I'm moving house soon, and the kitchen needs a complete re-fit. I've always been disappointed with the power of my current gas hob, where even the 'fast' ring is only 3kW, and while looking for a more powerful hob noticed that you can get commercial oven ranges for much the same price as decent domestic equipment.
For example, the Lincat OG7002/N has 6 x 6.1kW burners and can be picked up for little over £1000 if you shop around.
I realise that the commercial oven ranges tend to be a bit deeper than normal domestic kitchen equipment (~700mm rather than 600mm) but assuming that can be designed around, are there any other potential problems with installing a commercial oven range in the home?
Best Answer
You seem to be speaking of gas, but I am not entirely sure. Gas might be easier. A commercial electric oven needs more electricity than usual, in Europe they go on a 380 V line. I don't know if there are 380 V lines in the USA, I think I remember seeing somewhere that they manage it somehow with 240 V for commercial.
The other point is that there may be regulations. You are not allowed to operate any electric or gas device you want to. This is why you can't import a range meant for sale in another part of the world. I think ranges must pass some tests after they are installed in a kitchen, and I can imagine that the safety criteria and maybe even the overall legality differ between home and commercial type ranges. So you should clear that with your regulation body (I have no idea who this might be, just that they exist) before you spend any money.
A completely different thing to consider is that there is an optimal temperature for preparing most kinds of food. If you are making steak on a 3 kW burner turned all the way up, you are doing it very wrong. A stronger burner won't give you steak faster, it will give you raw meat with a charred shell. There are foods which need the high temperature (anything prepared by strong boiling or deep frying, some stir-fry dishes), but for normal cooking amounts of them (4-6 portions at once), a 3 kW gas burner is more than adequate. You will need more power if you are preparing bigger batches at once. If not, the problem may be with your cooking method and not the burner.