Aavaas forums are slowly picking up in interactivity. If you found our site’s content useful, you could certainly improve it by participating in the forum. 

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In the forum you can :

a) Ask questions about homemaking – specifically Indian homemaking.

b) Answer questions from fellow members and help them set up their dream homes.

c) Read through the topics and learn a lot of new aspects about homemaking.

If you feel you are ready to do all this, please visit : http://aavaas.com/forum

Register today. It is free and easy. If you have any questions, please raise them here via a comment.

Hi everyone

We request you to post the questions about products and services on the forum. This would get more traction there and streamline the whole thing.

It takes only a few minutes to register. After that you can make use of all the facilities at the forum.

We have been receiving steady emails from our readers of late. This is a very encouraging aspect for us. We also request readers to post their comments on “User Queries” posts. This has more visibility than emails. We will definitely try to answer as many of them as possible.

Some of the themes for queries so far have centred around:

• Water purifiers
• After sales service issues from various vendors – No vendor/company in India has impressed us with their after sales service yet.
• Toilet/Drain Cleaners
• Home Loans
• Tiles

These are some of the ones which we could think from the top of our minds.

For really building a long term relationship with the aavaas community, we urge you to join the forums and start expressing yourself.

The purpose of this portal is to enable you to find answers. So start asking questions !

One of our readers recently used the Contact page to ask us a question. We thought that we should put up this email exchange as a post, as it would serve to be a learning for other readers.

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We will try to answer your queries. So please have them sent across.

Note : We sought the permission of the person concerned here to write about this query and the answers.

 Aavaas User

” I am buying an apartment which is under construction.  The location of the hob is under the window.  I would like to know if it is advisable.  How to install the chimney when there is a window . will the hob function to its capacity and what other alternatives are available. “

Response

“We would like to understand your question more accurately. What do you mean by “hob” ? “

Aavaas User

” Thanks for responding to my query.  Hob is the cooking range top.  The kitchen  window is on the eastern side and placement of the hob there is preferred.  But i have read from posts on the internet that it is not safe to have it near the window since breeze can blow out the flame.  “

Response

“You are right. Flame can be blown out by wind if you keep the window opened during cooking. unless your Hob is having some mechanism to cut out the gas supply on no flame condition, we would recommend you to keep the Hob away from the kitchen window.

We guess your preference to east side location is based on Vaastu or a similar belief. Since you have no control over the location of the window,we recommend to choose safety over theories.

Hope this feedback helps. Do you plan to use an electric chimney too?”

Aavaas User

“Thanks for your prompt reply.  Yes, we are thinking of installing an electric chimney.  This apartment is in Chennai and I was wondering if

chimney will be required when window is there for ventilation. I don’t know the technicalities of chimney vs exhaust fans.  Which one is better suited.  It is not only a question of flame going out but also the installation of chimney near the window and its effective functioning.

I came across your site on the internet while looking for such things i can get done in my apartment.  I really appreciate your article on modular kitchens among other things.  It is really helpful and looking forward to such useful information. “

Response

“ Our suggestion would be to go for the electric chimney if the provision and budget are in place. Normally, you would not always keep the window open while cooking (for reasons which we discussed already – assuming you still are placing your hob in the east side)Exhaust fans do not do a great job in removing the smoke and soot which results from cooking in Indian homes.

The chimney is placed directly above the hob and removes the smoke more effectively without it ruining your walls and wooden material.

Normally you need a vent for electric chimney’s exhaust. Talk to your kitchen designer and he can give you better ideas. You may have to create a small modification in your wall. If we can have a look at the picture it would be great. ”

 Aavaas User

“We are planning to go for an electric chimney.  The reason why we wanted the hob in the east side is because it is easy to place a vent near the outer wall.  This apartment is under construction and i can only send the floor plan of the kitchen yet.  There is still a year for it to be completed.  But what ever changes we need, we are discussing in the initial stage.  Luckily this is a corner flat and there is lot of open space near the kitchen window.  So i don’t want to loose the window.    Even though we can close the window while cooking it would be difficult to install the chimney in the middle of the window.   It will spoil the look.  So we are working out the other options.

I have one more query.  whether to cut out the necessary size from the granite table top and install the hob or to go for our traditional type  gas stove.  In-case there is a problem in the hob later on,, we have to find a similar size or break the granite to fix another one.  All our friends use the traditional gas stove with two burners.  But we wanted a four or burner stove.  i have seen ads for some sleek one in four burner but the size is small and all the four cannot be used effectively at the same time.  ideally the size should be around 90 cm to use all the four without the vessels hitting each other.  is there any thing available in Chennai ?  “

The session is in progress from this point onwards. If any of you have answers or suggestions for our reader, please mention it in the comments section.

Hope this initiates in shaping our motto “A Platform for Indian Homemakers”

Keep reading and contributing!

authors

Have started this category to collect user queries which need answering. For instance, where to get the best deals in a city, which products are better in a category etc..
Think it will be better if we stick to a single category for this.

We would collect these queries and try and answer them in relevant categories.  

If you want to post on the blog, please mention so in your comment and we would be glad to send you an invitation.