Tiny House Appliance Recommendations?

[Ben Campbell]

Hey, all.  I'm about ready to start working on the interior of my house, and in order to build my cabinetry I need to bite the bullet and order my appliances.  I'm wondering if there are any tiny housers who have any recommendations/warnings about appliances you may have used.

There are three appliances I'm planning on buying.

1) Electric mini-fridge:  Something small but effective (think college dorm sized), space-efficient and hopefully relatively energy efficient.  Are there any fridges with pull-out drawers?  I'd rather not get on my hands and knees to reach something in the back.

2) Two-burner induction cooktop:  There are so many of these online, ranging in price from a hundred bucks to a thousand bucks.  Again, I'm looking for something energy-efficient, one large burner and one small burner.

3) Electric toaster oven:  This is going to be my oven, my toaster, and my food-reheater, so I'd like to have some versatility, and on the smaller side while not losing too much of its effectiveness.  A warning: I'm pretty sure a witch doctor put a curse on one of my ancestors that every toaster we buy break within a year, so I'd like to hopefully offset this by buying something known for its reliability (if that exists in the toaster oven world).

Any guidance my fellow tiny house enthusiasts could provide would be much-appreciated.  The winning recommendations for each category will receive a prize of a batch of authentic tiny house toaster oven cookies!

Stay warm and cozy,

Ben

[ray]

Nuwave Pic2, http://www.nuwavecooktop.com for $99, High ratings by professionals. Digital settings. Right now, it looks like Nuwave is running a promo for purchase like two for one. I am a cook and very seldom use any more than two cooking surfaces at once. Portable, so you can hang them when not using both.

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Have a healthy day!

[Ben Campbell]

Interesting.  Surprisingly, I haven't really considered portable induction cooktops, but that may be the best option.  However, I'm a bit concerned about the reviews for this product.  They seem pretty mixed, and I have a hard time believing two induction cooktops for a fifty bucks apiece are going to be very high quality.  Do you have any first-hand experience with these stoves?

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[Todd Fahrner]

I have a portable induction cooktop; have used for 6 months, and plan to bring to tiny. Mine was really cheap, like $45. I'm sold on the concept but there are issues. 

I reviewed on Amazon thusly, suspecting that lots of cheaper units have similar issues:

"My first experience with induction. Had some good sessions. Then parked a pan a little too far forward, and the hot bottom quickly melted the plastic face panel upon which the controls are mounted. Still works, but looks bad. It seems like a design flaw to me to put meltable materials so close to the heating element with no lip or other safeguard.

But worse, I notice that this unit can't maintain high power levels for long. Sure it can sear the first steak or 2, but after maybe 10 minutes of full power it seems to go into a wimpy rest state, letting the pan cool way down. I mean it wasn't overheating the pan in the first place; it just can't keep it good and hot for long. You can hear it power cycling, offering only short bursts of power intermittently even on the highest setting, while the pan continues to cool way down. This has messed up a couple meals. Only letting the unit cool down completely (wait for fan to shut off) lets it apply full power for another 10 minutes or so. I suspect the internal electronics are under-speced to deliver the advertised power in a sustained fashion.

The shape and control layout of this unit closely resembles that of many other units with different brand names, making me suspect that there are only a few truly distinct designs on the market, the rest being all cosmetics. I wonder if the much more expensive units that look extremely similar to this one have better internals or just different marketing!"

Pay attention to the wattage. How many amps will your service be? Now ask whether you'll want/need more than one burner to operate at high power at once. My research suggests that a nominal 1800W unit with 2 burners can't supply more than 900W to each when both are on.

I plan to buy another portable burner, so I'll have 2, having only one on the counter 90% of the time. I'll spend more on the next hoping it can sustain high power. And I will spec the electrical high enough to run both at their rated max simultaneously.

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Todd Fahrner

est'd 1966

Sent by phone; brevity is all

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[Ben Campbell]

Lina: You've got yourself a deal!

Todd: Thanks for the words of warning.  

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[Laura Klement]

Ben,

I bought this mini fridge from Sears and love it!

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_04695693000P

It has 2 doors, 1 for the fridge and 1 for freezer. There's a pull out crisper drawer in the bottom and a couple of removable shelves above in the fridge. My only dislike is that one of the dividers in the door is meant for soda cans which I don't usually have. So far, I've just been stuffing other things in there but may try to modify it in the future.

Hope that helps,

Laura

On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:28 AM, Ben Campbell <mrbenc...@gmail.com> wrote:

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