Pros and cons of outdoor kitchen (house, buy, construction)

[Matrips]

Anyone have one? What do you love/ hate about it? Any recs for what to include? And whether to put near house or distance it? Worried about attracting bugs, although it is on screened in lanai. They seem nice, and we do grill a lot, but ...

Thanks.

[AnnieA]

We cooked outside for several years and loved it. It was a haphazard affair but we used electric fry pans, grills and a couple of gas burners. It kept the grease, the smells and the heat out of the house. We didn't cook everything out there or every meal, just a lot of them. We got into other things and drifted away from it.

[MortonR]

One of the former owners of our house was Indian and set up a gas range/stove on the lanai for cooking curry (I guess it's nasty enough that you don't want it smelling up the house, I don't know...) At least this is what a neighbor told us.

We use the oven on an almost daily basis in the hotter parts of the year for any baking we do. The idea is that it puts a lot less heat load on the air conditioning that would otherwise result from running our oven that's in the kitchen.

It's not at all inconvenient, and we spend about $40 every 4-5 months to fill the 40 lb. propane tank it runs off of.

I am sure we're saving more than $10/month on air conditioning by not using the oven in the kitchen.

RM

[41mag]

Here's ours

[TampaKaren]

Though I don't have one (and you couldn't pay me to), I have seen a lot of outdoor kitchens. In some price points, they are almost a necessity. In others, they look ridiculous and the money will never be recovered from over-improving.

Unless the outdoor room has a way to protect and shield the units from the weather, they won't look new more than 3-5 years and they will probably start to corrode within one year. The construction has gotten much better in the recent past, but the Florida weather is still very hard on the components.

If you don't have a pool including a very large outdoor entertaining area and an extra social lifestyle, I don't think they're worth the money. You can buy a nice grill and save the extra $$ you will spend for customization. I'm sure someone will be here soon to refute my response, but this is my opinion and no one is going to change it.

[Roscoe Conkling]

Originally Posted by 41mag

Here's oursAttachment 102069

Cool pic bro.
I bet you have some great parties.

[Matrips]

Originally Posted by 41mag

Here's oursAttachment 102069

Beautiful! Love the large sink too. Anything you'd do differently or think is a must? Has it attracted Ny bugs to your house due to grease or food splashes? We are getting over a problem here after moving here and don't want to encourage anything to come back! Our most feasible setup would probably have the grill/vent and sink along our kitchen/house wall and right near the sliders and kitchen pass through. Otherwise we could just do a nice grill setup on the other side of the patio (and then we wouldnt need a vent) and keep just the sink, refrig, and bar part against the house. Thoughts?

[tpajr]

Originally Posted by 41mag

Here's oursAttachment 102069

Wow that is nice.

[rezfreak]

My friend bought a house with an outdoor kitchen. First time they used it they set the food out on the countertop, went inside to get dishes, came back and it was covered in roaches. They never saw one before that.

[41mag]

Originally Posted by Roscoe Conkling

Cool pic bro.
I bet you have some great parties.

we use it at least 3 times a week usually,sometimes more