Any Cooks Out There?

[stingrea]

Hello,

I'm tired of this junk drop in stove we have in our Monaco MH. I'm used to cooking at home with my DCS gas range and every time I cook in our Monaco I have to wait forever to get any heat into the pans, and a lot of the time there is not enough heat to cook effectively.

Now the drop in range that we have is an old 3 burner Atwood (2000).

I look on the net and it looks like you have a choice between Suburban, Atwood and Wedgewood.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I'd like to find more heat. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Ken

[wolfe10]

Ken,

Welcome to the FMCA Forum.

While my wife is the chef in the family, proving appliances that work is my responsibility.

Two approaches:

I would first have propane pressure checked to verify that your "whole house" regulator is putting out the 11 column inches of water is should be.

Then, using your stove's spec sheet, IF it has another built in regulator (some do) that it is putting out the proper pressure.

Then, if the stove is getting the proper propane pressure, but you feel the BTU's are inadequate, best bet is to look at spec sheets on your stove and potential replacements to find out the BTU ratings of the various burners. Some newer stoves do have a high output burner.

Brett

[tbutler]

My first thought was to check the gas pressure as Brett suggested. I will say we have an Amana but it is a two burner. If you can give up the third burner and the Amana fits, it has worked very well for us. It puts out plenty of heat.

You might call Monaco Customer Service, 877-466-6226, to see if they have suggestions for alternate cook tops for your coach.

[tomzleapin]

The Suburban cooktop in my coach was a royal pain so I replaced it with a Smeg 24" cooktop. Here's a link to one on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Smeg-Classic-SR60GHU3-Cooktop-Burners/dp/B005AHKAYO/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1350827719&sr=8-6&keywords=smeg+cooktop

It's pricey but for me it was worth it.

Another brand for a similar cooktop is Verona: http://www.amazon.com/Cooktop-Electric-Ignition-Conversion-Included/dp/B005GR0OAI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1350827751&sr=8-3&keywords=verona+cooktop

Most residential cooktops are set to use natural gas but will come with an LP conversion. Usually a matter of just replacing the jets.

Here's some photos of my install:

I built a shallow drawer to fill the gap in the countertop. If your cooktop is a drop-in rather than the slide-in like mine, all that would be needed is to enlarge the opening.

A residential stove needs 120 AC for the burner igniter. I have a 400 watt inverter wired into my coach and works well. The igniter draws current only when lighting a burner so even a smaller inverter would work.

Before traveling, I have to remove the grates and burner tops or else they will jump all over the place.

[desertdeals69]

You can check the flame temperature with a infrared thermometer.

[dickandlois]

Tom,

Thanks for your pictures,install info. and links.

The DW loves to cook and if she sees this information, you just know that it will be on my honey do list !!!

Rich.

[tomzleapin]

Something to keep in mind before you tackle replacing your cooktop is the standard RV cooktop is 22". The smallest residential style cooktop that I could find that is worth considering is 24" so check your cabinetry to make sure it will fit. I had to cut off part of the side partition on the left side. You can see this in the second photo. If you are not skilled at woodworking it would be best to farm out the cabinetry work. Woodworking is one of my hobbies, so I tackled this myself.