I'm still working on making changes in my kitchen, at some point I hope to upgrade my oven to a gas cook top with an electric oven, but for now that will be a bit. in the meantime, though I thought I could add a single or a 2 burner Gas cook top to the countertop area right next to my oven, location and the cabinet space there easily allows for a gas line and a burner to be dropped in.
Truly I would prefer a single burner and believe I would want a 15-inch burner, I'm also thinking if I am going to do this, I should ask a few questions.
I would love something strong enough for a wok station as well... so all help is appreciated.
Is your current stove all electric? If so, have you ever tried induction? We had gas at our old house and when we moved it had a regular glass top electric range. I hated it. I wanted to put in a gas stove to replace it, but there was not a gas line run, so I decided to try induction. All I can say is it’s the closest thing you can get to gas performance from electric. I’m very happy with the decision. I can boil water in like 2-3 minutes usually, adjustments to temp are almost instantaneous and preheating a pan takes no time at all.
Not sure how it would work with a Wok and it does require all cookware to contain steel versus just aluminum.
Anyway, just wanted to throw that out there in case you run into any issues with gas lines or the cost to run them.
It is all electric glass top range combo, I actually have 3 plug in induction burners, and while I like them, I really want a gas burner station in my kitchen.
I tried the plug in burners too before upgrading. The plug ins are nice, but it’s another big upgrade going to 240v. However, if you can make the gas work, definitely go for it. You don’t want to be stirring a pan or wok by sliding it around on induction. While I’m very happy with the induction I’d probably still pick gas if we were to build a new house or do a heavy kitchen remodel.
Regarding the wok, this isn't an inside solution but have you ever looked at a comal burner? Looks like a dino-sized camp stove. Could be great for a wok since the authentic chinese setup is really similar...
I have a gas cooktop and 2 electric ovens that are separate. Works great, however, the cooktop I have had to fit an existing hole in the granite countertop in the home we purchased. There prior owners didn't cook a lot so the cooktop they had was not as large as I would have liked. Subsequently, we cannot put two large fry pans on the cooktop easily. My solution to the problem was to request for Christmas one year a portable induction burner. It works really well and I can cook on it indoors and outdoors. Would recommend this as an itinerant solution. Looking forward to seeing plans!
If you're looking for a good wok burner, then shoot for something with at a minimum 40K BTU. My gas stove has a 25K BTU burner and it's just okay for using the wok on, but you definitely notice that more heat would be better. My outside wok station has a 50K BTU burner, and it make a big difference.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
Richard Chrz I think a consideration on dropping another cooktop into the kitchen counter needs to be ventilation.
I don't think you want to use a wok anywhere you don't have a hood overhead, to suck all the smoke and heat out of the kitchen. When we moved in, we had a nice stainless hood. In the years since, that was replaced by a crappy microwave/hood combo in order to save counter space for a microwave, but it still vents outside (through the ceiling actually). I just don't understand why so many kitchens, even in really nice houses, get built WITHOUT an exhaust for the range hood.
I don't cook on the stove at all without the vent running at one of its 4 speeds, to move heat, smoke and steam out of the kitchen. Otherwise, it just gets too hot (or smokey!) in there when running the wok. Plus that microwave/hood combo is much closer to the cooktop than the old hood was.
If there are upper cabinets in the area you are considering, there is probably also a required minimum distance from a gas burner cooktop to any cabinets mounted over it that needs to be considered.
Jim it’s a good point, and one I realized almost right away, that if I really want to do this, the first cost of kitchen has to be getting rid of the flimsy microwave over the area and have up a real exhaust hood set up installed. It’s a limiting factor to my wants right now, but really needs to be done if I want a power burner in the house. This summer an outdoor wok burner may be my temporary fix until i can figure out hood installation and actual needs for it.
Last edited by Richard Chrz; May 11, 2026, 09:36 AM.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
Richard Chrz I just had a quick conversation with Copilot (AI) on this topic, and it tells me the general rule of thumb is that you need about 100 CFM of ventilation per 10,000 BTU's of cooktop output, to meet most local building codes.
So while there is no hard limit on what size burners you can use in a home kitchen, if you had a 100k BTU cooktop, it would need a hood with 1000 CFM of ventilation.
I just checked the manual for my fairly pricey Frigidaire Microwave/Convection oven vent combo unit, and it has a max air movement of 400CFM. Not an issue for me at the moment, since my cooktop has 4 burners, with three that probably 8000 to 10000 BTU's, and one simmer burner that is probably 6,000. So the total is under 40k Btu's.
It gets more complicated too when you bring in a hood that exhausts more than 400CFM, as THEN you are required to have a dedicated "makeup air" system that brings outside air back into the house.
This is about what I remember finding out when a buddy of mine was researching an indoor wok on a gas stove. He ended up with one of those dedicated propane wok burners for the deck. It also allowed for a larger wok. He cooks for crowds sometimes, so it suits him just fine. I'm looking at venting our microwave/vent combo outdoors, and I think you're right, it's about 400 CFM.
This.
I replaced a distinctly terrible cooktop in one of my homes years ago…
Decided to go full on industrial… What a colossal PITA that turned out to be. SOOOO many hoops to get through, and seemingly endless codes to work with/around. The average “home” vent was NOT capable of doing the job where I lived.
It didn’t bother me because I don’t have much use for the science oven. To me, it’s a $400 hotdog cooker. The wife OTOH was less than thrilled.
I did some looking around the interwebs and found surprisingly little available for residential indoor use. Everything I found was either for a commercial kitchen and would either sit on the countertop, or stand alone units. Even the high end residential units, are topping out at 35K BTU units with multiple burners. That's way better than the 18K-20K BTU burners that every known manufacture makes, but they start a $6000 and go up from there. You can get a nice outdoor wok setup for well under $500 and spend the other $5000 enclosing and heating your outdoor space.
But this is The Pit, and spending other peoples money is what we do best. So, here ya go. Catch them on sale and buy 2
The Wolf 30" Sealed 4 Burner Rangetop (SRT304) features dual stacked burners offering upper and lower tier flames for both delicate simmers and quality sears.
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