Need advice on a new gas range

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JohnVee

JohnVee

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I'm finally gonna replace my dying 30 year old 30" gas range. FYI: I prefer to grill outside, use a Lodge grill pan or sauté so the oven itself is rarely used but the stovetop is - not a lot of baking or roasting going on unless it's holiday time. It's just myself and the wife.

I definitely want to keep the cooktop gas. Should I consider a dual-fuel model or stay all gas? Convection? All I remember about convection is my mom singing its praises but complaining about having to alter her recipes due to the change in cook time.

I have a drop in right now and it looks like I'm gonna have to go with a slide in due to cost and availability. I want all controls on the front. I'd like to keep it under $2000. A kitchen remodel might be an option in 3-4 years so I don't want the uber $$$ model but I'd like something decent in the off chance that we sell the house before we remodel. Stainless is our finish of choice.

I'm looking at GE Profile, GE and Kenmore Elite so far. No particular order.

Who's bought something recently that they can comment on? What tips and suggestions do the rest of you have?

--john
 
When we built our house in 2001 the best we could do was GE Monogram appliances (builder spec). The 6-burner gas range top must have been designed by a 3-year old. Maybe GE hired somebody that actually cooks more than water in their design department...God let's hope so!

Piss and Moans about it (especially for what the damn thing cost):
* No sealed burner design
* Unduly large burner catch pans and grates; won't fit in the dishwasher, most residential sinks and sharp corners/edges abound.
* Hope you don't need a part...say like replacement knobs (:mad:) from GE downstream because they could never supply a replacement knob that actually fit properly...another pisser about GE.
* Relatively, for a "commercial" type range, anemic burner output.

When I go a look'n for another range it will need to have addressed the above issues AND have either burners that are designed for large as well as small diameter pans or separate burners for each. We are in a rental now with older Thermador gas range, wall ovens and micro...and anything less than a 12" diameter pan gets big flame spillage up the sides of the pans...

I will also take a long look at electric or halogen as they've also come a long way in the quick heat up/cool down department...without the oily smelly residue that coats the kitchen when using NG.

The mate wall oven, again GE Monogram, took forever to get up to temp. Once up to temp it worked fine and I regularly used the convection feature...miss that!

To be fair I think, from what little I know/saw, GE did a much better job with design work on their Profile line.
 
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I just dropped $150 for a replacement grate for our stove. Next time I'm buying a decent low end stove that I can buy replacement pans and grates for at Walmart. After some recent experiences I'm done with high end consumer appliances.

If you want to go big look at Vulcan or Viking, but you may not have the correct supply line or construction for a commercial stove.
 
Very happy with the Kenmore Elite. Yes on convection.
Check the Sears Outlet in your area. Scratch and dent prices really make a difference...
 
We went for a wolf 30" dual fuel. It's built like a landcruiser and should last the same!
We were advised to go dual fuel by 3 friends who are bakers, gas range is a given, but gas ovens are very high humidity, electric ovens are much better for good baking results (think pies.....;-) )?
 
In my opinion, you cannot get better than Thermador. We have a 36" 6 burner one that was installed when the house was built in 1998. We love it! The newer star burners are to die for, but I can't get a conversion kit. I may have to replace the whole thing just to get them. this range has zero problems and cooks like a dream--excellent quality, infinite heat control.---You will not be sorry------
We have a Jenn-Aire double wall oven(convection) that is good, but I wish we had gone with our initial choice of the Thermador for this also(gas)
 
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take a look at the thermadors and wolfs. I've heard some grumbling about the quality of newer viking ranges.
 
If $2k is your current budget, the look at the kitchen aid dual fuels or maybe the ge cafe series. The Wolf 30" dual fuel is $6380 here in the OH market.
 
NorCalDoug said:
take a look at the thermadors and wolfs. I've heard some grumbling about the quality of newer viking ranges.
Click to expand...


10 years here on a Thermador Range. I've had to replace the burner ignitors once, otherwise it's been great. Nice having 6 big burners on top. You are going to have to go wider than 30 inches in the remodel since you like to cook.

For the OP's dilemma, very tough problem with a planned remodel coming up in just 2 years. If the oven is not fixable for sure, then I'd probably find a free standing convection oven and make do. The other option is to remodel now. Unfortunately, a good high end range and hood is going to be close to $10K installed, so you only want to do that once.

If I were doing the kitchen over, I'd separate the cook top and oven. I like the Thermador well enough to use the cook top version of what I have again. Then dual stacked wall ovens with one of them convection.

I am going through a similar dilemma with our built in fridge right now, and let's just say, I'm not feeling too charitable toward Kitchen-Aid. I'm having some serious sticker shock looking at built ins-not making that mistake in my next life. My last 2 Land Cruisers together, cost less than a Sub-Zero fridge, not joking.
 
Having experienced the performance downside of our prior 48" BI GE Monogram it would be difficult for me to make that decision again. OTOH residential refrigerator choices are more compromise than anything else it seems. If I have the space someday I think separate refrigerator and freezer units would be the way to go.

In the current rental we have a dual door upper with slide out bottom lower freezer. Fortunately we also have our full size upright freezer too.

Oh...and I did figure out the Thermador range in the house we're renting does have a neat cycle on/off low output flame control on two of the 6 burners...feeling mobetta about this range top now....especially considering its a 70's vintage range!
 
spressomon said:
Oh...and I did figure out the Thermador range in the house we're renting does have a neat cycle on/off low output flame control on two of the 6 burners...feeling mobetta about this range top now....especially considering its a 70's vintage range!
Click to expand...

Yep-That Thermador simmer thing works really well. You can slow cook on your range top if inclined. I suppose you're at the mercy of some circuit board in the machine, but it seems to work perfectly. I like that feature and the really hot star shaped burners.

If I could design from scratch, I'd also want a 24 x 24 flat top griddle.

One other thing-having a really powerful roof mount exhaust is great. All smoke and grease fumes leave the kitchen NOW. Unfortunately, you can't run the fan and have fire in the fire place at the same time. Don't ask how I know.

Regarding the refrigeration, in an ideal world they would be separate units. With an additional separate ice maker. I think I'm going with the Sub-Zero where at least the fridg and freezer have separate compressors kind of like a commercial unit. Not that happy about it though.
 
I'm pretty sure I saw a split top at the restaurant place here in town; flat top on one side and burners on the other. The flat top was more like 10"X24", or about the size of one row of burners. IIRC it only had four burners with the griddle taking the place of the left two burners of a six burner top. For us a griddle would more than make up for two burners in a cook top.
 
Unless things have changed since 2001 when we bought our Monogram ensemble including the 48" built-in fridge/freezer all of the semi-commercial fridge/freezer units are energy hogs. Maybe they've made inroads with electricity usage given how many are used in residential applications today.

When we lived in the mid-west with their < 10-cents/KWH electricity rates it didn't even register really. At Northern Nevada's ~15-cents/KWH it got my attention. Now here on the Central Coast with our 30-cents/KWH its become a 'front-center' concern!
 
When we moved last august (2012), the kitchen had been remodeled at the new place but we wanted a gas cook top, and we purchased the GE Cafe 30" with double oven. So far it has been pretty good. It seemed to give the largest stove top cooking surface of the other 30" units we looked at--5 burners with a long center burner. We keep the griddle in the center section all the time. This is my first gas range so I'm not sure what to expect. The griddle gets good an hot and the heat is pretty evenly distributed, but the other burners seem to throw a lot of heat out beyond the pots and pans--Maybe I am just using too small a pot for a particular burner...

What I don't like--the griddle that comes with the unit is pretty small. I can only fit three pancakes on, or four if I purposely make them small. The gas ovens don't seem to brown as well as electric ovens I have had in the past. With the double oven below, neither oven is very large, but the small upper one heats up quickly and is used frequently for re-heating leftovers, etc. Cleaning the cook top is a little fussy. There are a lot of parts and the top is not completely sealed.

Purchased new, this unit costs considerably more than your budget, too.
 
I appreciate all the firsthand info, folks. I started this thread wondering how long it would be before the $8k+ stuff made an appearance (thanks, ROALCO and SGGOAT) in complete ignorance of my stated budget and plans.;):p

With that said, let me redirect this thread to the following one that states my current game plan. The EGG is mine as soon as I have a day off to pick it up. Might be up to 2 weeks, though.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/campfire-cuisine/766999-maybe-i-am-stupid.html

If this EGG project fails, then I'll just find something on blowout or used that is gas and fits in the hole until the remodel happens.

Thanks again for all the info. Feel free to post your love or hate relationship to your gas range so our knowledge base continues to grow.

--john
 
Oh c'mon... Our Wolf was only $5k,Canadian, that's only about 50 all-American dineros, isn't it? ;-)
 
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