the burner is the OUTPUT or AMOUNT OF HEAT it can produce, many people, even people that cooks 3 meals aday do not understand how important is it to choose based on the Output and not the Cosmetic of the gas cooker or hob.
I, for instance a home chef wannabe and also a experimentalist and and engineer, cannot missed such an important topic, so here is how we choose the HEAT range … in KiloWatts … yes .. many argue that kilowatts are used to read electrical values and what it has to do with gas burner … anyway to cut short, for an asian … like me, we love Big Flame ! We cook with plenty of oil … and a lot of charred fried stuff … we even loves deep fried stuff … he’ll anything that is cook on a slow burner taste like shit …. this is Asian palate … it’s in the GENE … so my suggestion is … minimum 4.5kW … best is 5.5kW … because if u get the higher flamed burner … u can just reduce the knob to get a smaller flame … but if get a medium flame burner … die die u cannot get a the BIG FLAME … unless u press the knob to get some afterburner effect (only venturi type can have the afterburner, for nozzle type .. forget about it .. ur farked ! hahahahha
Why 5.5kW, becauase nowadays wok comes with multilayer of steel or aluminum .. it takes a great time to wait for it to heat-up … 2nd… if u throw in some water … everything will be cooled off … then u need to wait for like 15-20 second to get back the heat … so with higher heat range … u sure will have a lot of fun cooking …
Why there is a 3.8kW or 4kW or even lower heat range ? That’s not for Asian type of cooking .. that’s for the ang moh … they don’t cook like the asian do .. so it’s adequate for them … I tell u .. u’ll regret if u do want to challenge me hahahahahhaha …
Anyway … higher heat range … means more expensive … so .. prepare a few hundred more if ur looking like what I’m looking … typically a glass hob 2 burner of 5.5kW starts from RM700, below I will advice some of the cool new technology that comes with the hob … yah .. every tiny bits of technology comes with a price OK .. so don’t be surprise if you opt to have all of them … and later pay for like a thousand ringgit … or more …
Brand … it brand Important … yes and no … so long don’t get those brand that you never seen before in any trade show … remember .. those godknows what brands only available in small suburban shops … because it’s cheap and those that lives there can afford it … I did not say it’s NOT GOOD … but I sure don’t want to take the risk as this is a FLAMEABLE PRODUCT … we don’t want to burn the house down … or getting urself a 1st degree burn … bad ……
Design … up to your taste .. but BLACK GLASS TOP are the ‘IN’ thing … some comes with a little touch of aluminum console … there is hob with stainless steel … I do not really recommend those because unless it is mirror polished like … stay away from brushed stainless steel as u’ll gotta hard time scrubbing stain after cooking … glass is easy … wipe and done … so dun be an arsehole …
Tempered Glass … yes all hobs should be made of Tempered Glass and that is sufficient for a Gas Burner … no need EuroKera or Schot Ceran … those are for Induction and Infra Red cooktops as they are the medium for your pots and pans … gas cooktops has either enamel steel or cast iron supports.
Enamel Steel or Cast Iron supports … up to individual … cosmetically enamel steel supports will like very shiny and thin … whereas cast iron supports looks rough and thick .. like every cooktop should be … I choose the cast iron supports … looks heavier and sounds like can take some pounding when I stir fried a 1/2 chicken or sumthin’
here are the other goodies that you need to consider before you buy a HOB burner :-
1. Battery Ignition/Electronic Ignition
Gone are the days we need to push hard and twist hard to strike piezoelectric to get the spark, with battery ignition .. just lightly press the knob and it will start sparking and just softly turn on the gas volume … wah lah …. another ‘IN’ factor ..
2. Safety Valve (Flame Failure Device)
These automatically cuts off gas supply to the hob if the cooking flame suddenly goes out, preventing potential kitchen mishaps
3. 2 Burner or 3 Burner
Unless the hob size is long and wide … else getting a 3burner is a cramp in workspace and basically you can’t use all 3 at once … except the hob is long …. I chooses 3 burner, cos mine takes up 3 feet … I got a 14feet long wet kitchen …. hahahhahha if u do not have this luxury … consider the 2 dual twin burner … means both equal in heat range …
4. Brass Rings and Caps
Definitely must be Brass made … steel will rust Brass will last a lifetime
5. Arda or Sabaf burner, or something that identical …. because when anything goes out of hand … spillage will never seek its way to the bottom of your hob … even if it does, there is a capture drain inside the nozzle chamber … super easy to clean
Below are experiment done on my Arda 5 Injector nozzle … I just want to make sure all nozzle works and in a controlled and equalized manner ….
the white pole is the battery powered electric spark generator … and the tiny chrome tapered pole on the right is the flame failure device … whenever it detect missing flame … after a few second, it cuts of the supply for this individual burner ….
there is a huge catchment sink .. also a design for the mixture of air and gas ratio
am making sure all nozzle are working …
when more gas are input, I can see the differential of the nozzle output, the center nozzle tend to lower, considering it just supply to a very small area of the burner .. it make sense …
as I inputted more gas, the differential can be observed, ok this burner is A OK ! Passed !
again, this time I put in the brass ring … cool …
anyway … this hob of mine… cannot be tampered, means if no spark,
there is NO GAS, or if there is spark but no HEAT, there is NO GAS either way … so for this test … I did some tampering and found the way to bypass the electronic and mechanical circuit …
So please don’t try to be as genius as me, and try to emulate my findings, I did this all to save you a trouble and of cos, to save you from voiding your warranty and also save u from burning you ass-off ..
If you read fully, you are able to decide now what hob best fits your budget and the cool stuff u get to show of your neighbor or when u have your open house … just make sure u invite me ok …
-it took me 6 weeks and visiting 18 shops to get all those info and compile to become an ultimate Gas Hob GUIDE … my pain in the ass is for your disposal-
I boh hau siaw
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