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Kitchen Project: Replace Insignia Range with Cooktop only + a Base Cabinet

Jim Beletti

Owner Experience Liaison
Staff member
Progress for 26-Feb
Almost done! Today's progress report can be summarized as follows:
  1. Installed drawer pulls.

  2. Caulked counter top at wall and cabinet edges.
Still be done:
  1. Add magnetic drawer catches.

  2. Paint drawer boxes.
Link to gallery of project images.

IMG_6770 (1).jpg

Progress for 25-Feb
We're in the home stretch now! Only drawer pulls (need longer screws), magnetic drawer catches and caulking to go.
So today's progress report can be summarized as follows:
  1. Installed counter top.

  2. Installed cooktop and testing both the LP burner and Induction burner.

  3. Installed drawer slides on cabinet boxes, installed cabinet boxes and installed drawer faces and drilled for drawer pulls.

Progress for 24-Feb
There is finally some progress on this project! I'll summarize them as follows:
  1. The 2 small side counter tops have been removed. Not too hard here. Cut the sealant where the counters met the walls/cabinets and removed a bunch of screws underneath. Some yanking and got them off.

  2. Using a $70 Harbor Freight Plunge Router with a 1/4" cutting bit, we cut a rectangle out of the center of the new 60" long counter top for the new cooktop.

  3. We got the stiles and rails cut, fashioned into a face frame and installed. Then I temporarily removed one of the rails for better work access. I really loved learning and using the Kreg (pocket hole) jig.

  4. Installed plywood on the sides of the space. Installed wood rails on the plywood sides for mounting the drawer slides.

  5. Mounted the drawer slides and built the cabinet drawer boxes. My friend and current RV pad guest actually built the boxes. We used 3/8" plywood, glue and brad nails. We cut a dado in the box panels to slide the 3/8" drawer bottom into.

  6. I relocated the Intellitec AESS from below the island bottom drawer to inside the back of the base cabinet to the left of the range hole. Then installed an outlet (from the Primary output of the AESS) for the Induction portion of the cooktop. Also grabbed DC power and ran that to where the cooktop will be for the LP burner ignition.
Up Next...
  • Mount drawer slides to drawer boxes and mount drawer faces to boxes.
  • Install counter top
  • Install cooktop

Original Post - December 17, 2022
We have a 2022 Paradigm 340RL. Our Insignia range developed a problem and was going to have to be replaced. Rather than replace it with the same thing, we're going another route.

Our use-case is that we don't RV as much as we used to and we tend to not cook in the RV as much as we once did. Therefore, in our first season of ownership, our stovetop saw some use (though I used a portable induction cooktop mostly), but not much and our oven got used twice.

A couple other drivers for us:
  1. We prefer to use an induction cooktop versus gas. I don't like to put all that additional heat into the RV and I hate cleaning a stovetop :)
  2. We would like a better place to store our cookware
  3. We would like a dedicated space to store our Ninja toaster-oven / air fryer
Our plan:
  1. Remove Insignia range (done - donated it to the NRVTA for the students to work on)
  2. Remove the 2 short counter tops on each side of the space where the range was
  3. Relocate the Intellitec Automatic Energy Select Switch from under the kitchen island to under this new cabinet. Add an outlet to the primary output of the switch and that will power the induction cooktop. The secondary output will power the fireplace like it does now.
  4. Build a base cabinet with 2 drawers
  5. Install new long counter top that goes from the entertainment cabinet to the wall next to the refer (counter top has arrived)
  6. Cut in a replacement cooktop (True Induction TI-1+1B) that has 1 induction burner and 1 LP burner (cooktop has arrived)
So the only part that is going to be difficult for me is building the new base cabinet. I've watched a few YouTube videos on it and I'm pretty sure I can do it. It just won't be my best work. I may be having a contractor / neighbor help me with that part.

I'll use this thread to document this project.

Starting Point
Range Cabinet Space Dimensions 2.png Range Cabinet Space - Cabinets Open.jpg

Cooktop that will be installed in a new 60" long piece of counter top
TI-1+1B.jpg

Air Fryer that will be stored in bottom drawer
Air fryer.png
Product dimensions (in.): 19.7 L x 7.6 H x 15 W

Intellitec (AESS) Automatic Energy Select Switch that I'll relocate/repurpose
Intellitec (AESS) Automatic Energy Select Switch.png
 

Attachments

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dwcfish

Well-known member
Hey Jim, - we have talked about doing this in our 32RLS. The question for us - and we were looking at a Ninja convection/oven also - is where to place this in the rig. Can you share where you are thinking your oven would go?
Thanks!
 

Jim Beletti

Owner Experience Liaison
Staff member
Hey Jim, - we have talked about doing this in our 32RLS. The question for us - and we were looking at a Ninja convection/oven also - is where to place this in the rig. Can you share where you are thinking your oven would go?
Thanks!
Hi @dwcfish - below is the one we use. I plan to put it in the bottom drawer of this new cabinet. The pots and pans in the top drawer. Then likely a blank drawer face above that if needed.

Screen Shot 2022-12-18 at 3.16.26 PM.png
Product dimensions (in.): 19.7 L x 7.6 H x 15 W
 
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Jim Beletti

Owner Experience Liaison
Staff member
Small project update.

I just ordered from Alliance RV:
- Stiles (matching)
- Rails (matching)
- Pocket Screws
- Drawer slides
- Drawer Pulls (matching)

Next up:
- Purchase Kreg jig
- Purchase sheet of 1/2" plywood for base cabinet carcass
- Purchase some 1x pine for various needs in base cabinet construction
- Replace Intellitec AESS with a 1-gange junction box and blank plate and splice wires straight through
- Install Intellitec AESS in kitchen slide
- Wire Fireplace power feed to AESS input, Fireplace load to Secondary output and new AC receptacle for cooktop to Primary output
 

Jim Beletti

Owner Experience Liaison
Staff member
Jim,
Sounds like a good project to vidio? Just saying. What is the Intellitec AESS?
Hi Rich - Ha ha on the video. You're the king of that :)

That said, maybe I just will. Thank you for the suggestion and thank you as always for all the mods you do, and that you share with the Alliance community.
 

Jim Beletti

Owner Experience Liaison
Staff member
Jim - my question is the Intellitec that is under the kitchen island, what does that currently feed?
It feeds an outlet for a Dishwasher and the outlet for the Fireplace, with the Dishwasher wired as the Primary load and the Fireplace wired as the secondary load.
 

dwcfish

Well-known member
Hey Jim, so I got into this project today. Interesting that a 20 amp Intellitec was installed on a circuit with a 15 amp breaker. As I can see, and based on doing some testing, the Intellitec will never come into play when the loads are large since the 15 amp breaker will trip first. Am I missing something?
Thanks!
 

Jim Beletti

Owner Experience Liaison
Staff member
Hey Jim, so I got into this project today. Interesting that a 20 amp Intellitec was installed on a circuit with a 15 amp breaker. As I can see, and based on doing some testing, the Intellitec will never come into play when the loads are large since the 15 amp breaker will trip first. Am I missing something?
Thanks!
The Intellitec Automatic Energy Select Switch (AESS) is supposed to act as a LOAD priority switch. The premise as I understand it is that one load is primary and the other is secondary and the primary load is preferenced when both loads call for power.

Here's how Intellitec explains it:
The AESS applies power to both appliances until the primary load is turned on. It then removes power from the secondary load to prevent the circuit breaker from being overloaded.

I just relocated it today, I removed it from under the island bottom drawer and wired the line and both loads together in a junction box. I then relocated it to the back of the base cabinet to the left of the range, back where all the slide wiring comes in through the floor (AC, DC and RF).

I wired the Fireplace into the Secondary load output and added an outlet in that wiring space, wired into the Primary load output to be used for the Induction Cooktop. I also grabbed 12 VDC from a lighting circuit (#3), also in this same wiring space and will use that tap to power the LP burner ignition circuit.
 
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dwcfish

Well-known member
Jim,

Here was my test, plugged an induction cooktop into the dishwasher plug, turned both burners on. Then turned the fireplace on. I was expecting it to shut one of them down due to the load of the cooktop and the fireplace. Instead it tripped the fuse. I am not an electrical expert..... What am I missing?
Thanks!
 

Jim Beletti

Owner Experience Liaison
Staff member
Jim,

Here was my test, plugged an induction cooktop into the dishwasher plug, turned both burners on. Then turned the fireplace on. I was expecting it to shut one of them down due to the load of the cooktop and the fireplace. Instead it tripped the fuse. I am not an electrical expert..... What am I missing?
Thanks!
Questions:
1. What's the max watt or amp draw of the dual burner induction cooktop?
2. When the breaker tripped was the fireplace on at that moment and was it heating?

Here's the manual for the AESS: https://intellitec.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/53-00714-000.pdf
 
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