Changing out Stovetop

[20sailor]

We have the standard issue 3 burner, gas cooktop. The btu's are pretty pitiful. I'm wondering if any of you have changed out your cooktop for something with more btu's? If so, how much of a challenge is it to do so? What about supply lines, do you have to go bigger? Is this something feasible?

This is a 2004 Beaver Monteray.

Looking forward to your input!

[20sailor]

Thank you! This is all very helpful 😄

[DrewE]

20sailor wrote:
I was actually looking at residential (24")cooktops. Hadn't thought about induction at this point. Question...Is it necessary to use something that is strictly for an "RV" and regarding the induction, is it more efficient than say, a more powerful gas top?

Thank you for your replies!

It's not necessary to use something specifically "RV" rated. Some (most) non-RV gas stovetops probably have grates, burner tops, etc. that might be prone to rattling or jumping out of position while driving, but a little inspection in the store should show how much of a problem that is likely to be. Many also require 120 VAC for the igniters and possibly even the basic controls.

For absolute cooking efficiency, that is the portion of input energy that gets transferred to the food vs. lost to the environment, the induction cooktop is superior. How this translates into practical matters is much less obvious. It will for sure heat up the interior of the RV less than a gas cooktop. It may or may not heat up faster than the gas one, depending on the gas burner's power, the heat transfer characteristics of the pans or pots, and other variables.

For off-the-grid use, it's even murkier since they use two rather different fuels. An induction cooktop of course requires either the generator or a substantial inverter setup (with the corresponding large battery bank). On my RV, I can much more easily spare a bit of propane than I can a bunch of electricity (assuming I don't start the generator), so the choice is a no-brainer for me. Of course if one is camping with hookups, or running the generator anyway, electricity is rather more plentiful.

[1BryNelson]

I have a 1999 Propane Magic Chef, works fantastic at 7k ft where I am now, in fact I find it burns to hot.

[11178adm]

I agree with the posts about induction, have 2 nuwave cooktops they put a lot less heat in the coach as they only heat the pan, and they are portable for outside cooking, the drawback is they need pans rated for induction, they have a coil symbol embossed usually on the bottom of the pan also cast iron works

[20sailor]

Love it 🙂

[20sailor]

Looks very nice, thank you!

[DSDP_Don]

"Tom M".....Nice job. I like how the towel holder was incorporated into the drawer, which also protects the knobs.

"20Sailor".....Have you thought about an induction unit. It would require shore power or your generator running, but they do heat up quickly. I changed my propane unit out for the induction unit and we love the way it works.

My coach was all electric with the exception of the two burner cooktop. It was also built down in a hole which made it hard to use anything larger than a medium saucepan.

I removed it and replaced it with an induction unit, which the factory uses in their all electric models. You can get it in a surface or counter top mount which may hide the opening of your current unit without much retrofitting.

This is the unit I removed, which was sunken into the counter about 2.5".



This is the unit I installed which is surface mounted. I had a custom cutting board made to fit over it when not in use.

[20sailor]

Dannjanice...strong work! That's the same exact stove I was looking at also! Think I'm going to delve deeper in to this one. Thanks again!

[booty51]

TomM very nice job looks fantastic!

[DanNJanice]

We have never had an issue with the stove. In fact, we have to move the percolator off of the front "high power" burner otherwise the pot will over-perc, even with the burner turned all the way down.

[Tom_M1]

When my cooktop started acting up I replaced it with a 24" Smeg residential unit. I had to enlarge the opening and I built a drawer to fill in the front. No changes to the piping where required. One issue is that the grates and burners are not fastened down so they will bounce around when you travel. I use a bungee cord across the top to keep things in place. Also the igniter is 120 volt AC.

[20sailor]

I was actually looking at residential (24")cooktops. Hadn't thought about induction at this point. Question...Is it necessary to use something that is strictly for an "RV" and regarding the induction, is it more efficient than say, a more powerful gas top?

Thank you for your replies!

[JFC]

Replaced ours with an induction cook top. Love it.

[dougrainer]

AS another poster stated. There are only 6000btu and 9000 btu burners. IF you have a 4 burner range it will usually have 4-6kbtu burners. The 3 Burner will have 2-6k and the center one will be 9k btu. If you can find a larger BTU RV Range your existing LP supply line is more than large enough to supply the LP/volume. The LP lines are the same size that supply the furnace which is anywhere from 20k btu to 45k btu. Doug